Kiwi, with respects, It's not a ridiculous statement to make when you consider the number of defenders we have, the number of midfielders and the number of strikers we have, we seem to have more midfielders than other positions. Redders has had numerous opportunities to pick balanced teams from the players we have, but his own bias imo blinds him to everything, including the midfield problems we've had all season. Against Rotherham, Murphy was lost and Mowatt wasn't in it, Redders should've subbed'em at half time and given White and Monty more playing time; on top of that he took Berardi off (a defender) who was arguably the best player on pitch and brought an attacker on, then reverted to 4-4-2 with the wandering nomad and his donkey up front, isn't the first time Redders has done that; I remember one game Redders brought Antenucci off for Sharp and reverted to 4-4-2. The 4-4-2 formation is the formation we played before Redders changed the formation and played a striker who went 26 appearances for 2 goals, and about 12 starting games before he scored for leeds, for me that's unbalanced and favouritism. The 4-4-2 formation was used when we beat Middlesbrough, Bolton, Bournemouth, Blackpool and Derby, Middlesbrough and Bournemouth are in top 6, Derby were there for most of season, we also drew against Birmingham, Reading, Sheff Wednesday, Norwich, Charlton and Forest, Norwich are in top 6 and Forest were always there abouts. We gained 21 points with the 4-4-2 system, that leaves 35 points with the new formation, a difference of 14 points. I personally put it down to Bamba being another link in the defensive chain that strengthened our defence, Silvestris performances and lady luck, the new formation took away our scoring ability and opportunities. Something to mull over. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Leeds_United_F.C._managers In regards to Silvestri and Co rumoured to have been on piss the night before game, that's what it seems to be, a rumour. Does anyone know what brand of beer they were drinking, or type of orange juice, thing is, no one knows. How many of us have been on piss the day / night before work? I noticed that Cook got an award, Mowatt got 2, and Austin got goal of the year; is it a coincidence that they're Redders favourites? it creates a good argument considering what's been going on. I personally would've given player of year award to Silvestri. In regards to Austins so called goal of year award, I would've give it to Bellusci for that brilliant free kick against Bournemouth.
Excellent post, and agree feverishly with all points - except the White comment. A lump of shyte would be a better option than him.
The number of defenders or midfielders is completely irrelevant - if you have 8 defenders, but they're all full backs, who on earth are you going to pick at CB? We may have 20 midfield players, but none of them can play wide. How often do we have to say that before it sinks in? Look at the squad. Tell me where the natural wide players are. We have 14/15 central midfield players - even if we play a diamond that's a maximum of four playing at a time. What happens to the other 10 or 11? The squad is woefully unbalanced. You can sugarcoat it all you like by saying we have lots of midfielders, but if each and every one of them plays in the same position how on earth can the coach be expected to change formations and tactics? Let's be honest, there wasn't a best player on the pitch at Rotherham. They were all mentally on holiday - both sets of players. Dire all round, but I can't say I expected anything more seeing as it's a meaningless, dead rubber, end-of-season fixture. I too would've played White and Monty, probably from the start, if only because they'd have something to prove. 4-4-2 is not the formation we played before we changed the formation - that was the diamond. Why were we playing the diamond again? Oh yes, because WE HAVE NO WIDTH. Persisting with Morison was at times infuriating, but he's the only striker available capable of playing up front on his own, and even though he wasn't scoring, we were picking up points. I think sticking with a winning side is a fair thing to do, all things considered. The new formation was completely necessary - the full backs were constantly exposed, the midfield was being bypassed (even more so than now, although that may have been because Adryan did **** all defensively - not that he did much offensively either) and we were desperately close to relegation. Something needed to change. I'm not a huge Morison fan, I wouldn't've relied on the youngsters so much and I certainly don't think Taylor should be playing wide, but they kept us up! We persisted with the diamond until January - 24 league games - and garnered 24 points. At that rate we would've procured 46 (obviously this isn't entirely accurate) points. Any other season, we would've gone down with that total. Thank god Millwall, Wigan and Blackpool were so awful. Let's analyse the games we won with the diamond: Middlesbrough was an appalling game we won through a goalkeeping error, Bolton were as poor a side as I've seen all season, Bournemouth murdered us for the best part of an hour and we were ridiculously fortunate, Blackpool we only turned up for 45 minutes against a side who would struggle in L2, and Derby still outplayed us and comprehensively won the midfield battle. We were lucky all season, we never played well in any particular game. Second half vs Reading is the only game I recall us looking like a half decent side. Interesting fact: We scored 25 goals using the diamond (league games up until 30th December; 24 games). We scored a further 25 goals after. We were (just, I grant you) scoring more goals per game after the formation switch, although the difference is so negligible I would argue it has nothing to do with the formations and everything to do with the poor quality of players at the club. I do agree on one thing though, and that is that lady luck has been on our side all season; although it doesn't seem like it.
Kiwi, Redders had enough players to pick a balanced team. I did say having an unbalanced squad is arguable. 4-4-2 and the diamond are the same thing, we have 2 strikers up front. Players weren't always playing in same positions, Redders was always moving his favourites around. I was being honest when I said Berardi was arguably the best player on field, even Whelan thought that too. Adryan doing nothing defensively?, that's been a problem with the other midfielders. Adryan was playing as playmaker behind the strikers and still got back to help. Most teams won the midfield battle for most of season, they had time for a cup of tea and to comb their hair before moving forward. Rumour has it Lady Luck is being offered a loan contract.......
We'll have to agree to disagree on this one, unfortunately. I can see where you're coming from - a balanced team can be picked providing the formation suits the players available. For me though, it's imperative that with the set up we have, Cellino signs goalkeepers, full backs, centre backs, central midfielders (both attacking and defensive minded ones), wingers, playmakers, strikers - the whole works. It's not fair on Redfearn (or Hockaday, Milanic, or whatever poor guy gets handed the job next) to have a formation forced upon them. Do you think Ferguson or Mourinho would stand for that? Disagree with 4-4-2 and diamond are the same thing. 3-5-2 has two strikers up front, is that the same as well? Fair enough on Berardi. He's done okay this season after a poor start. Personally I didn't think anyone stood out yesterday Agree completely with the midfield comments, but that was an issue regardless of who played - you can't blame the academy products, and I can't blame Bianchi, Adryan etc - they've all been poor in the sense that they let other teams control the middle of the park every time. I can't remember the last time we looked really good in midfield to be honest - even in that first championship season with Johnson, Kilkenny, Howson, Snoddy and Gradel, we still lost midfield battles too often.
