The Breakfast Debate

Good Morning Everyone

Leeds climbed back up to 5th in the table after simply outclasseing Reading last night. They must have left Elland Road not knowing what hit them!

A rare first half goal from Chris Wood was nothing more than Leeds deserved having dominated in the early stages.

Minutes later however, Wood was replaced as a precaution after complaining about tightness of the hamstring.

I could not believe the stats when the read them, but Leeds had just 22% possession last night, very strange stats when you consider Reading conjured up one shot on target all evening!

Now is the time surely that we need to nail Garry Monk to a long term contract!

Thoughts?

It was great to have Bridcutt back. Let's hope we don't lose our shape.

Speaking after the game, Monk spoke about Wood's injury!

"Chris Wood's just got hamstring tightness, we won't know for another 24 hours. It didn't look like a bad one where I was, but we will have to wait.

"You can see already we can't afford to lose any more but credit to those players, they're digging in.

"Physically it's hard for them but we don't want to lose Woody, who has been integral to what we're doing."

Phillips has now served his one match ban so will be available for the visit of Brentford on Saturday. Looking forward to having Phillips and Bridcutt playing together again.




The division is still so tight. Brighton, the dog botherers, Norwich and the Wendies all won last night. Derby who are 10th will leapfrog us if they win at QPR tonight.

 

Morning all... For me Norwich and Reading have been our two most important games. It is a long season and Newcastle and Brighton are probably nailed on 1 and 2 and to be honest, I wouldn't want to play either over two legs or a final should we remain top 6

Reading 3rd in table, both us and them beaten previous game, us with key players injured and suspended, that Reading win is massive.

I was just looking at Brentford and Preston recent results (our next two games), two very up and down teams, can get stuffed or can put 3 past you.

Monk - I would offer him another one year extension. Managers/Coaches can walk away from contracts too easy and if a PL club wanted him we couldn't stop it if he were on a 1 or 4 year contract

 

Well done Garry Monk and all concerned. We have a thin on the ground squad even bringing in a teen, but every one of the squad steps up and does the business. Reports say Ayling and a couple more were off the pace but Aylings stats say he got more tackles in than anyone again. Taylor needs to sign a new contract

 

Reading may have had the possession stats but when all you do is pass it back and forth to your keeper and along your back line you are not going to win.

This was a patched together team last night but still looked the better against a team above us in the league. The fight in all the players was clearly evident and the difference in the belief in this squad to anything in the last ten years is phenomenal.

This has to be our best defence since the Prem days. They put themselves in front of everything. The tackles and blocks were all perfectly timed and at no time did there appear to be any panic, something we have all been used to.

Rob Green- OK he can be prone to a mistake but the amount of fans sat around me giving him stick was disgusting. We are performing as a team the best we have in years so why the need to get on any players back is beyond me. A clean sheet is a clean sheet.

How good did Vieira look? Really stepping up at the moment during our injury "crisis".

Dallas worked so hard last night and hopefully coming back to his best. Like a new signing for the second half of the season after so long out. Same could be said for Bridcutt.

Anyway, could find positives for every player last night but gonna let someone else have a go.

MOT

 

Morning all. Hugely impressed with last nights win. Did nt think wed have the strength in midfield to cope given the number of absentees we had. Hope the Wood injury is short term. He reminds me of Lee Chapman years back. Doesnt do much in terms of spectacular goals but by end of season scores a bagful of crucial ones. Disappointed but not surprised to see Hermase comment re supporters hassling Green. Every club has a section of asshole supporters, we are certainly no different. 70 points is normally thereabouts for a playoff position, this season could be considerably higher as things are going

 

Very disappointed to hear Green given a hard time. We do need someone better but at this level he is doing okay, all players make mistakes, it is just his ones are real binders when they happen.

What is evident with Green, when he does make one if affects the rest of his game for the duration of the match, when he makes an error his confidence is shot, his kicking gets worse and he is likely to make a second error.

Fans on his back waiting for one certainly isn't going to help. Green is communicating and organising the back 4 exceptionally well, it isn't just the quality of Bartley and Jansson, it is Greens experience and awareness as well.

 

It's worrying as goalkeepers tend to be able to hear the crowd more and it must be a confidence killer.

 

He is 10X better than the lipstick smudger!

 

Morning ristac, the game was more important than most of us realised especially when u consider the teams that we have played in the last month. This time last year we would have crumbled. Today we are made of sterner stuff and I'm not talking Hesco Bastion...

 

Morning Doc,if we keep playing well and keep winning it will be more difficult for Taylor to leave. It stands to reason that if ur winning you feel more settled, well,that's my hope

 

Morning Hamase, yes some last ditch defending albeit great challenges especially by Bridcutt. I feel bad for Berardi. Great player a day would love to see him back

 

Morning Eire, Suppose I should hold my hands up as I gave Wood a lot of grief. He has stepped up to the plate and proved his critics wrong but he misses so many opportunities and is not great with his head unlike Chapman.

 

Why is the search function on the forum no longer working? I wanted to dig out a post where I had a friendly bit of banter and watch this space dialogue with LeedsLover over predicting Wood scoring 20+ goals and keeping Antonsson out the team. Today would have been a good time for me to bump it

On another note, not seen LL posting much recently and where has WJ gone, have I missed any drama?

 

Both hounded off the forum Only a handful of us thick skinned ones left

 

No recent activity for WJ not even logged in to take a look, last post over a month ago. I did however find LL he was easier to find, I looked for anything negative in regards to Green and he popped up

 

Reading passed it around really nicely,... in their half of the pitch. Was impressed how we stayed calm and didn't go looking for the ball at all. Good team performance.

 

Subtle as a sledgehammer mate.

 

Neil was running two accounts and his PC broke and he is offline and he was getting some serious grief from his back... he might be away on a cruise now.

By drama if you mean me then I can confirm that last time I saw him we were the best of friends and nothing untoward took place, I even have a witness.

If he don't show up soon I will text him.

 

Ur next paddy!

 

The way Reading played last night used to be called doing a Ray Wilkins. always pass sideways or backwards hence his nickname of CRAB.

I have compared this team to Graysons promotion team, but do you know what? Grayson couldn't coach a defence and we used to ship goals, we were lucky however with going forward, so if Monk can find us a gem or a new way of utilizing what we have, we are in with a shout.

Notice the takeover noise is going some again, and now those who tell us they are in the know, say we are waiting for FL to accept Raddrizani and then it will be announced. How will it work with Cellino being banned for 18 months? will he just be a back seat investor or will he decide to cash in and sell all of the club. Will he hang around and fight the FL ruling. Why are the FL not fining themselves as it was them that allowed Cellino in and this will be his 3rd ban ffs.