Good Morning. It's Thursday 27th April, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road No fitness issues for Gnonto, so why isn't Gracia utilising him An unnamed source, close to Leeds Utd, have revealed that Wilfred Gnonto's recent lack of game time has nothing to do with fitness issues. It was thought that the Italian International may have picked up an injury, which would explain Gracia's decision to use him sparingly over the last six games, but nothing could be further from the truth. Social media outlet 'LUFCFANZONE' revealed that they were told: ‘Before the Liverpool game Willy sustained a small injury. He was 80% fit for the Liverpool game but has been 100% and available full strength for every game after” Gnonto has bought more creativity to the side than most of the squad combined, it's like he has been the life-support of the club this season, and to suddenly drop him makes absolutely no sense. Gracia can't even argue that he is a luxury player. Gnonto works hard off the ball, isn't afraid to challenge, and certainly doesn't give the ball away cheaply. Elland Road journalist Phil Hay describes the 19yo as explosive, dynamic and apparently nerveless, begging the question, what sort of situation calls for those traits if not the one Leeds are in? "[That's] where we were with Javi Gracia and Willy Gnonto on Tuesday night, locked in a discussion about why Gnonto wasn’t playing against Leicester City when Leeds were in the firing line for relegation, using up lives they didn’t have. A little like Gelhardt, isn’t Gnonto a gift horse? Does anyone really want to die wondering?" "It was not as if Gnonto is being kept out of the team by rampant creativity out wide or deadly finishing through the middle. The 1-1 draw with Leicester ended with Patrick Bamford shooting wide from almost under the crossbar, head in hands afterwards, like just about every Leeds fan in the stands." "The 19-year-old is explosive, dynamic and apparently nerveless — and what sort of situation calls for those traits if not the one Leeds are in? It might not be a silver bullet, because relegation battles rarely offer those, but Gnonto is a card worth playing, and a very obvious one at that." please log in to view this image Do Leeds need to clear the decks, and start again The stats from Tuesday night make grim reading for Leeds Utd going forward. 41% possession, 64% passing accuracy and 23% shot accuracy; this against a club without a clean sheet in 17 appearances and one point from their previous ten games before beating Wolves last weekend! Some are worse than others. The passing accuracy of Firpo (51%) and Cooper (54%) defies logic, but in truth none of the players are stepping forward to the plate, making our quest for survival that much harder. Something is not right at the club. The only real fight on Tuesday night came from Rodrigo! Did Leeds make a grave mistake by bringing Gracia to the club? please log in to view this image Bookies slash odds on Leeds returning to Championship For the first time his season, leading Bookmakers Bet365 are offering odds less than evens on West Yorkshire's finest returning to the Championship. Although Southampton 1/10, Nottingham Forest 8/13 and Everton 8/11 remain favourites for the drop, a run of bad form have prompted the betting company to slash their odds from 4/1 to 5/6 for Leeds to go down. please log in to view this image
Said all I need to say on this fiasco and whatever happens Gracia is history and gone from seemingly nailed on for next season to a joke who should leave now before he is chased out of the city
Morning guys. Up until last night my feeling was we'd just have enough to sneakily avoid the drop, however Forest winning last night after being behind has altered the landscape and we now look almost certain to fall into the bottom 3 before the season finishes. That along with a tough run in after Sunday means we're definitely now relying on others poor form just as most of them seem to be actually fighting hard and picking up points. It's never over until it's over of course but we have to get something on Sunday.
It has to be more than just something!! a win only will now do now, as i mentioned before, Bournemouth are the team to catch, and a team with a worse goal difference than us, to me the last chance winnable game to me, however if they so much as pick up a point at Southampton it will make that all irelavent to me, and it would be game over for our survival.
Palace, Fulham and Liecester should have seen us safe by now, but 1 point from those 9 available plus also refusing to compete against a poor Liverpool means 1 point from 12….. even if we only took 5 points from those games we would be safe. Ridiculous management highlighting poor tactics, selection and heart
We must get something from the next game..... sick of hearing same old garbage, the three Stooges are very quiet on the impending disaster after last season's 'it won't happen again ' ... let's just keep hoping someone else ****s up and saves our skins instead of rolling up our sleeves and doing it ourselves, Rodrigo at least showed some passion and fight maybe he should do a Toney and get to the bookie's and put a wedge on his teammates letting the side down... after initial hope with gracia it's turned from a nice drop of rioja to a bad pint of all inclusive lager....****
As always just calling it as it is elland. Far too much pessimism posted on here at times but not from you I might add
The other thing nobody has mentioned is that this team has been fairly safe from relegation all season, dropping into the zone once due to games in hand. Leeds have watched the likes of WHU, Everton, Palace, Bournemouth, Wolves, Leicester fight and fight to improve. From a group of 9 teams fighting it went to 5 including us and we have done nothing for weeks except hope results go our way. We have sleepwalked into relegation odds-on territory. No heart, desire, fight. Insipid and a real shock for all football fans just how useless Leeds have become in a few weeks
Do Leeds need to clear the decks, and start again Absolutely yes. Total clearcut of all at Elland Road and use garbage skips except a furnace for Orta, and start again. Who in their right mind would want season after season of this tripe and that's the best the three stooges are capable of delivering. You can fantasise all you like about who to bring in the summer, with present setup, that's all it is
It started with Palace just needing a win and every game since. Truth is two wins might not be enough we have to rely on others being worse than us. This garcia blokeis hopeless and will not change his tactics. Our only hope is injuries force changes upon him and he accidentally wins a game. Bournemouth on Sunday will be the hardest game of the season.
Maybe just maybe we as fans should be showing some gratitude towards Radz & Co for giving us 3 seasons back in the big time ? Many on here complained, and rightly so, about a generation of lost fans due to our feeble attempts at getting out of the Championship. Well all that was fixed and the fans both young and old came flooding back. Relegation would undoubtably be a step back, but let's try and remember where we were under previous owners as it definitely was worse...a lot worse. So thank you Mr Radrizani for letting our younger generation experience football at the highest level
The peach of all posts was when someone put up a tweet from someone saying even Bates was better than Radz The footie is depressing enough at the moment but I have to limit my time on here too just to preserve my remaining sanity!
Wasn't me. Even I have a limit. Mind you might be time to revive the pen for ken when he received 50k pens in Monaco to sell up, one of which was mine. Every fan could send a p45 to the club for the three stooges
