Not a brilliant game but the result was great. Personal thoughts, onohua and dunne were excellent in defence. Barton- every good thing involved him but did make a fair few bad basic passes. Henry- thought he was crap to be honest and was replaced by faurlin who has simply more class. I understand the necessity for a henry type player but possesion was there to be had today. Johnson and austin worked very hard off the ball and austin maybe just maybe should have scored. Swp ................was hoping for hoillet to replace him but he took over from oneill who constantly moves into central midfield leaving simpson with no options in front of him. All in all I thought oneill was poor today and made some poor decisions. We looked better when hoillet came on. As my leeds colleagues said, "they would love a player like junior". Hill was hill but I cant see beyond sentiments for him regardless of the goal. We need a left back! Leeds were on top for periods of the game but were the architects of their own downfall when they brought sunday league player smith on and tried different tactics. It backfired and we could/should have had 2 or 3 goals. My only concerns are left back position and oneill constantly drifting out of position. Really looking forward to junior and phillips playing the wings!
I agree with most of that Bob........especially Oneill. Not convinced about him. Disagree about Henry...........didn't think I'd like him but we need him and he's looking better than I'd imagined. I also think Clint is playing well and is plenty good enough in this division.
Dont get me wrong col, a henry esque player is needed in this division but there was a fantastic oportunity to play possesion football today as it wasnt as frantic as you might expect at elland rd. Henry will be needed but jenas or faurlin should have been on at half time. Clint will get skinned a few times this season and thats my only concern with him. Playing oneill on the right side didnt work. I havent seen enough of him to pass judgement but he plays as a third central midfielder rather than a right sided midfielder which sometimes makes Simpson look lost when theres nothing in front of him.
I'd play Faurlin or Jenas alongside Henry, with Hoilett and Phillips each side.........only because Harry seems stuck on 4-4-2. I agree that Oneill on the right makes us totally unbalanced as he wants to be central all the time.
He's the best player of THAT TYPE that we have imo. If you don't want to play with a holding midfielder in this division that's your choice, but I would.
Great result indeed. A dream start to be fair - 13 out of 15pts. Lots of room for improvement too, which is a positive. Be good to get the transfer saga(s) over and get down to the rest of the campaign through to Christmas. We can concentrate on grinding out more results and improving our overall play as a unit. Well done to the boys (and the loyal fans following the team to the Reebok and Elland Rd) - Respect!
. I'm not saying that we don't need a holding midfielder, just that it shouldn't necessarily be Henry
When Faurlin was at his best for us he played as a joint holding midfielder with a player just like Henry.......Derry. I'm not convinced Faurlin would be the enforcer on his own. Playmaker.......quite possibly.
Faurlin looked fine when he replaced Henry yesterday. Agreed he was at his best in a 4-2-3-1. Redknapp is too inflexible IMO.
Then Harold will scrap this team guaranteed and we will be buying 15m players one a bung Henry will be cover at best ... but at the moment he glues it all together imo
Still not keen on Henry, but we are building a team based on spirit, sweat and two wingers to get out of this nightmare league. If it works, no complaints. Then we will spend the £60m for passing go on version 5 of this team. As long as we recognise this is the plan, the loans that I'm sure we will get in make sense - for a one year objective, not stuck with them long term.
That's the point. I believe we should be putting together a team that is not only good enough to get promoted, but capable of holding it's own in the PL. Henry would not get near a PL team. We have better alternatives already.
