I've said it all season - this side has the physicality and the grit and the nerve to try and batter their way to victories (and fair play to them for doing that the last three games before Derby), but their class with players like Hughes and Davies just showed up how one-dimensional this team is. The 'marquee', 'icing on the cake' signings - call them what you want - have to come, because there's a distinct deficit of CLASS in this side. Yes: McCormack's return should be welcomed because he can create goals, but he's also a player I'd like to see up with Becchio trying to score more than provide. Yes: Diouf, Hall and Thomas give us a good trio of wingers to call upon, so the three of them should be tied to new contracts. But Warnock's enthusiasm for wingplay and the crosses Becchio thrives off, while necessary, shouldn't be the only way we create goals. We still lack a midfielder to sit alongside the grit players like Green, Brown, Norris and Tonge. We've not had a full-on playmaker who sits in the centre circle since Neil Kilkenny for crying out loud. Clayton tried his hardest, but was given too much defensive responsibility since our midfield was so thin, ending up unsuccessfully hoofing from deep, and then was sadly sacked off by Warnock/Bates/both. If he'd stayed, we could have had a pretty perfectly-balanced midfield at this point, but I'll let bygones be bygones on that one. Looking to the future, my preference would be Watson or Crusat from Wigan, whether on loan or permanent. Or even to look abroad. The January transfer window is absolutely pivotal.
Totally agree, I'd go for perkins from Barnsley class player who dictated the game against us Watsons broke his leg btw
Oh Agree on Perkins - went to the 4-1 game last season and my Barnsley mate was gloating about what a 'little terrier' that blond bombshell is. Unstoppable. Getting on a bit, but would definitely give us the option to open up defences more, and hold onto the ball a bit better (without being boring about it). Ryan Flynn and Liam Trotter could be possible shouts too.
I assumed the last two we took on loan was NW's idea of icing on the cake players, Tate and Thomas. Granted they might be stop gap until January arrives, how much money will he be given to spend though, all has gone pretty quiet on that front...
I agree, that Hughes showed exactly the kind of player we're lacking, and controlled the middle of the park (and I think we could have done with Brown in there to cancel him out). It's looking like George Boyd could well be the player bought to fill that role for us. Speaking of Hughes it might be worth putting a sneaky bid in while he's still developing, apparently Barcelona are watching him.
Fair enough, thought he was a mid based on what I remember from a Sabotage Times article which suggested a few January targets for us. ...is the correct answer. I'd adore life if he came to Leeds.
He plays out wide or behind the striker from what I can gather And I don't think we need attacking midfield players as such, more like a deep lying playmaker in the Kilkenny mould (obviously a lot better and hopefully not as useless defensively though) like you said
The problem we had yesterday was we were losing the ball in the middle of the park. We had no problem with creativity, when we were going forward we always looked a threat. It was more a case of being able to counter their creative players. If we'd had Austin on the bench or starting we'd have faired a lot better, we were just crying out for someone to take the centre of midfield by the scruff of the neck and make it ours. When Diouf was brought on for McCormack, he went a long way to providing what we were missing. He was strong and skillful on the ball and I distinctly remember him taking on 3 players in a row and coming out with the ball at his feet. What we needed was someone at the back of the centre of midfield who was going to put a foot in and take control. I honestly don't think Tonge and Norris are those kind of players, they've made it clear to me they are more attack minded players and they were getting bullied in the centre. Tonge had an absolute shocker and I would have brought him off for Brown around 60 minutes. This is the kind of game that was crying out for Brown, yet it's the only time Warnock doesn't put him on. Diouf should have been on 10 minutes earlier.
But Marko, I have always criticised warnock's substitutions, there don't often reflect whats going on on the pitch
It's a minor miracle we created the chances we did, because far too much hoofball was being played. Whether that's Warnock's directive or the defenders not trusting the average midfield in front of them, it's obvious we need someone to really show for the ball from midfield and shepherd it forwards to the wingers/front two. Fair point on the subs.
January is a very difficult market to sign players. When our owners came in they realised that so we didnt spend anything we just took on a load of expensive loan signings. I think you would probably be better off looking in the loan market and getting a few bargains in and then spending some money in the summer. If you want a top player in Jan you will have to pay over the odds to get them
You didn't do too bad last January getting in Morgan, Drinkwater and Marshall. I accept it won't be easy though, so would be content if we managed to make some of our current players on loan permanent.
I was on about the season before Morgan wanted to come and Forest couldnt keep him as his contract was running down Same with Marshall And Drinkwater wanted to start his career and we was the only ones who could afford to pay what Man U wanted. They cost us 3M. In the summer we could have got Morgan on a free and Marshall's contract at Stoke would have expired but we would have had to pay compensation. Now people know you might have a few bob they will charge you stupid prices, you best of saying no thanks. Only spend money if the deals right and then sort out your squad in the summer
Then it is clear that that is where his weakness is. I believe our loss yesterday is entirely due to tactical naivety on Warnock's part. We had the players to change our system to counter Derby's game, yet we didn't use those players. He got it wrong.
The midfield aren't that average, they were just bossed out of the game by better players. We had better players up front and out wide, we had better players at the back, they had better players in the centre of midfield and they made it count. It's entirely the managers fault for not making subs to reflect the way the game is being played, because all I saw was a decent Leeds side creating opportunities but getting caught out in the centre of midfield. Those central midfielders aren't bad midfielders, they are just not the right type of midfielders to counter the style of play Derby went for. They packed the midfield with fast, skillful players who were better than our attack minded midfielders. An Austin or a Brown, a defensive minded midfielder would have balanced it out and allowed us to negate that play and slow the game down. Skipping the midfield was actually the right thing to do as we were winning most of the play out wide and up front, when given the opportunity, but getting stung in the centre, which significantly reduced our attacking opportunities. When Derby come to Elland Road, on a wider pitch and against Rodolph Austin they'll get ****ed in the ass unless Numskull Nigel plays a different strategy.
Warnock firmly believes he's only a couple of players away from what he wants to do. We'll scrape through to January with our "sufficient" squad that we have now, and with Rodolph Austin coming back and another nippy forward we should be dangerous. I'm not buying into this negativity that everyone on our board has slumped into, because we weren't that bad against Derby we just got caught out.
We'll be okay, but first half we really were dire. I agree with everything else you've said though, if we played a holding midfielder to take Hughes out of the game we might've done better. We all knew where the problem lay and we definitely had the player/s on the bench to make the difference (Brown and Diouf) but Warnock just got it wrong. It happens, we all make mistakes, just need to make sure we pick up as many points as possible between now and January and pray we're still in touching distance.
