are you on the sauce Billy? He'll certainly win the most headers, but on the ground he looks a bit cumbersome..I think he'll be on the bench and be brought on to shake things up...
Think he will Ristac, even if many of them might be off the bench. He offers something different. So we'll see. I think the starting three will be McCormack somewhere & Varney/Poleon up top. This will then leave Hunt & Smith to come on at some point. Somewhat better as a collective 5 than we had last season
This thread has gone quiet all too quickly Allow me to add some match facts (that I shamelessly stole from NewsNow): - Brighton have won their last two competitive trips to Elland Road, 2-1; with the winning goal coming in the 88th minute or later in both games. - There were three red cards given in the last league meeting between these two teams in April 2013; more than in any other Championship game in 2012-13. - Leeds have lost just two of their opening games to a league season since 1990-91 (W14 D7 L2). - Brighton have won more Championship points in 2013 than any other side (41). - No side lost fewer games than Brighton in the Championship last season (9); but the Seagulls drew more games than any other team (18). - Leeds conceded a league-high 19 headed goals in the Championship in 2012-13. - Tomasz Kuszczak managed to save a higher proportion of shots faced in the Championship last season (75.6%) than any other regular goalkeeper. - Leeds summer signing Noel Hunt scored eight goals in 41 appearances the last time Reading were in the Championship (2011/12). - Brighton created 170 chances in the Championship last season; the second highest in the division behind Hull 181. - Leeds conceded 71% of their goals in the second half of matches last season; a league-high proportion.
Cheers Josh some interesting stats there It would seem we need to break Brightons run of wins at Elland Road then! I'm not really surprised by the number of chances they created, with Buckley, Orlandi and Lopez all supporting which ever striker they start up front they have a whole lot of creativity in their midfield.
Yea they do tend to create a lot of chances, and play some nice footy too. Will be interesting to see how their new manager does this, whether he continues with this style (which you would tend to expect given his spanish football background) or whether he changes it up a bit more than Gus did. Bridcutt for me is their best player though. I thought he was out of contract this summer and was one I was saying we should go for (although may have had to pay some comp I think), did he sign a new deal there then?
I think he's got 2 years left, just think he generated a lot of interest because he could be playing in the prem quite easily. I really rate him as a midfielder as well. As for Garcia, yeah he came through the system at Barca and spent most of his career then, and then went on to be the youth coach, so I think they'll definitely keep an expansive passing game, it's in his blood
Here's a nice matchday stat: If Matt Smith plays a part today, at 1.98m tall, he'll be the tallest player to ever feature for Leeds in a competitive game! The ustream-leeds link in the original post is streaming the BBC radio coverage at the minute, it's pretty quiet though
Starting XI: Kenny, Peltier, Lees, Pearce, Warnock, Green, Murphy, Tonge, McCormack, Varney, Hunt. I'm surprised with Tonge being involved to be honest, and looks like he's gone back to the diamond. Pelts is captain today.
Radio Leeds Pundit talking about how great it is that Leeds have splashed the cash on Luke Varney in the close season...
Think this is still the general coverage at the minute Shaks, apparently they are switching to two different programmes when it kicks off, so hopefully it gets better then! At the minute I'd rather have Eddie... (ducks for cover)
