Ok, so a 5-0 hammering at home never sits well with anyone, but come on, not against Blackpool. And please don't compare it to the Scum being thrashed by the Citizens, there are two big differences in that case - Red Nose has won loads of trophies so he can cope with a reverse like that, and Man City are an awesome team unlike Blackpool. Now, with excuse making hopefully out of the way, last night once again highlighted a major flaw in Grayson's management ability, that total lack of intelligence that shows him up far too often. So there we are, 3-0 down and reduced to ten men, and at half time Grayson subs the 'keeper and sticks a youngster in goal. Why? Why indeed!! Clearly Rachubka's confidence pissed off into the sunset after he chucked in the Coventry equaliser, so now Grayson is a 'keeper light for Leicester and how ever many other games Lonergan is out for. Right now his only option to replace Rachubka is Cairns, 18-years old and inexperienced. Look, it is absolutely obvious that Rachubka can't start a game after those errors and being jerked at half-time, so Cairns has to start the next game AS IT STANDS with no guarantee of a loanee coming in. So what does Grayson do? Chuck the youngster into a match that is lost, with our team being overrun by a confident Blackpool who are in control of the game. What chance has the youngster got? NONE!! Instead he ships two goals in a half, and that can't exactly help his confidence. Wouldn't it have been better to leave him on the bench, get into training today and tell him he is starting at Leicester, so work hard and prepare. At least that way you can boost his confidence and help him prepare mentally for his League debut. And then if a good loan 'keeper is signed in the meantime, you can always sit the youngster down and explain the situation to him and tell him you had a change of heart and decided it is better for his own progress to be eased into the firing line in another fixture, preferably at home. Not Simon. With this pathetic knee jerk reaction he destroys Rachubka completely and probably damages some of Cairns' confidence as well. Hope not, but it is this lack of clear thinking that once again highlights how poor Grayson really is as a manager. Leeds have got a really good squad for this division, and we definitely should be pressing for auto promotion, but Grayson is stranging our team. Is there a lack of belief in the manager amongst the dressing room? Has allowing players such as Johnson, Gradel and Schmeichel to leave made the players question Grayson's judgement? The thing with losing the dressing room is this, once it manifests itself there is no going back. At times it seems the players are doing it all on their own without the manager's help, and this is not good. Grayson has made too many blunders consistently in his time at this club for it to be "the odd blip". He seems incapable of actually learning from his errors. Now he has to play Cairns at Leicester unless he can get a quality loanee in, but that means a Prem number two and which club will let their backup 'keeper go? Does it mean we end up with a poor makeshift 'keeper on loan because it is a panic signing? Will Grayson be forced into a loan-to-buy move for a below-standard 'keeper because everyone now knows he is desperate? Leicester are going to be so up for the game because it's Leeds, and because they need to impress both a new manager and their home support. Another spanking? Hope not, but don't be surprised. Cairns or Rachubka in goal may well drain the entire team of confidence, and with our shaky defence this is a potion for disaster. No Tom Lees either, and he has been our only genuine bright spot in defence. I still do not believe that Grayson is capable of getting us to the Prem, and we can't let him stumble along and have another season peter out like a backfiring Robin Reliant. If we miss out on promotion yet again, it means we are another £90-million behind those teams above us, and far too many millions behind those coming down. I mean, come on, how can Stoke City be spending so many millions and they don't have a fan base anywhere near that of Leeds United? And don't get me started on teams like Wigan!! It is so frustrating that our club seems to exude a lack of ambition, so frustrating. I really hope Grayson goes soon because he can't lead this club. Maybe he is trying too hard at his local club, I don't know. I just know Simon can't do it for us.
Billys Statue Did you go? I don't think cairns confidence will be knocked he looked a decent keeper and the goals he conceded werent stoppable
Hi Kissa, yes I was there. As I said, hope the kid isn't affected, but you just don't know with 'keepers. The risk was that Cairns could have dropped a clanger (or three) and it would have harmed the lad. Couldn't see the logic in throwing him into a game where there was every chance he could ship a few. It's just that Grayson doesn't seem to think things through, and his support staff seem to be totally toothless or inept in advising him as well.
Billy Cairns looked world class when he came on He was in a win win situation he couldnt make it worse and hes better than Rachubka! Rachubka cant play for us again after the hammering he took from his own fans and basically hes just not good enough, and if its any consolation we have a couple of great youth keepers 16 year olds
Billy, there was little chance of SG allowing Rachubka to play in the 2nd half. He would have been verbally slaughtered. Could even have ben worse given the approach of a tiny minority of some of our fans. Playing Cairns was the least bad of two difficult choices.
It's something of an extreme circumstance so i don't blame Grayson for yanking him off. He had clearly gone to pieces. Bad mistakes in two previous games and then three first half errors? If he'd have left him on it could have been even worse. And there are times when you just have to say enough is enough, the guy is not going to play for us again after this run, so you may as well show the rest of the team that you aren't prepared to let anyone playing that badly stay on the pitch.
Boggers Do you think the fans where right or wrong to boo Rachubka? I mean when it gets to the stage when they are clapping him cos hes managed to kick the ball I think its a joke tbh! He deserved all the **** he got and he needs to do a Bessone and come out say im sorry for been ****, Leeds united is too big of club for me now ill **** off and play for someone ****.
He subbed Rachubka for one reason only - he had a positive frame of mind. 3-0 is not a score that is impossible to recover from, especially playing how we did in the first 20 minutes of the second half. Rachubka was a liability and needed to come off, regardless of who replaced him. By that point anyone would have looked like shipping goals, but I'd rather have a keeper who can catch a ball and have an outside minimal chance of getting back in it (we always looked like scoring), than go with negative tactics and just accept it's a loss. Without taking Rachubka off, I doubt we'd have seen such a surge from our players and I very much believe we'd have shipped 7 or maybe 8.
If Rachubka would have stayed on, he'd have been even worse. Guys confidence was rock bottom after the Coventry game. Then 2 against Peterborough, and once he messed up Brighton's first, there was no turning back. The guy crumbled under the pressure, and I feel sorry for him. But this shouldn't be unexpected. When you do things cheaply, you end up with poor players. I know he looked decent in pre season, but these 5 games he's played, he's made mistakes. That's simply because he's not good enough to play for us. We should have paid money to get a decent back up keeper. I know the club didn't expect him to play that much, but the point of a reserve keeper is for situations like this. And you need a good one to deal with it. We got a keeper that no one else wanted. Have you seen Blackpool's keepers? They're a bit shaky themselves. The ones they had in the Prem - Gilks and Kingston - made mistakes, yet Rachubka couldn't get a game over either of those. I think this is an example of trying to do things cheaply and it back firing terribly. Same reason the defence is poor - Kisnorbo and O'Dea were the cheap options for this summer to try and solve the CB problem. You can pick up great bargains like Lonergran for £250,000 but it shows that even though his club wanted rid, they still expected a fee because they rated him as an asset. Bessone wasn't rated by Leeds and was let go for free, even though he was under contract. There's a difference in quality there.
I'm just sick of Bates spouting that we're doing well enough and that "spending money doesn't guarantee success". Twists words all the time, he's a worm. He's completely missed the point that not spending guarantees failure.
