Right, got home had a shower and poured myself a whiskey. Time for a team ratings. Silvestri - 5 He made a fantastic save to keep us in the game but his distribution and communication was awful. I think Bamba hinders him though to be honest. Wootton - 6 I don't know if anyone noticed, but he was trying really hard to push the defensive line up and I thought he did okay. Nothing spectacular mind. Bamba - 5 Okay, he's a massive ****ing pile of **** - granted. However, he doesn't seem scared of playing in Leeds and seems to only end up with the ball so much because he's the only one not to be scared to have it. Cooper - 6 Played okay but always think there is an error in him. Taylor - 4 Think he was really poor today. Could have given away 2 pens (one looked stone wall the other looked a dive) - great player but tired. Lack of depth though as no real cover for him Murphy - 2 I honestly didn't know he was playing until he was taken off Bridcutt - 5 Made some good tackles and broke up play well. Miss placed a lot of passes though. Cook - 5 Ran around a lot seems to lack composure in the final third Dallas - 7 Great first half but did fade away a little bit. Does help defensively and tries a lot Byram - 5 He has a lovely touch and nice composure usually but his passes and link up play wasn't great today. Doukara - He's ****. He did play well for 40 minutes the other week but don't let that fool you. Subs: Antenucci - Tried to get things going and see Bamba. Not scared of Leeds Coyle - Didn't see much of him really. Do really like the lad when I've seen him play for youth team though. Erwin - Looked **** but the strikers had to drop deep to get something going.
Funny, it seems to be that each of the current top 3 (Boro, Derby and Hull) are playing 4-5-1/4-2-3-1 variants, with the common feature being a lone striker. The system works, we just don't have the players good enough to make it work. Wood is far from perfect but the supply line is shocking - how can he be expected to score when the quality of the crossing is atrocious, and quite often there's not another Leeds player within ten/twenty yards of him? He's not nearly prolific enough, but in his defence, we possess no creativity whatsoever. The midfield and the striker (Doukara in this case) are so far apart, we need a creative midfield player who can link the play and drop into the space between the two to give us an option. Someone of the same ilk as Hoolahan (obvious not his current incarnation), I remember him tearing us apart game after game 4/5 years ago. You're right though, Evans should've rotated some more, but by the looks of it he doesn't have many options. Byram looked like the Byram of a month ago, Dallas was knackered. Doukara was useless, and I didn't see anything from Erwin or Antenucci to suggest they'd be much better, but I concede that Erwin deserves more chances. Bamba and Bellusci are both starting to look like liabilities, and Cooper isn't exactly infallible so a new CB may be required. Berardi can't come back soon enough - Wootton isn't a terrible defender, but he offers nothing in possession or going forward. Bridcutt was his usual excellent self.
I agree about more rotation being required. I would have played Evans instead of Bamba. And Captain Mainwaring would have led the team better than Bamba. DON'T PANIC !!!!!
Anyone hear Evans on Radio Leeds. He summed up our performance as '****e'. Well he said a five letter word beginning with 's', and then went on to make it clear that '****e' was indeed the word he was alluding to. I didn't think we were that good, personally.
It was one of the worst performances I've ever seen and it's amazing we got a point. MK Dons weren't even very good.
Not going to make any points about how poor we are, some are not for listening. Instead a few questions. Is playing a lone striker at home against the likes of MKD acceptable? Does Doukara have any idea that a lone striker needs to remain central? Why is cook **** scared of having a shot? Who told Bamba he can play? How many shots did we have on a target? Own goal and the only other on target effort was another near own goal. Why get a great attacking free kick and not try and create any thing? When did antenucci stop giving a ****?
1. Yes that's fine. It didn't work and was changed (which also didn't ****ing work) 2. Have you seen his shots? 3. See my ratings. He is ****ing awful on the ball. But some players look scared when they have it, he doesn't so he always (unfortunately) ends up with it. 4. I can't remember one. The freekick was unlucky mind you. 5. We made mistakes today I would expect u13's not to make, that being one. 6. I thought he did give a ****.
1. Didn't work because he was anywhere but in the middle. 2. No, he doesn't have enough to make a judgement 3. He was dogshit the entire game and nearly cost us two goals with his misplaced confidence in his ability. 4. Must have been a different free kick. I meant the central one 20yards out that went to the right wing and ended up as a throw in to them on the halfway line. 5. Agreed 6. Didn't you see him pretending to be injured instead of getting up and trying to help us equalise. Very poor attitude today and not like him,
I missed out the Doukara central question. You're spot on he was poor up top by himself but I don't think playing a lone striker is bad. Cook is a top player but he seems to lack confidence, hopefully for him he will gain that (no doubt at another clubs benefit mind you). I was talking about the Charlie Taylor free kick that hit the post. But I know which one you mean now. It was ridiculous (see the u13's comment I made). And again, I forgot about that it was ****ing ridiculous. Don't know what he was thinking really - wasn't that in the 90th minute as well? (Antenucci) I'm drunk.
Today was a kick in the teeth for those who believe we are top 6 material, we are far too inconsistent for that... Three draws on the bounce, it puts mounting pressure on for the next game as the unbeaten run can turn to 4 without a win in an instant. If Byram is going and Bridcutt isn't staying I hope it is concluded early next week now and fingers crossed for some replacements, too much unrest and rumours if nobody leaves we still need a couple of signings. Time to get the ones who don't want to be here out the door and bring in some players who can shake things up.
How many people do think we are top 6 though? It's almost refreshing going into a game knowing we can **** out a draw or sneak out a win. I actually understand why Evans has got us playing a possesion game. We're not good enough to play fluidly and get goals. So hang on to the ball and play awful football because it limits the opposition and we might sneak a win or at least be hard to beat. It's good tactics albet depressing.
Do you know where I can get mine? I seem to say this a lot, but that really was the worst performance I have seen for a loong time (and I was at the Preston game too!). I dont know if I can really call it a 'performance'
If we're going to play with a lone striker, we need more goals from midfield. Whether you think Wood has been poor or not, it's not fair to saddle the goalscoring responsibility purely with him. Dallas, Mowatt, Byram, Cook - they all need to chip in with some more goals. Now we've got some quality in CM in Bridcutt, I'm surprised we haven't tried 4-4-2 again. A new striker is desperately required regardless of what formation we play though. Whitejock - Am I right in saying Erwin played wide in a 4-3-3/4-5-1 in pre season? I seem to have a vague recollection of you mentioning it in a write up. Might be worth trying him there rather than through the middle where there's going to be a lot of pressure on him to score.
Just a few observations about some of the individual performances today from me... Bamba - First things first, what on earth is Bamba doing on the pitch... I watched him fail to find a leeds player (who was not 10 yards away) with his pass on THREE occasions in the first 10 minutes.... and then he attempts a longer forth pass a couple of minutes later.... needless to say they were given the opportunity to attack again... Not to single just bamba out as he was not the only one to fluff a pass, every one was at it, but he was just the worst. Bamba is not a professional footballer in my eyes. (Lack of) Wood - We have zero attacking abilities with Wood apparently. We constantly pass it out wide for our man to then not be able to run down the line so the ball comes back in the middle/back to the defence who then hoof it up front to no avail and MK break.... Is Wood missed THAT much? Looks like it! Taylor - I actually think that Taylor had a solid game (not his best thought admittedly)... he works his arse off and did manage a couple of runs down the left that left us in good stead... remembering one in particular winning us a corner and the other a good lay off to Dallas (who then over hit his cross)... Clumsy challenge in the first half however should have given them a penalty and we were lucky. Silvestri had a good game... I read above someone said he played badly because of his distribution. Hardly fair when we kept passing it back to him in the most awkward of positions with MK charging him down (cos we didn't know what else to do with it).. He did brilliantly and cannot be blamed for any of those clearances.. His shot stopping is sublime. Another near enough world class save at 1 nil down that was ultimately what allowed us to take a point today... Silvestri, my MOTM. Cook - what is he thinking? He constantly finds himself in break away counter attacking positions (i remember he had one at the MK away fixture as well). He does fantastically to skip passed challenge after challenge but then is hopeless when through on goal and always looks for a pass rather than have a crack. In his defence though his shooting from previous games is woeful so I guess he has no confidence in his ability. His shooting comparable to Bamba's passing. Murphy - didnt seem to know what he was doing today, had a great opportunity to run or try a killer ball early into the box, instead took the safe (and wrong option) out to the wing to allow the defence time to organise themselves. He was the obvious choice to come off. Erwin - Came on and I thought did okay actually. Obviously not spectacular, but he was constantly looking to run off the defenders into space but the midfield just werent watching his runs... He tried hard and I think he could have an impact.. He also challenged the keeper (and rightly too as the keeper was unable to claim it the cross) when others would have not bothered. I would like to see him start alongside one of the other strikers against Rotherham. Cooper - Not too much to say about him today... But it sums up his performance best when he attempts to control the ball with his chest late on only to see the ball squirm through his legs ....eh???.... That was something special... Byram - Who? I think he had a blocked shot late on.... To say we were lucky to get a point is the understatement of the season. Truly awful today. I paid £40 for a circus performance
Yes Erwin played on the left of a front three against York... For the brief glimpse I got he look pretty good there and helped fashion a few chances for Morison. Byram looked good on the right of that front three that day and I haven't seen the same from him since... I think Erwin has the height and pace to play in the middle as an alternative target man type figure for Antenucci to play with.... or at least give him a fair crack there. As I say in my other post, he look hungry and was wanting to make little runs in behind the defence today but the midfield weren't giving him the ball
Did anyone else see that blatant back-pass from the MK Dons defender that the keeper caught? I think he got away with it as he ballsed it up so much that it looped back to the keeper high in the air and therefore looked unintentional. I'd be interested in knowing the specific rules around this if any one could enlighten me?
