Good Morning. It's Thursday 23rd January, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Dominant Leeds destroy Norwich Leeds returned to the top of the Championship with a dominant performance against an injury ravaged Norwich City side, who, without the services of Borja Sainz (suspended for six games for spitting at Sunderland's Chis Mapham) looked anything but play-off contenders. The game burst into life straight from kick-off, as Daniel Farke's men executed a breathtaking move, straight from the Thorp Arch training ground manual. Brenden Aaronson, Jayden Bogle, and Dan James combined brilliantly to set up Manor Solomon at the near post. His first time effort, smashing the ball into the roof of the net, sent the packed out crowd into jubilation. Leeds dominated possession for the rest of the first period, creating further chances through Joel Piroe, who forced a save from Angus Gunn. While the referee's notebook saw plenty of early action, with several yellow cards being handed out to both sides, Leeds maintained their control, with Gunn pulling off a fantastic save to deny Bogle's late volley at the end of the half to keep the score at 1-0. The second half saw more of the same. Leeds were dominant, but always needed a second goal to kill off any hopes of a Canaries comeback. The double substitution of Tanaka and Byram for Gruev and Firpo had the desired effect. Leeds doubled their lead soon after as Solomon turned provider, crossing for James to volley home from the back post for his 7th of the season on the hour mark. With 16 cleans sheets already this season and a goal difference of 34, their prognosis looks bright; yet only a three point gap separates them from third, and another potential lottery play-off scenario; and we all know how that is likely to go! please log in to view this image Duo could be dropped for top of the table Burnley clash Despite what turned out to be an easy win, two Leeds performances left a lot to be desired, prompting calls on social media for them to be dropped on Monday when Leeds travel to Burnley. The Clarets, buoyed by a dominant 5-0 victory over Plymouth Argyle, are seemingly hitting their stride. They already have the tightest defence in the football league, and now it seems they may have found their goal scoring touch too. They remain the only side (apart from Boro in the Caribou Cup) to win at Elland Road this season. The imminent arrival of big money signing Morgan Whittaker will give Scott Parker's team further options up front, so Leeds will need to be at their very best if they are to maintain top spot. Brenden Aaronson and Joel Piroe have come in for a lot of criticism lately, with reports of lacklustre performances, but with few options at 9 and 10, there has become an over reliance on Manor Solomon and Dan James to perform. Plenty of names have been linked with January moves to Elland Road, but time is running out. are Leeds willing to gamble on their current squad's ability to secure promotion, or will they seek reinforcements before the window slams shut? please log in to view this image
Morning all. Satisfactory wins both weekend and yesterday. Gotta feel the Burnley game signals the beginning of the business part of the season. Burnley 19 clean sheets and we’ve 16 so scoreless draw looks a good bet and I’d happily take that. One thing that’s become obvious is there are about 14 Teams from wendies down in the table and they are fairly hopeless. Makes you think it’ll take a big Points total again for autos
Morning all I think all top 4 teams would expect to be sitting top after their recent results. We did enough yesterday, we were the better team and deserved the win I still know we should have more points on the board if it were not for the Meslier howlers. Knowing that means we’ve been unfortunate and still sitting top Compared that to Sheff U who have rode their luck a few times. Burnley will be a massive test, it won’t define the season but a chance to open a 6 point gap Burnley have three very easy games after us,
Not much of a spectacle for fans, this style of football is killing atmospheres at stadiums and it's not just us to say Norwich were injury ravaged they passed the ball about quite well, could have been a totally different result had they been at full strength especially up front. But it's 3 points and back on top of the championship
All about winning but we know that Sky Sports turn the crowd volume down at our games because of chants directed to/about them.
Burnley I think, will define how we go forward. Mid week and away are our problems right now. No Strujik means a less than optimal midfield. Defence is caught ball watching too many times.
Gah, fat fingers; On a positive note, Farke hasn't stuck to 70 min substitutions and the subs have had impact. He's been insightful there. I'm sure Aski has the stats on our subs.
Yeah I know that mate regarding sky but the few games I've been to I've noticed the atmosphere is flat a lot of the time
And clips fans keep posting on social media about us having best atmosphere in the world are usually the Norwich play off or Leicester games from last season. Nobody posting videos of atmosphere from this season. Probably the way football is headed with fans being told what they can or can't sing
I wondered about that during the game against the Wendies. They came across as very loud during the game, or were Leeds quiet that game.
Anyone remember in the early days of Sky Sports a chap they used to have on lots of programmes like Soccer AM called Statto - wonder what he is up to these days
Here you go Brizzle lol on average Farke makes his first set of substitutions in the 63rd minute., second set of substitutions in the 77th minute and the final set in the 87th minute. At home the average is 58th minute. 75th minute and 86th minute Away, he makes his subs slightly later, 69th minute, 80th minute and 88th minute. 5 times he has had to make a substitution on or before half time, however other than that the earliest substitution he made was in last nights game in the 55th minute. The home game against Luton is the only other game where he's made an unforced substitution prior to the hour mark, where the first sub came on in the 59th minute . If we remove the forced substitutions, then on average the first sub at home is brought on in the 65th minute, and the first sub in away games makes an appearance in the 73 minute, with the combined average for both home and away games being 70 minutes The latest he has waited to bring on a sub is 84 minutes, both in the away games at Sheffield Wednesday and Cardiff. The longest he has waited in home games is 74 minutes, both against Hull and Oxford. The home game against Blackburn is the earliest that he has made his full compliment of subs, all on the pitch by the 70th minute. Both the home game against Watford and the away game at Sunderland, the final sub was made in the 90+6 minute
He was just the eye candy for the cameras, whilst all us nerds in the background compiled the information to make him look knowledgeable
Struijks injury not as bad as it was first feared. Should be available after the Burnley game. No further injuries to report after last night.