I find it odd so many people want Elmo or Huddlestone dropped but want to see Akpom start when he's been worse than those two. Elmo isn't the problem on the right, it's the pair of them. They're totally unsuited to playing together because they play the exact same way. Both are better from deep, can put a ball in but can't beat a man. Elmo is the better of the two though. If we had a decent winger available I'd be saying push Elmo back to RB where he overlap (I don't care if Football Manager says he's more of a RM. Wingers can beat a man.) As it is our ultra-deep squad seems to have some glaring deficiencies at the attacking end of the pitch. McGregor Maguire Bruce Davies Elmo Diame Livermore Clucas Robertson Maloney Hernandez Or OLMs team.
Both Dave and Elmo are capable of beating a man, just for some reason they aren't doing. Maloney for Akpom is pretty much the same as putting Diame up front. We're getting annoyed at Brucey putting square pegs in round holes, so why are you suddenly hoping Brucey does it again? Akpom might be underachieving, but he's played his best football with Abel alongside him. Likewise, Abel has played more effectively with a strike partner. We definitely look better playing a 4-4-2, so just keep it simple. McGregor Dave Maguire Davies Robertson Elmo Livermore Diame Clucas Akpom Hernandez
I sometimes do think Bruce reads this board when he comes out with certain things that 'the fans think' in his words, it's probably a useful tool for managers to know what the fans are thinking giving how precarious football management is as a profession.
Steve Bruce will never have looked at a football message board, staff at the club do, but not the manager.
We had a good period where both our strikers were playing. We then went through a period of not being as effective but still winning with Abel up front supported by Diame. Now, it's Akpom up front with Diame (because of international bollocks) and it's gone back to being the tripe we saw at the start of the season. I got sour news for you Jack, Middlesbrough and Leeds aren't the same type of team. We had this approach of "it doesn't matter who plays where, our quality will shine through" against Bristol and it ended up being underwhelming. We then started with one up front at home to a better team in Derby and the performance was even worse. Derby are better than Middlesbrough. Leeds are worse in terms of quality across the pitch, but they've still got enough decent players to do us over if we don't perform to a good standard. While Akpom has hardly set the world alight these past few weeks, he arguably plays his best football with Hernandez on the pitch, bitchfit or not. Given that the only other out and out strikers we have are either injured or development squad players, it doesn't leave many other options.
He probably gets it off them then, but he does come out with this 'what the fans think' line now and then.
It will be either Diame or Maloney with Hernandez. Akoms shown a bad attitude on a few occasions now, its unforgivable in any player never mind a young kid with a point to prove. He wont play on Saturday.
He's just a kid, you'll find the majority have attitudes at some point. Brucey will knock it on the head, of that I have no doubt. The yawning thing was a bit of a ****'s trick, don't you think? Just an opinion, there's no need to be a penis about it.
Maloney for me. Leave Chuba on the bench. We'll see better runs inside and I think he can hook up better with Hernandez. Will scare the ****e out of TWS. Long as no one breathes on him obviously as apparently he's a bit lightweight and he'll fall over a lot.
So why not post this on the other thread? Well done. I do think he's a bit lightweight, notice I say ' a bit' and not a lot.
Akpom if he plays has to have a partner because he has pace but cannot hold the ball up, loses it to cheaply often makes the wrong decision and doesn't win enough headers in other words he still has a lot to learn, the best thing going for him apart from been young is his pace because has we all know you cannot give some one pace
A lot of people on here seem to think that having everyone in their 'correct' positions guarantees success. It obviously isn't that simple. If it was, I imagine Bruce would have thought of it as a plan before now. In the PL I couldn't stand the way we regularly played with wingers up front. I don't really like it now but it's the best option we've got at the moment. We're likely to have plenty of the ball so holding it up isn't going to be an issue like it was in the PL. Our issue will be breaking down their defence. Like it is every bloody week at this level. Akpom hasn't shown that he's likely to do that. Maloney and others have, although we still lack a lot in that respect. We need players who can burst through defences and get behind their players. Elmo, Dave and Clucas are all world beaters when it comes to receiving the ball out wide, not having the ability/confidence to beat the man and just passing it back but this is why we create **** all. It doesn't matter if everyone is in their transfermarket.com approved position if no one can actually beat a man. Derby's defence and midfield were facing away from goal all game with the ball in front of them and had no problem. This is how we manage to get 65% possession and only 2 shots on target. Look at Bournemouth's second goal at the weekend to see what we're missing and how easy scoring goals becomes once someone beats a man. Turn the defenders to face their own goal and they don't like it. We play in the defenders' comfort zone not because it's fun but because we don't have anyone who can get past them and make them turn. Huddlestone gets stick for passing sideways and backwards but I think what's much worse is the positions he takes to receive the ball. He drops behind players for a backwards pass every time. We need people who can find pockets of space without dropping into their own half where there's no danger whatsoever.
I think I'd go McGregor Moses maguire Davies Robertson Maloney Diame livermore Clucas Aluko hernandez Eldin Bruce Taylor huddlestone Hayden Akpom Elmo
If Aluko is to start I'd rather we for once gave him a chance to start on the right wing. Perhaps in a sort of 4231 like we used to play under Barmby. We always throw him on the wing for 5 minutes when we need a goal but when he starts it's always the back to goal centre forward which really doesn't work. He's a crap striker but he can beat a man out wide. Or he has been able to in the past at least.
Fair point made there. I understand why we play Diame; at this level, at times, he's unplayable and he needs to be in the team. When he plays further forward, he tends to drift out wide, which means when we do get the ball into an attacking position, our lone striker is the only one who can get the ball and he's often man marked by at least two defenders. With two out and out strikers, no matter how good they are, it puts more pressure on the opposition defenders to mark them and, even though he's an arse, Akpom has the pace to get into good positions. Likewise Aluko. In fact I'll go back on my earlier team and suggest Aluko as a viable option at Elland Road; their defence (Cooper in particular from what I remember) isn't blessed with pace and I think he'll cause problems. He linked up well against Man City, although their quality rendered him rather ineffective, but not for lack of effort. The backwards passing thing is obviously linked to confidence, I'm still at a loss as to why Elmo and Clucas have suddenly stopped going past a man, especially as both have defenders behind them. Their negative play is stopping our crosses into the box, a talent which made Elmo a force in the first place and was our primary source of goals. Maloney is good at unlocking defences, but with only one striker ahead of him, he hasn't got much to aim for. This is the conundrum; do you go with a midfielder as a #10 and hope that they can find the lone striker or play with two strikers and get one of the CM's to link the play up better (something I think Diame/Maloneywould be ideal for)? I'm drawn towards the latter, if only because I don't want a repeat of last Friday's performance.
I think your forgetting our major weakness massively. Your all talking about having players that can beat a man but in all honesty our first choice left back is pretty good and generally doesn't get beaten, Wootton who will most likely be playing RB can get beaten at walking speed, he is one of the worst players I have seen and is basically like we have 10 men while he's on the pitch. Our main weakness is we can't win a header to save our lives and our keeper flaps at crosses more than any other I have ever seen. Controlling midfield won't be a problem for you seeings we have no one who can. As for our creative talents, we only really have two. Botaka who never gets a game for some reason and Antenucci who most of the time is too selfish and loses the ball after initially beating a couple players. This should really be a stroll for you guys. We are currently the worst I have ever seen, including when we were in League 1. **** I'd love to be a manager visiting Leeds at the moment
