Where's our leadership?

Both on and off the pitch we are really struggling for leadership.

It pains me to say that.

 

Its bizarre. We are limping up to the line, its in the lap of the gods if we are going to get over it. Mega frustrating.

 

It pains me to say that l agree with you. I hope this is not the beginning of the end with Rafa.
It's really worrying that we are coming apart at the seams right now.
We were so full of hope for the future not so long ago, l hope it comes back soon.

 

Poor Lascelles has taken on too much too soon I feel.
On reflection maybe Clark or Shelvey may have been a better choice for this season.
He's so goung that's all.

 

Clark wasn't bought in time to be captain.
Shelvey is far too temperamental to be a captain

We don't have any other real options. Ritchie would be a good shout but no winger should be captain

 

The Arrogance will be our undoing.
A Leeds fan told me that months ago.

Aside Brighton, every other club in this league would take being second at this stage.
The fans would be over the moon.

But, not us, that's not good enough.

 

I agree with you and in a way feel for him. Our acquisition model of bringing in just young players has tended to avoid experienced natural leaders. If we don't buy late twenties players, you do have to look to the kids to step up. Last year Lascelles was that young man who had some passion. If only he'd been given some game time by McClaren. Now he's probably feeling the weight of expectation and showing his young age. Without Clark, or any really good defensive ally on the wings, he's probably burnt out. It shows.

But if our midfield could create chances that our strikers would take, then we'd be sorted by now. Lascelles needs a break. He should be dropped and regain his mojo next season. But the lack of leaders I feel should be acknowledged as a club doctrine which keeps control well away from playing staff.

 

I think we're worried that we won't finish in the top two.

 

In fairness, is Lascelles' problem at the moment his captaincy or is it his ability as a CB? I think it's more the latter, at least from what we see on the pitch, although who knows what goes on behind closed doors. I think he has a lot of qualities to be a good CB long-term but his positioning and reading of the game is still not up to scratch. I wouldn't sell him though because if it does click for him we'll have a great CB on the books. Needs to not be first choice next season though and because of that the captaincy will have to be given to someone else.

 

Being Captain is a job in itself. Don't underestimate that.
It's not just about putting the armband on, waving your arms about and shouting stuff.
Like l said, it's a complex demanding job in itself.
If like Lascelles you also have a very important role as CB, mistakes are very apparent and to compound that you are relatively young and inexperienced, doing both means something has to give.
That's why true Captains with enough energy, skill, experience, stress management and man management and enough about them to command the respect of your team mates, who may be older and more experienced than you is incredibly hard.
Lascelles took it on, so fair play, was he ready to shoulder it, maybe if everything had gone to plan, but in my opinion his game has suffered for it lately.

 

There is a distinct lack of spine in our team since the turn of the year, the spine of Clark-Hayden-Shelvey-Gayle was awesome, but without that we look directionless and vunerable. Last time we went up we managed to keep our spine of Colo-Nolan-Guthrie-Carroll intact all season, and no one could deal with it, but this time the spine's been broken too many times.

Hayden's been injured a bit and on the bench far too much, he's massively better than Colback and should be a regular starter whenever he's fit. Without Clark, Laecelles makes far too many mistakes and clearly isn't up to being captain, and Gayle fired us through the first half of the season, but we all knew he was an injury waiting to happen.

If we're looking for leadership, Clark needs to be captain next season, and he need a massive clear out of the free loaders and dross.

 

I did say this before the start of the season when there was a clamour for Lascelles to be made captain. He is not captain material. Its not simply about motivating others and beating your chest. Its being able to spot key moments in games, to be able to make tactical decisions for the benefit of the side. Nobody in that back four displays those qualities. With Clark you would just be jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire. The likes of him, Lascelles and Mbemba are foot soldiers. They need led. I'm not of the opinion that a mass clear out of the centre backs is required. I think simply adding one experienced leader will transform that defence. Leeds was a prime example, but there have been plenty this season. Lascelles should have stopped the retreat to the 18yd line as soon as it started.

I think Rafa will know - or at least he should do. At Liverpool he had Hyypia, at Valencia he had Ayala, Terry at Chelsea, Hamsik at Napoli (although he had Albiol also who was his leader at the back along with Maggio) So he knows what leadership looks like and you don't win what he has without being able to recognise it.

I suspect we will see most of Rafa's funds dedicated right down the middle of the team this summer. I think we will see a commanding centre back come in, I think we will see a dogged defensive midfielder, I think we will see a number 10 who can make the difference in key moments and I think we will see a striker who guarantees goals and leads from the front.

 

I hope so

 

You are right there, he clearly saw leadership in Laecelles, and took a gamble with making him as captain, which hasn't quite paid off. He's not so stubborn that he won't see his mistake, so I'd be very surprised if he's still captain next year, it'll be Clark or a new purchase.

Hanley was clearly brought in as a back up championship scrapper, he'll be ditched in the summer, and Rafa clearly doesn't rate Mbemba, so can't see him being here next year. Lazaar and Gamez also clearly not Prem standard, so another defensive shake up imminent methinks.

Ashley's retarded if he thinks Rafa will be happy with these players in the Prem, and he'll clearly walk if he's not backed the way he wants to be; he built a championship team in the summer and now he'll want to build a Prem team, Rafa will never settle for scrapping down the bottom with the current bunch.

 

When you look at the average age of the squad we have a young team, Darlow, Lacselles, Mbemba, Dummet, Yedlin, Hayden, Perez, Mitrovic, Sels, are all young players Even Clarke, Ritchie, Gayle, Anita (are all at 27) and Shelvey (25) respectively aren't exactly what you'd consider in the latter stages of their careers or basked in experience at EPL level (bar struggling/bottom half teams).

Players older like Murphy, Diame, Elliot, Gouffran are all either settling into a new squad or not good/fit enough to play regularly and 100% not next season.

This is why we have a leadership problem.

 

Have to agree with you RE: centre backs. Barring Hanley (who was a championship signing for depth) the rest are young and promising without any clear leader (Clark being the most mature). With an experienced quality CB alongside we'd be fine.

Lots of championship dross in the squad but CB isn't as bad as people seem to think.

 

how much do you think you're spending this summer.

With the likes Luiz (if you could call him commanding) at a 30m "Bargain" (to the better clubs imagine how much you need to overpay to join a championship promoted side), Kante who was the best of the bunch at 32m, Henrikh Mkhitaryan who everyone thought was an absolute "bargain" at 24m and no idea what you think you are spending on a striker like that - latest is lukaku is on the market for 100m i say good luck to yas XD

 

I don't think we will be shopping in the same market as the likes of Man U and Chelsea to be fair We will be looking to the cheaper end of the market. Its more about the types of players we would sign. Say for instance we brought in M'Vila for the defensive midfielder role. Wouldn't appeal to many and would come with a great deal of risk. That is the market we will be in along with the likes of Crystal Palace and so on. We are a championship side so we have to be realistic - we have to try and get the likes of Kante before they are big names. Leicester paid about 5.6m for him. Which is more like 10m now. You'd probably pay 10m for M'Vila.

Striker is going to be the big problem. We have been linked with Willian Jose from Sociedad. Then you here the fee is 26m! Then you here Everton want him. So that is game over for us. I'm not sure how we get round the striker issue. I would suggest it will probably be a case of finding someone who is not getting a game at a bigger club and loaning them. Ashley hates it but it might be the only way to get enough goals. You could try for Defoe who will be on a free, but I dare say he will be heading south to Bournemouth or West Ham. However that is the kind of thing we need to pull off.

Out of the four requirements mentioned, we are obviously going to have to pull at least one, if not two out of the hat. Whether that be a free transfer, exploiting a clause or pulling in a loan. Perhaps Chelsea want to find a home Batshuayi at a non threatening club Rafa might have an old guy in the spanish leagues or italian leagues he can pull in for a season.

Its more about the type of player than the costs. Leicester did it with the likes of Kante, Huth, Morgan etc. We need a similar shoestring situation in the hope we can scrape survival. ****ing hell Rafa must have some contacts, he's been at enough clubs

 

I think we have more leadership now than in the last few years really, since Barton and Nolan etc? Collocini and krul were meant to be our leaders!?!?!?. Now we got Clark, Hayden, Ritchie, Elliot if he was given the frigging chance. Even dummett arguably despite his limited abilities. It's a work in progress but I'd say another summer spend will see Rafa players with similar mindsets, just needs to find the new Dirk Kuyt now.....