Good Morning. It's Thursday 9th March, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Has Gnonto been found out According to Leeds Utd journalist Phil Hay, Willy Gnonto's dip in form has been put down to opposition Managers specifically changing tact, and in some cases double of triple teaming the young Italian, to keep him quiet. Since joining on deadline day last Summer, Gnonto has been a revelation. Single-handedly, the 19yo has been our most creative player by a Country mile, and by cutting off his supply route, or marking him out of the game, the cogs refuse to turn. According to Hay:- "Gnonto is somebody they’re going to need some output from before the end of the season. I think what I’ve noticed from him, and I guess the issue for him, is that it does seem after that period where he could do no wrong and was having such a big impact on games it does seem as though analysts and managers across the league have applied a clear eye to that and said this is somebody we need to keep a handle on and somebody we need to negate, double up on and whatever it is we do to stop him having the freedom of the pitch.” please log in to view this image Three from five to face the drop according to leading bookies Bournemouth (1/3), Southampton 1/2) and Everton 10/11 are destined for the Championship, according to leading bookmakers Bet365. Although only two points from safety, the South Coast pair have been odds on favourites for the drop all season. Almost a third of Leeds points this season have come against them. Leeds (13/8)maybe above Everton on goal difference, but the Merseysiders have picked up four points from their West Yorkshire rivals this season. Even so, this makes no difference to the odds. 14th place Nottingham Forest are next in line at 7/4, even though they are four points clear of Leeds and Everton. please log in to view this image Where will Leeds points come from Leeds will need points from Bournemouth, Wolves, Crystal Palace, West Ham, Nottingham Forest and Leicester if they are to survive this season. With 13 games left, time is running out for the Whites to drag themselves to safety. Lets not forget, they still face Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham and Manchester City. Leeds remaining opponents have an average league position of 9.5, slightly easier than Everton (9.1), but with with just one win under their belts since November 5th last year, they need to be picking up points now! Run-in difficulty based on current average league position of opponents Southampton (19th) - 8.2 Nottingham Forest (14th) - 8.3 Everton (18th) – 9.1 Leeds (17th) – 9.5 West Ham (16th) – 9.8 Wolves (13th) – 10.3 Bournemouth (20th) – 11.2 Leicester (15th) – 11.2 Crystal Palace (12th) – 11.8 please log in to view this image
Morning all The Gnonto situation is easy, get him to pass the ball more. If he has three players on him it means there is space elsewhere April is the key for us, lots of games including ones against those around us. If we’re bottom three or even just three points above the drop zone at the end of April I’ll panic a bit as our May games look tough
Exactly a good coach will realise that opposition are trying to mark Gnonto out of the game and use this to our advantage problem is which player/players will take advantage of this
There's a home and away element to be factored in to those run ins. When i looked through them i preferred our run in to forests and evertons - and they're the two i'm most interested in. April will decide our season.
There's maybe two elements to it... opposition managers and players have seen more of him so can have a plan for him... we seem to have had a 'give it to Gnonto and hope something happens' approach. The other is it's really unusual for consistency in wide players and young players. He's maybe lost a bit of form, possibly exacerbated by the extra attention. He's a good short range passer... agree he maybe needs to ping the ball earlier - but maybe we also need to vary the game plan so he's not the goto outlet... and have other forwards step up to the plate. Shame about sinisterra's injuries.
Maybe it will but surely every game from now on counts. Lots of snow around Wakefield today and low temps forecast friday night minus 6c. So just as a scenario would it help us for the game to be called off due to unsafe conditions for supporters. My view is it would help us getting our crocks ready. So i am hoping it gets called off.
Yes Sinisterra would be the obvious choice, Summerville hasn’t been as effective since his return from injury, maybe he prefers the left
Playing Devil's advocate, Why do we think Gnonto was benched last weekend? Gnonto has a massive part to play if Leeds are to avoid relegation, but with 2 or three people on him, is obviously going to be less effective. The big question needs to be, why haven't the rest of the team taken advantage?
Funny how sometimes we see the same games differently. I would say Summerville has been our best attacking player recently. Very low bar admittedly. Maybe if the opposition are concentrating on Gnonto there’ll be space to switch it to Summerville.
That's me. Now if someone can calculate his xg and add to the xg of our other lads we will know definitively if were safe
