See I thought he might with the three behind him and still think it could work if they practiced it. Our problem will be later in the season and the predictability of 4-4-2 if we don't have a plan B
Morning all. A nuisance game successfully negotiated with no damage to our first eleven. Best we could have hoped for. At least its become obvious who our best eleven are. Not sure Id agree the squad is weak though particularly if Monk manages a couple more signings like hes hoping for before window closes. The good thing about the scrapping of the emergency loan systems is no other teams will be able to strengthen after next week, so we all have to run with what we have. Not a great prospect for the wally fans though
morning all ... jeez, yet again it's paralysis by negative analysis ... players being slagged off after a superb 1-0 win, don't get it Luton Town away, on a Tuesday night, in a Cup tie, just after a tough derby, not what we needed ... I have to laugh at comments like "we were only playing Luton" ... football is brilliantly simple, and Monk understands this ... it has been proven time and again that playing lower league opposition away is difficult, just as a 2-0 lead is dangerous to hold onto ... Luton were always going to make it difficult, more so considering they crushed Villa 3-1 and are riding high in Lge Two our performance last night was spot on for a difficult Cup tie, it was never going to be a pretty game, and the key thing is that the players battled away to earn the win ... to say we have no depth is fcuking ludicrous after that fighting away win, more so when adding in the fact that this eleven had never started a game together before ... Monk learnt a lot about his squad last night, but I have a feeling he already knew that, because it is clear that there is a strong team spirit developing in this squad we don't have rubbish players, we have players who will do a good job for us as long as they have a manager who trusts them, improves them and creates genuine competition for places ... Monk knew what he was doing last night, and his selection had three reasons 1) he rested the Wednesday starting eleven, ensuring a fresh bunch for an important game at Forest, one he is targeting for a win 2) he gave the so-called "fringe" players the chance to go out and prove their desire to wear the White shirt this season by getting a result, and this hard fought win will help to boost morale across the entire squad even further 3) Luton would have looked at that team sheet and mentally relaxed a bit, even though their manager would have been throwing the "disrespect" cliche around the dressing room to try and fire them up nope, this Monk fella is getting things together nicely at Leeds, and he's not behaving like an ogre to make his point ... by making eleven changes he showed a massive amount of trust in his squad, and the players repaid this faith by going out there and winning ... these players of ours want to play for Monk, of that there is no doubt, and it's been a long while since we've seen this kind of commitment from our squad ... Cup ties are all about the result, just like tournament football, and 1-0 is just as effective as 5-0, because all it gets you is into the next round (even when only playing Luton) I am very encouraged by the fact that we've had two extremely tricky away ties to teams hell bent on causing an upset, and through togetherness and courage we have prevailed, something Leeds lacked so much in recent years ... we are going to need every single player in our squad at some point this season, so it's right to get everyone's confidence up and showing belief in them ... players know only eleven can start, and they will be there for the team as long as the manager is honest with them and trusts them ... attitude is everything, starting with the manager PS. under the new loan rules, you can't send a player back until the next window opens, but the player can play for his parent club's U23s if he is not getting regular first team football ... don't worry too much though, Grimes is talented and he will come good ... quality is permanent, form is temporary Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Ristac maybe he was prepared for a battle last night so went with that formation, as I agree we dont want to be predictable. I think the Forest match will give us an idea about what he wants. I can see that we may get into trouble and he might have to change to plan B. I think he has at least 2 plans that work and wonder if dallas will be involved. We know hes spoken to him and said that hes behind on fitness, had a great Euro tourno and got married at honeymooned in Vegas. Hopefully dallas will have caught the fact that hes on thin ice, shape up or ship out. Grimes is still the fly in the ointment for me as he was brought in for covering a key position. England U21 regular, supposed to be a future England regular and potential captain. We need to see him do it and control play. Fook it get Adam Clayton back and oh Crouch scored 3 last night, he would clean up in this league. They are the caliber we need
hi Doc, good points ... Crouch and Clayton will be on unaffordable wages, but you never know Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Billy you can't come on here one day saying we need more debate all opinions and ratings welcome and that it gives us something to talk about then today you want us all to shut up unless it is 100% positive? Truth is we all praised a few players and didn't rate a few others. A few of us have concerns over certain aspects, it is a forum for debate I'm positive about the season, I would like it if we could offload Murphy and send back Grimes who is costing us £300k but maybe we can't, maybe the deal was we have to keep him. I don't believe Monk is a great manager, I think he will come up short but he has 100% my support. I don't like Cellino but I'm more than pleased how he has backed the team with decent signings. It would be a boring place if we couldn't share good and bad As for depth.... Put that starting 11 out every week in the league and watch us finish bottom. Yes it was a good win, it could have been 0-3 it could have been 2-1 I was over the moon Pontus did okay, Denton exceeded and Roofe was unlucky not to score. It was an excellent run out for some, others it shows they have no future in a team challenging for promotion
Crouch and Clayton are not prem players anymore, and not sure Clayton ever was. However Clayton is class in this league and Crouch needs a project as hes now only a bit part player for any prem club. He wont get another prem club so invest in his wages, and he has been a good servant to Stoke so maybe they will help. Crouch will be better than Lee Chapman for us and could be the guarantee of top 6 we need Charlie Adam and Ricky Lambert. Dont see them playing prem football either
Crouch could still offer loads in the champ, he should have dropped down last year. Would love to have him here.
Decent result. You'd like to think even our reserve midfield could control a game and shut it out a bit more comfortably than we did at luton, but in the real world, they're likely low on confidence and match sharpness against a side hell bent on an upset. Potential bananaskin avoided and some airtime for the squad. I'm sure the management are happy. Is Monk a good manager? Who the hell knows, he's far too inexperienced to tell... and its waaaaayyyyyy too early to pass judgement. Only time will tell. So far he's made a few puzzling decisions, but he sees them in training, we don't. It's all about small steps of progress. We have a little unbeaten run going, if we can keep that up at forest and we'll go into the break with a bit of confidence. It's a big game for setting up our season. He'll then have a couple of weeks to work on things, having a better idea of his best side.
Does anyone know where I can buy some downers ? With Glory not around I'm in danger of getting over excited
Let's move forward Bellusci cost us a few points over the season. Yes the result was good Billy, but my only worry is that we don't seem to be able to finish games off. I realise it was a cup game and Luton who are playing well in L2 were always going to make it difficult for us. In the last two wins we did get the rub of the green and both Sheff and Luton if they had taken their chances may have changed the result. I'm hoping though that by winning each game it'll give the players more and more confidence. Onwards and upwards.....
Morning all, I've been reading over a number of match reports & the message coming through loud & clear is that the midfield let us down. Like it has for years, tbh. Question marks persist over Grimes & Dallas, and the Hernandez enigma has already been well covered this morning. For me though, the reports made me realise that Monk telling Murphy he can go is the right thing to do. I really wasn't sure if it was the right decision, even though there was always the question of what Murphy would turn up for a match, but this was his time to shine, to save his Leeds career - but the wrong Murphy turned up. I am now 100% behind Monk's decision. I wasn't. I am now.
The result could have been so different though, that's my point Eire, if the Wendies had shown a bit more composure in front of goal, we may have been looking at another managerial casualty. We won and yes I'm delighted with that, but let's not get fooled. There's still a lot of mistakes being made.
