Sam Allardyce looks for Leeds United balance as he searches for clean sheet without 'parking the bus' - Yorkshire Post 12/5/23

Balance was a theme of Sam Allardyce's pre-match press conference ahead of Leeds United's game against Newcastle United.

Stuart Rayner

The Whites' caretaker manager is far more nuanced than he is given credit for, and the demands on his players will be the same.

As always with him, a clean sheet is a priority, but not at the expense of creativity.

"The negative rubbish around clean sheets is bizarre," said Allardyce. "I've just had a conversation with Eddie Gray and he said there’s only one way you get out of it, like we did when we didn’t play so well, we made sure we got a clean sheet.

"So if you don’t listen to me, listen to Eddie Gray. And if you don’t listen to him, listen to Pep (Guardiola), and if you don’t listen to him, listen to Alex Ferguson. They all won the league with the best clean sheet record.

"When you’re hammered as much as (Leeds) have been, the lead boots come on. We have to lift the lead boots off and run around as much as we can.

"We need the highest level of stamina, speed and high-intensity running, with intelligence in the right areas and the right amount of skill, delivery and understanding to create opportunities.”

"Parking the bus" is not an option against his old club.

"They’ve got some talented players in the front three (Jacob Murphy, Callum Wilson and Alexander Isaak) and more to come on with (Miguel) Almiron and (Allan Saint-)Maximin," he stressed. "But you can get in behind and down the side of Newcastle if you can break through midfield.

"If we don’t get the ball right, we won’t create as many chances as we would like to put Newcastle under pressure.

"Going a goal down would be a very difficult job but what we won’t have to do is go daft like they have done before and leave the back door open.”

He has to be balanced in what he asks of his new players too.

"We could spend hours on the training ground," he said. "We have to break it into a lot of individual stuff on the screen, a lot of unit stuff and then a lot of stuff on the pitch.

"The last thing we want to do is leave our strength on the training ground but as a coach you want to get through some certain things.”