Morning Troops, First day back to work for most of us eh? Hope everyone had a good break, now, back to business. Yesterdays performance, more so then the actual result saddened me yesterday. We're Leeds Utd damn it, and I expect more heart, more bite, more enthusiasm, and a lot more talent. Not even the roaring crowd, in excess of 30,000 was enough to get the boys in white mounting a serious attempt to claim all three points. We were lucky to finish the game with eleven men. Murphy should have received his marching orders on 40 mins when he bought he tackled his man from behind on the edge of the penalty area. Fortunately, the ref gave him the benefit of the doubt. Please correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think it matters if you get the ball, if you bring the man down whilst he is in control of the ball, its a foul! McDermott says the team looks tired. There are only four players that should be tired. Kenny, McCormack, Austin and Pearce. They are the only ones that have played the majority of the games, ow, and maybe Murphy. Austin is not the same player he was at the beginning of the season. He needs to be rested. Why not rest him for a few games, Tonge is adequate, Green and Norris are also available. I dare say Pearce needs a break too, and why not, we've got Wootton! McDermott needs to use his subs. How many times have we seen the same evelwen finish that started, surely we are talking basics here. Anyway, its the new year, the takeover should happen in the next week, and we can expect (fingers crossed) a busy transfer window. Over to you.....
Good morning and happy new year! Depends. A tackle can be foul if it is committed: 1. Carelessly, 2. Recklessly (Yellow Card), or 3. With excessive force (Red Card).
Morning Elland and all. Back to the grind today. Nice there's a weekend around the corner. Each week I read with interest, the ideas the knowledgeable people here have for tinkering with the team. It has sometimes worked. The lads that said we are nothing better than a mid table outfit are sadly right. The eleven on the pitch are for the most part average, the subs bench is a poor looking sight. There won't be a promotion challenge without a huge investment in the playing squad. Sadly as usual, many of us are looking towards next season. McDermott also saying he is getting everything out of these players and we can't beat Barnsley at home or get anything from Blackburn. That's worrying
morning all players should be rested but I don't really want Norris near the starting 11. Hopefully this festive break has shown McD what we need. We do need to bring in new players this month or the season's going to be as bad as last year
Morning all Hope you all had a good Christmas/New Year. Its my first day back in today so not in a great mood, but at least its Thursday already! One positive from yesterday is Smith scored again, and they all count. Rudy seems to be going back to the inconsistant on off player that we saw last season, and when he and ross dont turn up we seem to have nothing. Anyone else half expecting McDermott to miss out on the signings he wants due to this take over taking so long? Groundhog day all over again!!
Good morning and happy thingy to all Even if I try and put a positive spin on recent results, I want to throw up as its the same every Xmas and new year. To only take 2-points from 12 is criminal because we only played one side who on paper have spent more and are better, and that's Forest. Worst case scenario is that we should have had 9 or 10 points from those games. The reality is that we took 2-points and will now go into freefall unless the rot is stopped. The next game could see us slide back another 5 places, so somthing needs doing now. I mentioned Wigan last week and they are still coming and have parachute money and good players, and now a decent manager. Blackburn are coming good but need Rhodes and he may be sold soon. Brighton, Ipswich, Reading and Middelsboro are all performing and coming. Bolton will have to sack Doigie because they are now £150m in debt and it looks like they are nowhere near promotion back to prem. I still think Harry will spend big and guarantee promotion for QPR, and Leicester after spending big seem to have sorted themselves out at last. Derby and Burnley are the 2 massive surprise packages, who have not spent big but have fantastic managers who are doing the business. Is BMcD as good as them because I'm begining to wonder. I'm sorry but the question needs asking! BMcD talks a good game in the media and to us fans. he has total support from us and has done a decent job. BUT why can't he stop some of the dire stuff. Why can't he see what we see and change the tactics or use subs when needed. Why is Byram and Wootton struggling to get games .........
Morning Boggers. Have we that many injured? anyway that is to be expected. We've had virtually no suspensions and few key players injured till now. Lack of squad depth to rotate players is the problem. Too many very average lads still on payroll
Morning, Whilst I understand to an extent why people may question Mcdermott's tactics, I do feel he is doing the job well considering the hand he has been dealt. That can clearly be seen by us punching above our weight in the league (until recently). I dislike the 3-5-2 formation as I don't think it allows us to attack effectively. It does however make us harder to break down. Brian has adopted this approach to try and stop us conceding and its having relative success to this end. I feel Brian also understands that we are not effective going forward in this formation, and is relying mainly on the graft on the players, with the view that if we keep trying a goal will come from somewhere (and again to an extent this has been working). The problem for him (and us) is that we do not have the right calibre of players at the club right now to effectively change this formation. It would worry me if Brian had come out and said that we didn't need players, but he hasn't. He has put his cards on the table and said to the board, look with need more players! From his time at Reading he utilised wingers and I know he wants some wingers at the club. People ask why he isn't changing things mid games, something that I wondered too. The first answer is probably because he looks at the bench and really doesnt see anybody there that could effectively change the game for the better. Don't forget he works with these players everyday on the training ground. People might also knock how he tried to change the game yesterday. He brought on Ariyibi and Poleon and I saw we shifted to a 4-4-2 and I think this was a good shout. I think this work briefly, albeit I dont think Poleon is quite up to the task. But given reinforcements I think Brian will adopt this formation going forward. The problem yesterday was probably that by the time he did adopt this approach Blackburn were sitting back and defending resolutely and the two teens 'wingers' faced a hell of a task breaking through at that stage. But it was at least an attempt to change things for the better. It annoys me playing the 352 when Pugh always seems to cross from midway into the oppositions half rather than taking on the full back and getting to the byline. This makes defending these crosses so much easier for the opposition. In this formation, we rely too much on having to pass the ball through the middle and like it has been said if Austin and McCormack aren't on form we will get nowhere like this. Hopefully, so better wingers and another forward to replace Smith in Jan and we will be back in the playoffs.
Transfer merrygoround is off and running. Derby have picked up Zach Whitbread (Good signing we should have had 2 seasons ago) Maclaren is also after Chelsea striker Pat Bamford. Burnley are chasing Brighton striker Ashley Barnes Forest chasing Matty Fryatt Wigan have a deal with Man City for one of their young strikers. St Ettiene are fooking around trying to up the price for Max Gradel, by saying the door is open for leeds to make us an offer we can accept as we don't want Max to leave. Max isn't getting regular football by the way so he's not as good as he was in my opinion. Harry Redknapp is chasing Carlton Cole if West Ham don't sign him. He says clubs need 4 strikers to get out of this division ....... fook me we have 1 maybe 2
Would have loved us to get Kevin Phillips...... 5 or so years ago. Now he's a squad player at best. No no thanks. Would prefer Beckford to come home.
Max was injured till recently,but has played every minute in last 3 games since comeback according to the ST Ettiene web site.
