Victor Orta puts the cat amongst the pigeons but it’s true. How different would things have been had the premier league done it’s job properly last season: “One thing I don’t like in England is the lack of consideration of the [FFP] rules,” Orta told the Daily Mail [6 November]. “LaLiga is trying to create sustainable clubs with breakeven budgets. “Perhaps my future would have been different – for better or worse – if Everton’s points deduction was for last season.” Leeds need to review their loan policy after the Oxford Utd debacle. Last season we allowed Lewis Bate to go there and he turned out to be consistently their best player. The manager was sacked late in the season though. Liam Manning came in and is doing a very decent job however he has a view on football that means Sonny Perkins gets no game time. To be brutal about it Leeds should never have allowed Perkins to go there as he has only had around 20 minutes all season. He has hardly even made the bench. So one of Englands future stars is idle and not learning much. Manning now taken over at Bristol though which could mean the new guy giving Perkins a shot. Perkins started his first game on Tuesday in the FL Cup and guess what he scored the opening goal. If he isn’t going to be used bring him home in January. Is FARKE missing his No10? Lots of speculation this week due to Phil Hay regarding FARKE wanting a 10. He has always had a very good playmaker but at Leeds the deal with Amiri fell through even though the player was with FARKE at Thorp Arch. FARKE still likes this player but at the moment he is using Piroe as the 10 and it’s not really working for the player or the team. The most creative player in the club Rutter would be an ideal 10 so why not swap them over as it would put a smile on the face of Piroe and Rutter always smiles anyway. FARKE has spoken about Gelhardt as the 10 but out injured and no game time for a while now. If an Amiri type player comes in FARKE then has a problem with Piroe Real Betis have agreed a €12m price for Marc Roca and the deal may happen in January but more likely in the summer unless Leeds also get a bit of compensation. Deal agreed with the 49ers. Silly season stories have started with Spurs wanting to agree a fee with Leeds for Pascal Struijk? Why when the better CB is actually Joe Rodon and guess what he’s a Spurs player and will cost nothing? The dominance of Sky and TNT could be about to diminish as word on the street is that Amazon are about to outbid them for the 4 year Premier League TV rights which start in the 24/25 season. When that happens everything changes forever and we will see why so many clubs in the UK are now owned by USA
Great work as ever Doc. It wouldn't have mattered to us if Everton had got docked points last season, just meant Leicester would have stayed up as we finished 19th.
Great weekender as always Doc so many thanks for taking the time and effort. Now onto the Rutter, Piroe debate because what I'm seeing is working and let's take a couple of the goals against Huddersfield as a great example of how and why. Rutter, as the 9 holds the ball up in our own half and as a he's working his magic on the ball Piroe has already run past him to become the new 9, with Rutter becoming the 10. Twice this happened and it was Piroe's runs that drew defenders and opened up the space for Summerville and Dan James to combine for the first and third goals. To alter what's developing into a great partnership would be crazy in my opinion.
Not worried about Preston though, we’ll be above them at end of season (or if we aren’t, we’ll be nowhere near the top 2 slots)
In my view right now we are playing with 2 nine and half’s. It works to a certain extent as they have scored 8 goals between them and Rutter has a few assists, but on top his assists he is also creating other assists and doing most of them from playing out of his own area or picking the ball up in the middle and turning defence into an attack. He is gold dust but how many 9s are playing so deep. Piroe is normally a 20 goal per season man and not to say he won’t do it again but he’s doing it from a different position and can go missing a lot and doesn’t look happy where he is. Now if Rutter were to score a lot more goals then FARKE has it spot on but we are not scoring enough and FARKE has admitted that. He has also said anyone getting promoted needs to score between 70 and 90 goals but so far we have scored only 25. (On target for 76) Now on top of that teams right down in 16th have scored similar number of goals as us and the difference is goals conceded. Ipswich are the top scorers on 33 with Leicester on 29. We need more goals and I think Rutter can create them from 10 and Piroe will score more as he gets more chances in the box? Or is FARKE playing 3 false 9s with Summerville in the mix as he has scored 6 now?
Good post Doc but it seems that Rutter needs the freedom of playing up top as a 9 to enable him to get on the ball and hurt teams with his passing. If he played as a 10 then he'd more than likely be picked up by a defensive midfielder but that's just not possible for the opposition when he's supposed to be the main striker.
According to the Daily Mail Liverpool are preparing a £40m bid for Archie Gray. Silly season comes earlier every year
At the moment Rutter has the 2 centre halves to deal with. Summerville tends to drift inside a bit so the defensive midfielder has 2 to deal with. Also, if the 10 is picked up by a defensive midfielder then he should push on up front and force the opposition to sit even deeper allowing the freedom for the rest of the side to tighten their grip on the game. To put it in a nutshell Piroe has the better movement and finishing as a 9 and Rutter can pick a pass better and is far more creative. He has better footwork. It looks like they are the wrong way around. However, it does seem to be working OK.
Think we're both looking at slightly different game scenarios. When the opposition are attacking and have the ball in our half that's when Rutter needs the freedom from having to track back and mark someone. This allows him so find enough space to receive the ball when we win possession back. If he had to track back like Piroe we'd be taking away a large part of our ability to counter attack as Piroe as the 9 doesn't have Georgie's skills to turn his man with his back to goal (in our half). The second scenario is when we have the ball and are attacking in the opponents half, in which case I'd agree that Rutter being deeper would seem to suit him better and with Piroe being the better finisher he needs to be closer to goal. That said Piroe arriving late works as well as long as the team are spotting his runs and playing the right pass. Farke seems to be trying to get them to alternate but Piroe is definitely the more disciplined defensively which does seem to go unoticed at times.
Lots of sense from Jammy and Emu but think we are watching a side develop an attacking strategy probably unique to us. Good coaches don’t have to explain or give clues to the opposition. We saw Pep not use a number 9 after Aguero moved so we saw false 9s in Sterling and Foden, City still won everything without a nine until they got Haaland. Liverpool similar as their 9s lived on the bench as Salah and Mane plus Jota did their stuff. So if FARKE is hoping for similar Rutter needs to chip in with goals
Ok Emu maybe I should have said I agree with some not all of your points and same with Jammy. So not wanting a battle by saying you talked some shyt too
