And it's been a good start overall. The results so far: Southampton 3-1 United United 3-2 Bradford United 0-1 Middlesbrough United 4-1 Hull* West Ham 2-2 United* Doncaster 1-2 United Ipswich 2-1 United United 3-2 Crystal Palace United 3-1 Bristol City United 0-3 scum** Brighton 3-3 United United 1-0 Portsmouth Doncaster 0-3 United* United 1-1 Coventry** Peterborough 2-3 United* *These stick out as really decent results. **These stick out as really disappointing ones. The problems from last season: Coaching - Schmeichel deteriorated and the defence looked porous all the way through. Weeknight matches - we were well into the bottom half of the weeknight match table - a fitness issue or just a mental bug? Stupid losses of possession in the middle of the park. Refusal to strengthen the squad in January and lack of investment in the summer despite lots coming in. Lack of leadership on the pitch. Lack of a dominant defender in the absence of Kisnorbo. Awful, awful, abominable left-back. Have we managed to solve them? Losses of possession I'd say we've improved on the stupid losses of possession more than anything else. Clayton and Howson have both looked very composed on the ball and more classy than our midfield last season. But even with that aside, we continue to concede goals aplenty. Defending This season, we've conceded 1.5 goals per game. Last season, we conceded almost exactly the same. Clearly defence is still an issue, though you could argue that we've been hard done by with the absence of Lonergan which has just hit us at the point when our defence looked sorted with Lees being played in his proper position and Connolly being brought into the first team. I'm still not convinced that O'Dea and Lees have what it takes to lead us through the season at centre back, and an older head with some experience, height and strength in that position is someone who's badly missing. Oh, and White's been a huge improvement on that useless lump McCartney who was at fault for so many of our goals last season. Our defensive pressure from midfield has been much improved overall, and Clayton has filled Johnson's space just fine in that respect. Howson has also looked a lot more involved than he did last season when he wasn't played behind the striker. It's just a shame that Michael Brown seems to have lost his legs. Whenever we press, we get good results and that's no coincidence. It's still an area for improvement, mind. Attacking Goalscoring continues to be our forte, and with two goals a game, we've exceeded our average amount last season (1.8). With McCormack, Keogh, Becchio and Forssell all options, we're the third highest scoring team in the league and have plenty to look forward to. Snoddy continues to be a creative force and has supplied eight of our goals so far. Midweek Midweek matches haven't been so much of a problem yet with us getting eight points from four games (better than our overall points per game average of 1.75 this quarter). But fitness isn't something you'd expect to be an issue at this point, so that's something we'll have to watch unfold. In summary So overall I'd say there have been signs of promise, but the season to me looks like it's panning out similarly to last time round (which is no surprise with the amount of money we've spent), and we'll probably be scrapping to get into the playoff positions come the end of the season. Quarter Two of last season was where we really came into our element, and I'm hoping for the same this time round. The challenge will be whether we can weather the storm for Quarters Three and Four when you get the distraction of the FA Cup, the inevitable injuries and suspensions, the deteriorating fitness and the dark horses towards the bottom of the table starting to charge upwards when they come into form. Those are the teams with the momentum going into the playoffs and I for one wouldn't mind us having an average second/third quarter of the season if it meant we could be in that position (assuming we don't establish ourselves as comfortable auto challengers). A few questions (please do give your answers): 1. Player of the season so far? Clayton. 2. Young player of the season so far? White. 3. Worst player of the season so far? Rachubka. 4. Best result so far? 4-1 against Hull. 5. Best performance so far? 3-0 against Donny. 6. Worst result so far? Coventry. 7. Worst performance so far? Southampton.
Good review and agree with most of it. 1. Hard to pick but out of McCormack and Clayton 2. Lees 3. Rachubka 4. 4-1 Hull 5. 3-0 donny 6. Southampton (or middlesborough because that was so ****ing frustrating) 7. Southampton
1. Player of the season so far? Clayton/Lonergan 2. Young player of the season so far? White/Lees 3. Worst player of the season so far? Bromby 4. Best result so far? 4-1 against Hull. 5. Best performance so far? West Ham 6. Worst result so far? Southampton 7. Worst performance so far? Southampton (second half of Peterborough and Coventry)
Cheers for that Leeds 18. An very interesting look back at "whats happened so far" I agree pretty much with the same answers but would go with McCormack as player of season. He had been given some stick early on but came out this season, leaner and got stuck in with the goals we needed. I am doing a version of STATS that looks at what we have achieved so far and what we need to achieve at various stages of the season to get to a PLAYOFF place or even better an AUTO promotion spot. I will post a thread later on.
Great article. The defence isn't any different for me. I think we have a host of 'decent' centrebacks, but lack the one good leader at the back. Kisnorbo is unfortunately past it, and it was a mistake in giving him a 2 year deal. Bromby, Bruce and O'Dea are all decent CBs who could form a good partnership but we'd need one player to tell them where to go and lead from the back. Tom Lees has been good since moving to the centre but is young and needs someone to lead him through the difficult games. O'Brien's performances at the start of the season were terrible - although I think fitness was an issue - but he's past it as well. Connolly has been consistently good as always. Aidy White has been great at left back and although his positioning has been suspect at times, he's growing into and we seem to have solved this problem position for the foreseeable future. You're right about the possession thing. Clayton and Howson - who gets too much undeserved criticism from the fans - are very talented, composed, great on the ball and have good passing ability. That makes it even more frustrating when the defence hoof it over their heads! We haven't really improved too much overall from last season. We're contenders rather than favourites for the playoffs. We needed a tall, strong leader in defence and didn't get one in the summer. Pugh and Keogh have improved the squad, but we needed a defender rather than an attack. The lack of height in the team is evident. 1. Player of the season so far? A choice between Clayton, McCormack and Lonergran. I'll go for Clayton because it was very unexpected. 2. Young player of the season so far? Aidy White easily. Tom Lees has been good since he's moved to CB but White has shown why he should have got his chance earlier. 3. Worst player of the season so far? Michael Brown. He's yet to play 90 minutes, and probably won't for the whole season. Now the 4th choice CB. I'd like to see him go, along with the other disappointing performers in Bruce, O'Brien and Billy Paynter. 4. Best result so far? 3-0 at Doncaster. Away from home to pick up a great result and clean sheet. 5. Best performance so far? As above. 6. Worst result so far? I'd say Ipswich, just because of how unlucky it was. 1 nil up with a poor referee decision, and a deflected winner in the 90 minute. 7. Worst performance so far? Southampton. Torn apart.
I think tonight's result strengthens this point further. We need a physical side to our game, and while I'm happy that we're a free-flowing attacking team who will put one past the opposition nine times out of ten, we can't keep being infected with Arsenal Disease. Sadly, a chequebook will be required to get us some big mofos in January who can shore things up a bit. I just hope that we can keep up the energy levels in the meantime, because otherwise, our defenders are sitting ducks for the better teams. Cardiff will slaughter us.
We've not beaten them since 1986 and they will be more than a match for us physically. I'm starting to fear McCormack's goals are drying up. Hate to say it, but he's not just a player who enjoys a bit of confidence, he's a player who's dependent on it. Might be time to bring back Luciano if he can't put one past his old team and then Blackpool.
Arsenal finished 4th in a tougher league and will probably finish higher than us again. We're not a free-flowing attacking team. We sit back far too often.
We sit back when we're ahead. Maybe free-flowing was something of an exaggeration, but we're certainly an attack-minded team in general. If not that, certainly one with goals in us at any time. The analogy with Arsenal is that they also score but concede in high numbers and as a consequence punch below their weight. The difference is that at Arsenal, they have the personnel to solve that problem and at Leeds, as it stands, we don't.
And clivetime comes out because we lose.... havnt seen you on here in awhile clive, always a sign of us doing well. What ya gnna blame grayson for this time?
Don't be so pathetic, Josh. Am I having a pop about tonight? I'm on here win, lose or draw and usually find you agreeing with me. Duckman, we have good attacking players who are always a threat, and we're poor defensively. You're saying Arsenal punch below their weight, yet most people seem to think we overachieved last season.
Even if you do think we overachieved (which is odd considering we had a slump which needn't have taken place), we're punching below our weight in terms of the name Leeds United, just as Wenger is underchieving compared with the expectation under the name Arsenal FC. Leeds fans expect to be watching a first division team. That's why we're punching below our weight.
I think it's odd to say that we overachieved, I find it even more odd that you think it's odd when you're such a fan of Grayson. If we underachieved then surely Grayson should be sacked?
No, I'm not one of these who thinks a manager should be sacked after one slightly iffy season in which we could have done better. Again we're talking over stuff we've discussed multiple times before. And I don't want this turning into a Grayson in/out thread either. Do you fancy perhaps answering the questions in the original post, or are they too positively-phrased for you to cope with?
You're contradicting yourself all over the place. And last season was the best season we've had under Grayson. The other two were much worse.
