I can’t quite work out what makes our away form so troubling. It’s certainly not the absence of fans nor lacking the presence of our “not-quite-disqualified” Sheriff. Yet away from home we can’t even buy a win – which I wouldn’t put past Massimo trying to do.

Forest haven’t been brilliant either, let’s be honest – sitting slightly above mid-table – they’re not quite hitting the form their squad is capable of. So it was absolutely a winnable match for Leeds. Neil Redfearn suggested he would rotate the squad slightly to freshen us up, which sounded sensible but ultimately just meant Doukara was swapped for Sharp. We did abandon the diamond in favour of 4-3-3, suggesting that Neil, too, thought a win could be on the cards.

Long story short, it wasn’t.

Lucky to draw, or simply not incisive enough?

I didn’t get to the match (plastic fan, I know) due to family commitments, but was able to watch it on TV which is a sufficient backup. The thing is, when you’re behind the goal you can see a whole lot more than the narrow view TV affords you. You can see shape, movement, balance and other more subtle nuances that I think get lost on screen. So my comments come from what I saw on the broadcast.

I’m not certain how I’d summarise the Forest match. On the one hand, we were incredibly fortunate that two Fryatt goals were disallowed because, in real time, not a lot seemed wrong with them. While there’s been a lot said on social media about those two goals my primary point is this – whether onside or offside, it was close and you’d expect to see both given as often as you’d see both disallowed. We were fortunate the officials decided in our favour because we’ve not only been lacking luck so far this season, but this was yet another away fixture where a loss wouldn’t have been unfair.

But then I think we did have chances to win it ourselves. Jason Pearce missed an absolute sitter, while Antenucci, Sharp, Adryan and Doukara all had reasonable chances themselves. We simply aren’t getting in behind teams much and we’re not putting anyone to the sword with the few chances we’re able to muster.

A statistical look at chances

We’re just not creating enough, meaning we’re not scoring enough.

According to Squawka, Leeds have created just 187 chances in the league so far this season. Granted, a meaningless number unless compared to our peers. Our opposition for the weekend, Forest, have created 233. Fulham have created 226, Rotherham 223, Reading 214… For context, league leaders Bournemouth have created 284. Blackpool have created 185. So consider that we have created just two more chances than Blackpool and comfortably 20% less than our peers. It’s not an unsubstantiated claim to suggest that we need to create more.

The Forest match was no different.

We apparently created 4 chances to their 10, fewer shots, fewer “take-ons”, lower pass completion, and so on. We weren’t as good, simply put.

Lewis Cook was incredible again, deservedly praised by fans and pundits alike – this boy could have an enormous future if we don’t ruin him. Which we have a habit of doing. Or we sell them to whoever opens their wallet and let them rot in whatever cash-rich club’s reserves they wish. It was otherwise an unremarkable performance that we were fortunate to earn a point from – Forest didn’t dominate, as such, but they certainly will have reasons to feel upset about.

I maintain that we have a decent squad but it’s not working for us currently. We’re simply not creating enough chances. If the league were ordered based on chances created we’d be 22nd, with only Blackpool and Charlton below us. We’ve commited the 4th most defensive errors in the league too, which doesn’t help.

If you combine not creating chances with gifting goals to the opposition it’s very hard to win points.

This is where we need to improve. Create more, defend better. Here’s to a better day against Wigan, ay? Blame Tom Lees.