Good Morning. It's Wednesday 12th October, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Eight games left this year Although only a fifth of the way through the season, Leeds sudden nosedive towards the wrong end of the table has caused widespread panic among Whites fans, yet worse could be in store, as we look at the remaining fixtures of 2022, starting with the visit of League leaders Arsenal. Leeds started the season well, recording home wins against Wolves and Chelsea. They let a two goal lead slip against Southampton, and also deserved more than a point against Everton, but defeats against Brighton, Brentford and Crystal Palace have seen Leeds slip to 14th place, three points from the drop zone. Rock bottom Leicester City already looks like a six pointer, whilst Fulham and Bournemouth have enjoyed fantastic starts to their respective campaigns, and will be far from easy Upon returning from the World Cup, the Whites face a possible Boxing Day massacre against Manchester City before travelling to St James Park on New Year's Eve. Home v Arsenal Away v Leicester City Home v Fulham Away v Liverpool Home v Bournemouth Away v Spurs Home v Man City Away v Newcastle Utd Leeds currently have nine points from eight games. How many more points will they pick up this year, and at what position in the Premier League do you see them at, come January 1st? please log in to view this image Yorkshire nipper sidelined with ACL injury Harvey Sutcliffe faces months on the sidelines after it was revealed he suffered a serious knee injury during the U21's 1-0 victory over Sunderland on Monday evening. The versatile defender has been in impressive form since penning a two-year professional contract during the Summer. LUFC Youth’s Twitter account has reported that the 19yo has suffered an “anterior cruciate ligament injury” and “will be sidelined for a number of months”. Commonly, an injury of this type can take up to nine months to heal properly. It is not known whether he faces surgery. please log in to view this image Gakpo destined for bigger and better things Any hope of signing Cody Gakpo in the New year have all but diminished, according to Elland Road reporter Phil Hay. Speaking on his weekly podcast, Hay explained that with 18 goals under his belt (from all competitions) and a domestic Whoscored rating of 8.65, Gokpo is destined for bigger and better things. “I’ve been chatting to somebody about him last week and I think the feeling is more and more that he’s gravitating towards the type of club that you thought he would gravitate towards if he had a good season and if he had a good World Cup. “He’s done that classic thing of remaining where he was, teams who went for him not signing him – Leeds included – and then his form just exploding; he’s had a really strong start to the season. “And it’s not that Leeds aren’t still interested in him, it’s not that Leeds wouldn’t love to take him, it’s not that they’re not still talking about it, there just is a general feeling that it’s going to be somewhere else [he goes]. “I think we said that straight after the transfer window closed, that if it was a good season for him, then it was hard to see how Leeds were going to stay in the running.” please log in to view this image
Morning all. Enjoyed a great performance last night from our Irish Lassies qualifying for the World Cup. Bamford should spend the week studying the winning Irish goal. A lesson in all he doesn't do well. Great control, one on one with the keeper and a perfect finish. Have to say, Im actually enjoying international football more these days than the pl ****e. And lets face it, that's what it is. Lots of unwatchable rubbish, at least ten mediocre outfits who will never have any ambition except to avoid relegation season after season. The top few controlling the purse strings and dividing the riches among them every season. I for one preferred the Championship where young lads had a chance of coming through the academy and having a chance to make it at this level. Hate this whole trying to sign Gapko or whoever for astronomical money only for them to leave twelve months later if they're a success. Might sound odd but there it is
If we get 4pts I’ll be surprised. Gakpo, if he’d of come in the close season we would of been hearing things like, Yeah he’s coming along nicely starting to look sharpe. I really like this guy and the squad we have. yes the gun slinger would still have him in U21’s like Gnonto…… clock is ticking.
It's a tough run of games that's for sure. We then have a 'relatively easy' January and February. We could conceivably perform reasonably well and still end up in the bottom 3 by Jan 1st. To avoid 'table pressure' and even more fan panty-wetting we could do with making sure we get maximum from Fulham and Bournemouth and capitalise on leicester's defensive fragility. Anything else is a bonus. Next week is huge for us. It may be pivotal in our season. We play Sunday (Arse), Thursday (leicester), Sunday (Fulham)... Leicester play saturday lunch time so get a full days rest on us. Fulham play sat/thurs, so a longer week but the same rest before our game. With our high energy game, there'll be weary legs - might be time to see what this much vaunted squad depth looks like.
No problem. I wasn't looking for anyone to agree. I already explained the logic. At least most internationals want to play for their countries, PL players for the most part only care about the cheque. Even if relegated, they get to just move on to the next pay day
Morning All You look at those games and I say we could get 8 to 11 points. Leicester should be a walk over and I reckon we could get all 3 from Bournemouth. If this was any other season I'd be looking at Liverpool I'd be cracking myself but not this season. I think the January window is going to be crucial for our season. Yes, we signed 7 players this summer but the squad does need strengthening. I'm coming to the opinion that we need a new CB along with another LB and striker. Hopefully, the Board doesn't start trotting out Bielsa's excuse from last year but I don't it cos Marsch seems like a less stubborn person than Bielsa. We all know Gakpo thing won't be happening. From what I can gather we are looking for alternatives.
Morning all. Some simple changes around the time keeping issues would greatly immprove the PL. Goal kicks...if not taken within 15 seconds of the ball being in the 6 yard box then a corner is awarded (we have multi ball now) Goalkeepers must release the ball within 10 seconds when they have the ball in hand in their own penalty area ( this is extended from the current 6 seconds)...no warnings and an indirect free kick awarded. Throw ins...if not taken within 10 seconds of a ball being available at the point where the throw was awarded the other team are then awarded the throw. Free kicks...anyone standing in front of the ball to impede the taking of the free kick is yellow carded...no warnings. Injured players...any player that requires the game to be paused (due to his inability to play on) must then leave the field of play for the amount of time the game was stopped for plus an additional 2 minutes....unless a yellow card was shown for the challenge which resulted in the stoppage, in which case the player may remain on the field of play. I'm sure there are loads more but those are the ones that immediately sprung to mind after 30 seconds thought.
Doc's detective work suggests a good chance Kai Wagner comes in in Jan, so that may be the left back sorted. I think we have a decent spread of attacking 'type' of player, but only one guy who can really hold the ball up and still do the pressing job... he's just never fit.. or fit enough. We need like for like cover/competition for him. We need a left back, to establish whether Struijk will cut it at centre back, my gut also is we could do with another 1. Not sure Leicester will be a walkover. They create chances and score in most games (4 in their last home game), they're just a shambles defensively... are we good enough to take advantage? Guess we'll know next Thursday.
Some good suggestions their jamster. I'd back all of them except the injured player one - seems unfair if the player is actually injured and yellow card isn;t really an indicator of that. That's why it's so tricky and the ref has to just assess whether the player is faking it. Two alternatives: - 4th official starts adding time, if free kick isn't taken with 20 seconds of foul - radical one is just to take timekeeping completley away from the ref - and stop the clock when the ball is dead. 2 x 30 minute halves - gives a longer time in play than the PL average.
Wolves mentioning the Jan window, but our club directors gambled again didn't they and lost again haven't they. They were hoping Firpo would be ok backed up by Struijk - wrong. They were hoping Bamford was back firing and backed up by Rodrigo, Gnonto and Joffy - wrong again. If the cheque book comes out in January it will need to be an Orta special - a player who is unknown, another Raphinha type because Gakpo has now moved out of our price range As for how many points we get from the next 8 games, to stay up we need 8 points as the overall points required to stay up is a point per game minimum. Marsch needs to sort this out because I do believe we have a better squad than last season (excluding Raphinha) Sinisterra isnt far behind Raphinha, we have a solid oairing in the middle now even without Forshaw, we have the Gallagher type player we were missing last season, we had no Phillips and Bamford last season, we have cover for Ayling we just need to find a way to use these players and Marsch has had plenty of time to do that with a full close season and a month off. We still have no Bamford but at least Rodrigo showed him how to do it but he has been injured and now behind an unfit Bamford?
Jammy makes some great points there, but one that really pees me off is a player going down and players wanting the ball kicked out and the game stopped. We know only too well how teams cheat….. the only time the game gets stopped is for a head injury, its the rule yet we see it in every game abusing the rule and refs not enforcing it. Maybe time to penalise any player who kicks the ball out deliberately and any ref who stops the game when no head injury involved
Obviously the proposals need a bit of tweaking but the main theme is to keep the game moving. It's all well and good adding extra time at end of each half (or stopping the clock) but the more a game flows, without the continual breaks in play, the better it usually is.
Don’t disagree, hence why I said I like the suggestions. Just think the injury/rolling on the floor one is hard to police that way. Hence my hybrid suggestion. Take all yours to speed up the game when it’s out of play… and stop the clock for injuries, so no benefit for the fakers.
Let's say the player (who goes down) stops the game for 2 mins whether he requires treatment or not. Under my proposal he then has to wait at the half way line for 4 mins before he can return to the field of play (none of this waved straight back on bollocks). Of course the player could receive treatmen/have a rest off the field (whilst the game continues) and then he can return at any time. The down side is any genuinely injured player, but in those instances they would simply get off the pitch asap because once they are off then it's likely the 2 mins (time penalty) would pass whilst they received their treatment or they are substituted.
Under the current system they are supposedly stopping the clock for fakers though and it's not working.
but you can’t legislate for rules not being enforced… how many of your suggestions would be enforced? Independent time keeper. Sole responsibility for duration of game. Blows hooter at half time/full time. What’s not to like.
