Anyway not even sure where these proven PL players (that cost that amount of money) are to be honest unless they're getting on in years. When we signed Dan James for £25M everyone said Man U had our pants down but he was a proven PL player. Then let's take Firpo who if playing for Man City, Arsenal or Liverpool we'd all think was a great attacking full back but if we signed him for big money we'd quickly realise his limitations. Guess what I'm saying is there's no guarantees and every signing is a gamble of sorts as we've seen many times over the years. Peter Barnes anyone ?
Midweek fixtures coming up for two of our promotion rivals on Tuesday evening. Southampton v Hull. Possible dropped points here for Saints as Hull have won 4 of their last 6 away games and overall have a 50% success rate on the road. Ipswich v Rotherham. Home banker which will put Ipswich level on points with us.
There's a reason Firpo isn't at Man City, Liverpool or Arsenal. There's a reason he didn't play in a dominant Barcelona team. He's not good enough. If we go up, he has to be replaced.
In truth LB seem to be a dying species, like you Emu I just don’t think he would be good enough if promoted. I’m pleased his performances have improved coincidentally with our upturn in form. I just think he’s a car crash waiting to happen whenever he’s in our half. In the Prem they’d target him from the off. I was disappointed we got shut of Alioski, assuming he’s still got his fitness he be ahead of Firpo for me. I just don’t know where this LB is gonna come from.
The lad Miller who played left wing back for Plymouth played very well yesterday. Tymon was probably the stand out for Swansea last week. They are out there but I'm sure the scouts are aware of the better Championship left backs.
Well written piece. Would you believe I preferred yesterday's trip leaving at 3am and getting back at a decent time to the leaving at 930am and getting back at 630am the next morning. It's the match going fans who are inconvenienced and it would be nice if there was some sort of initiative from Sky to advance a sum towards extra expenses etc for the fans. I doubt that will ever happen but as our fan base is worldwide and very loyal, seeing us live on tv will be great for them.
He's played nearly 50 premier league games in two Leeds United sides who have some of the worst defensive stats in PL history.
Not in one season he didn’t so who are the rest of defenders that seem to be walking away Scot free from this?
Who is saying they walk away scot free. I'm just answering a question about Firpo as a left back in the PL.
So he doesn't deserves the chance to show he's improved if we go up ? Plus he's had to play alongside Cooper for most of his time at Leeds. Oh and a good coach would use a holding midfielder to assist with any defensive shortcomings the way Liverpool do with TAA.
Okay, I took it as the inference was because of him we conceded so many goals, I apologise if that wasn’t the point being made.
No need to apologise. Its no problem. There were mitigating circumstances for both seasons but Firpo was definitely complicit in our defensive problems.
It's all about the balance between what he brings offensively offset against any goals conceded by alledged poor defensive play. Personally I don't ever remember coming away from any game and thinking Firpo cost us there. Yes VAR gave a pen against him when we drew 2-2 with Newcastle but he was unfortunate there as the opponent pushed him and even you admitted last season he was playing well at one point.
He will need to defend more if we go up. He will need to defend more on Friday night. The more he defends, the more we rely on his weakest part of his game. I'm pretty straight forward. If he plays well, I'll say he has played well. If he plays poorly then I'll say that he played poorly. At Championship level he is good going forward but his defending is exceptionally poor.
Sorry but I'm at a loss to understand how you can define his defending as exceptionally poor, especially when we've just won 8 on the bounce with Junior back in the team. Not very good maybe, or even positionally challenged but exceptionally poor is well over the top in my opinion. You do know he's been out all season before the recent winning run don't you
