Good Morning Everyone, and a Happy New Year to you all. Just wanted to say thank you so much for your kind words lately. It has meant a lot. Right, down to business. Was 0-0 the right result yesterday or did we do enough to claim all 3 points? Is Saiz in a league of his own in the Championship? - Is there anyone in the division that you would swap him with? My worry about Saiz is that there is not enough talent in the team that he can bounce off. Let's just say we were offered 15m for him, or cash plus two players that were able to mix it up in this league - Would you accept that? Should Borthwick Jackson return to manure? Has he been unlucky having had only a handful of appearances? If you had to name our three most weakest players, who would they be?
Leeds United have been installed the joint favourites to re-sign midfielder Adam Clayton in the January transfer window, according to the latest bookmakers’ odds. Bet Victor priced the Championship promotion hopefuls at 2/1 on Tuesday to land the Middlesbrough central midfielder before the window shuts in February. Leeds’ second-tier rivals Sheffield United are also 2/1 to land Clayton, with the two clubs a long way clear in the betting of the next best priced clubs Aston Villa and Cardiff City, who are both 10/1.
Alioski needs to hit the gym and get working on the rough stuff because it’s harming his ability to take a defender on. Can clearly see he no longer wants to run at defenders because he knows he will be muscled off of it. #LUFC Agree?
Morning all.. Good to hear you’re back home Elland... In regards to Saiz: it’s absolutely vital that we hold on to him. The really annoying thing with this is I haven’t read a single rumour that he is on his way out other than from Leeds supporters starting the gossip by talking about it on forums and twitter with the “what if” scenario. We seem to be our own worse enemy. We did enough for all three points, a couple of excellent chances, Forest didn’t pass a ball into our box not alone have a shot first half. Is Clayton much better than what we have, is he any better?
Good Morning and a happy healthy New Year To Matt and his helpers from a clear Bardsey I think it showed quite clearly that if we are to pose a serious threat to a top 6 place we must get the balance right and buy a LB a striker with experience and a goalkeeper The teams that will progress from now until May are the ones that have big squads so I expect Boro and Villa to be in the mix and of course Wolves and the well managed Derby. Cardiff has gone into the expected slump and Bristol C who have been really a revelation this season have suddenly faltered and looking at their past record they did the same last seasonTHEY need a bigger squad So by my reckoning there are just 2 places to fill and unless we buy we will not be one of them .I think that AR will rfealise we are only 5 points off automatic why not give it a real go .He will get the fans on side so it simply makes sense especially has he will get 7'5 m from Roses sale to MU I fail to understand Clayton I have never rated him when he played for us or Town let Sheff have him the boy mentioned from Bolton I know nothing about but he is getting rave reviews and we all know that Bolton are skint
Morning all. A new year beckons.Ive nothing to add to the footballing side of things for the next couple of weeks as we have no League games. Good to see Elland back though
Morning ristac and thanks. Good to be back. Could we have done with Bridcutt in our team? Was it me or was he over us like a rash in midfield.
Bridcutt was trying to make a point and he put in a 100% effort. For me, he was far to hot and cold when playing for us and unless a sideways pass he was too inaccurate. He did have games like that for us but too often he had a stinker. Remember, forest never played one pass into our box in the first half but we could easily have been 2-0 up. Bridcutt was there to disrupt us and he stood out because we failed to score. If those 2 good chances had gone in Bridcutt wouldn’t have got a mention. I think it was Phil Hay who scored Alioski 4/10 yesterday and said he never did a single thing right, yet I thought he did okay. Would Bridcutt have made a difference to us? NO - They failed to score, Bridcutt is a disruptor, O’Kane and Phillips didn’t have their best games but they obviously did enough to prevent Forst from anything attractive or anything decent. Reading other reports today they all say Forest defended well, their keeper had a good game and the protection for their defence “Bridcutt” got man of the match, that all says to me Forest were on the back foot and that’s how I saw it watching too.
Good morning from widnes been thinking and im waiting till the end of January before i make judgement.all i could see was lossoga on at half time and made no impact.midfield is weak goalie cant catch a ball and anita is too small . Over to you rads and orta .
Agree with Ristac on almost everything. Bridcutt was hot and cold for us, yes his job was to disrupt but we had a lot of DMs who could do that role. Viera, Phillips, O’Kane, Klich, Anita and now Nessy. Our problem is making sure that the selected pairing are on form at the same time, when they both have average days it hurts us. This time last season O’Kane was starting to get ignored by Monk and didnt feature much after that. He has experience of winning promotion so should be used. Clayton too has experience of promotion and has earned his corn doing certain things well, so if he comes in think he would be adding some class and solidity.
Genuine question - Midfield is weak? I don't get it, not just you, another couple of have said the same... Are you not counting Alioski, Cibicki, Hernandez and Saiz as our midfield? Not looking for an argument or fight, just genuinely curious if by midfield everyone is referring to the defensive pairing Phil Hay felt Phillips was average yesterday and O'Kane was better, I didn't see it that way myself, I've been impressed with O'Kane for a long time but the last couple of times I have seen him play he hasn't played as well as I would have liked. Like I said earlier, Phil Hay scored Alioski scored 4/10 yet I felt he was far better than 4 and we were not as dangerous when Roofe replaced him (partly due to Lasogga admitted). Saiz and Alioski have a lovely understanding of each other, a couple of times it looked like the ball was being played blindly into space but it wasn't, it was one of the two playing it in for the other to latch on to. Personally I see our defensive pairing as preventing and disrupting play in the middle and covering when one of the full backs gets forward, I say covering in the sense of covering the middle, allowing one of the CB's to move further wide.
Morning all and a Happy New Year to everyone. Yesterday's match summed up perfectly where we are at the moment. The lack of a striker was glaringly obvious and the reason both Roofe and Lassoga didn't get much service was down to their inability to move in the right areas at the right time and also both lack the pace to run in behind defences. If we have to forgo strengthening in other areas to sign a pacey centre forward in this window then we should do it. Unfortunately the Dwight Gale ship has well and truly sailed and if he had been signed in the summer we would be top 2 now. Hope you're reading this Mr Radrizani as sometimes in football you need to grasp the mettle (nettle for pedants) otherwise a lost opportunity can have very serious knock on effects which can take a club several seasons to recover from. Other deficiencies are not as serious as the striker situation but exist nevertheless. Beradi for example is a weak link and yesterday showed it doesn't matter if he plays right or left back. You cannot fault his effort or commitment and he's a very useful squad player to have but the amount of games he's played both this season and last is restricting the development of the side. Phillips in central midfield is not a weakness as such but is an area that needs looking at. He's developing nicely as a player, as is Vieria, but I feel we would benefit from a bit more quality and guile to enable us to move the ball more efficiently into the attacking third. Our wide midfield players seem to be Allioski, Roofe, Cibicki, Sacko and Hernandez as a sort of nominal left sided midfielder to accommodate both him and Siaz in the team. All our creative play stems from the Hernadez, Siaz axis and when one of them doesn't play we look bereft of attacking ideas which is hardly surprising when you consider the striker situation. It's entirely possible that the lack of a quality centre forward is making our wide players look worse than they actually are but I'm not entirely convinced that is the case. Personally, I'm happy with Felix in goal and I'm hopeful he will continue to improve and try to be more dominant in his penalty area. His distribution is different class and considering how much his confidence was shaken during the early part of the season then I think he has done amazingly well to fight back and keep so many clean sheets. So in conclusion, I would say if we don't strengthen this window our chances of top 6 are about 50/50. The addition of a quality striker would see us almost certainly finish inside the play off positions and if we were to strengthen all the areas identified then automatic promotion would be a distinct possibility. My view is we will make a couple of signings but probably not of the quality required and making the play offs is the best we can hope for. Signings required... Centre Forward Left Back Central Midfielder Wide Player
Would like to see what the actual playing tactics are between our 2 DMs. Phillips has scored goals and so has everyone else from midfield, so Im guessing O’Kane has been told to stay back and hold. Does Phillips leave him exposed at times? When Phillips isnt playing we have Viera and O’Kane neither of who go for goal as both seem to be holding. Does Phillips decide to go walkabout to benefit himself or is it a plan?
Just my take Ristac - Alioski, Hernandez and Saiz are excellent going forward when we have the ball, I agree. When we don't have the ball, Saiz and Hernandez try to win it back and compete for 50/50s, but are too small and get out- muscled. Alioski does not even compete for 50/50s, he ducks out. Spends most of his time defensively trying to con free kicks, and refs are ignoring his claims now even when valid. And don't start me on imaginary yellow card waving. Anything in the air, we lose. There you go Glory, I've got my miserable head on today.
Here is my take on Phillips: He is disliked by a large section of fans because he is doing his job quietly and in doing so he is enabling others around him to perform their task. It was the same with Clayton and Howson, because Phillips isn't a Hernandez, Alioski or Saiz he gets picked on. Our attacking three midfield players are tasked with creating chances for the striker, in moving around pulling defenders with them to create space, they are also expected to close down the opposition when we don't have the ball. Phillips and O'Kane or Vieiria are tasked with winning the ball, providing cover for the defence and looking for the simple outlet to the 4 players in front of them, they don't have a star centered roll where their skills are going to be blatantly obvious. Phillips looks for the danger, he puts himself in positions where the attacking side haven't got the easy option, because he doesn't run back flying in with a last ditch tackle some fans think he is lazy. We need someone to continuosuly blame when we don't win, sadly it is Phillips at the moment but if he left it would be Vieria or O'Kane
Lewie Coyle should be brought home now he has just won the player of 2017 and won man of the match 6 games on the trot. Think hes earned his chance to have a go in our defence now. When the term one for the future actually comes to fruition...
I see our midfield working as a unit and i think alioski is a bit lightweight forest took care of him.with a better target man and a pacy left back i would be happier.sheff weds loaned winnal out to derby but we cant get anyone except lassoga second highest paid and not wanted by his club.i feel we are still a cheapo outfit and the fans deserve better.
