Of course it can go either way, points will be won and lost and Leeds have scored 23 goals in the last 15 minutes whilst only conceding 8 so they’ve defo had more of a positive affect than not.. but there’s no denying that a young lad who’s flogged for 90 minutes every week will be in worse condition going into the play offs than one that’s been subbed 15 mins before the end several games especially in that midfield role when we’re hanging on toward the end and there’s lots of chasing. That’s not an opinion it’s fact. I’ll just use Aleksic because he’s currently being mentioned but it also means he gets valuable minutes playing alongside the first team for when he needs to step in should we get an injury. I don’t buy all of this speak the language bollocks. How come it’s only at Sunderland that we need to give lads a year of listening to Rosetta Stone before they can kick a ball? Everyone else signs foreign players and chucks them straight in. If he can’t be trusted to run around for 15 minutes to see a game out how are we expecting him to go into the first team in 4 months and play 90 minutes every week?
Deserved yellow. Lost his head when he lost the ball and fouled one of theirs. Although we probably wouldn’t have hit a free kick for it
Got caught out then brought someone down on the counter iirc, or someone else got caught out and he made the foul
My policy is to ignore players who've either arrived and not played or those with medium/long term injuries. I really don't understand this endless agonising over how much we're paying them or how all of them should be 'getting minutes'. I honestly think that some people believe that, if they repeat something often enough, the club will pay attention and do what they're being told. Aleksic, for all we know, might have an attitude problem, demands on where he's played or a grudge with Dan Neil who he won't pass to in training. Or it might just be that he's gradually building his confidence and happy with things as they are. Dropping players in, for a few minutes here and there, isn't always sensible if they're not actually fighting for a starting place. When Le Fée is back it's certain Aleksic won't be starting and we'll possibly have Rigg, Mayenda, Watson, Browne, etc on the bench who'll most likely come on ahead of him. Constantly campaigning for him to play is pointless and, in my opinion, tedious. Making a point or giving an opinion is great, repeating it on every match thread isn't. We always seem to end up talking about someone who didn't play and not those who did ... ... whatever happens this season I think it's clear that leaving him out won't cost us promotion and playing him won't guarantee it. Like yesterday I'm just supporting whatever team takes to the pitch and cheering them on, call me naive but I've never seen the point of banging my head against the wall knowing no one is listening ... you just end up with a sore head and missing the good stuff.
Cheers for that mate, I had a feeling Neil would’ve done a bit moaning but tbf it doesn’t seem like that’s the case
Ah tell me about it, weather was lovely when I left the house, came out the boozer to walk to the ground and I was frozen
I can understand wanting him to play but as I said last night when someone said Mayenda was one of many attackers at the club last year, aleksic is one of many midfielders, a midfield that’s playing pretty damn well
The simple reality is that if a manager thinks a player is ready to win him games he’ll play him. He will play when it all falls into place.
I am. This is the perfect opportunity to get promoted. The Championship has not been this weak in years. On top of that not getting promoted will also see us lose Rigg and Jobe to name a few
We’ll all be gutted if we lose in the play offs, that goes without saying, and yes we’ll lose great players, but need to remember that there is a plan in place to develop the club and quality of team year on year. It’s quite possible the likes of Aleksic steps right up. Mayenda and Wilson will improve. Triantis may smash the league as he has in Scotland. The way we run the club there’s always hope around the corner. Would anyone keep the same full backs as yesterday for next week whoever is available ?
I expect Jobe to go but not Rigg. Jobe clearly has everything and would have no problem going to the PL now, he'd blossom in the right team. Rigg isn't there physically or mentally yet from what I've seen.
True but probably. Jobe will definitely go i think, hes ready for that step up now. Rigg will hopefully want to spend another year with us to develop because he's still so young. I think Hume could leave if a Prem team comes in for him if we dont go up. Signing Mepham permanently will be more difficult, Cirkin, Neil the list is endless. Getting promoted this season is alot more important than some people think in my opinion. Like insaid its a very weak league this season, we should clasp it with both hands and try and make the most of the opportunity.
Cirkin I would happily let go because of his injuries. Mepham I knew little of before, so no reason why we couldn’t find another. Neil would be hardest to replace I think because so much goes through him, but if we had a few quid, we have a pretty decent record of signing good players.
Not as such wanting him to play every minute, just makes sense to rotate them. We seen what happened with Jobe last season, it’s already happening to Rigg this season and last 6-8 weeks Jobe hasn’t looked as good he was at the start of the season imo, he always looks tired after about an hour. Don’t think it would be a bad move to hook them 10-15 mins at the end of the match and give them a breather so they’re fresh for the next game. Samed with fresh legs for 15 minutes is absolutely not going to be worse than Jobe playing at 50%. Think he came on with about 15-20 mins against Boro and gave us some good energy getting the ball up the pitch late on. We’ve dropped points late, we've won points late. It’s swings and roundabouts but it’s a long season and we need to be careful managing game time going into the play offs because if we have the same Jobe that we had at the end of last season he’ll be a waste of a shirt.
Cirkin wouldn't bother me either. Mepham has been a top defender for a long time now. I remember him being integral to Brentford being promoted to the Prem. Getting him on loan was a coup.
I don't agree with this. The perfect opportunity for us will be when we are sat at the top of this league with everyone else trying to catch us up. We're not quite there at the minute. If we do lose a couple of players to PL clubs in the summer,as long as the fees we get are substantial and are reinvested wisely,we have the opportunity to improve. We can't hope for promotion simply in order to hang on to Neil,Jobe and Rigg. Those three alone won't play us to Premier League mid-table,which is where we need to be,but,with another season,I believe they'll improve and can help play us to the top of this league as part of an improved squad capable of maintaining a top flight place. Some of the football we played yesterday was excellent.....I thought Pat Roberts had one of his best games for us....I'm sure we're on the right path to sustained success,but I don't think our overall quality is good enough....we're not yet ready.
