Good Morning Everyone, An injury time equalizer by Shaun MacDonald was enough to put a dampener on the Elland Road atmosphere last night in front of a crowd of just under 20,000. Leeds had the better of the chances, but we unable to add to Chris Wood's fantastic first half strike. I don't know why but I just knew we would not equalise at Derby, but was equally as confident that Wigan would draw level late on. Am I the only one? After the game Monk defended his substitutions:- "Not every substitution you make is tactical. Substitutions tonight, at least two, were made because of physical situations." According to Phil Hay Leeds will regret not going for the jugular. Good way of putting it...
There must be a bit more room aboard HMS Happyclappy this morning. When do the diehards accept that we are still not progressing? How many games do they need to see the obvious truth?
Small margins,sometimes you have a bit of luck,sometimes you don't,if we had got that bit of luck,we would have got a point at Derby and 3 last night and all would have been good.Luck will change this week with 2-1 win at wolves and 1-0 v Norwich.
The formation is too rigid and means Monk has no plan B except change players, which then puts square pegs into round holes. Sacko would have made sure we got the win as he was giving Warnock plenty of trouble and allowed Wood to run them ragged. Yes he may have then missed the next game, but we needed the points. Grimes is starting to come good but not as a winger. Why couldnt we have gone to 4-4-2 then and had Taylor a bit high line. Agree with Monk that we're still learning but what happens now the next time we get to the last few minutes with a slender lead, and we start to panic now and we know what happens then. We should have wrapped it up before half time, we need goals and yet again we didnt make a go of it until 20 minutes in
Its always small margins in this league, which is why making no progress is even more annoying. At best we will get 1 point from those two games..... Bookmark this
Monks post Wigan match interview in conjunction with Ellands original post...... feel free to add it to your post Elland.
Morning all. Good to read from our posters that are attending games that weve improved greatly with comments such as being like Barcelona compared to other seasons. A better squad, manager and continued improvement is what was asked for in the summer and weve gotten all three. Still well in touch with the playoffs with nearly three quarters of season to go. Keep her lit as we say over here
Morning Farsley. I'd lie to thank everyone for their gracious support. I could not have done it without them...
1 point from 6, 1 goal in two games, mid table and crowds under 20,000 how bad do you want it to be, and where is the improvement? If you get the kindling perhaps chesh can supply the matches, the fire is out.
Against Barnsley (h) we were hanging on. Last night that wasn't the case at all, Wigan had possession but no chances until it fell kindly and a swinging boot saw it go in off the post. Yes we should have kept possession better and the substitutions made us less of a threat so we didn't really look like adding a second after the changes. To my mind we are progressing and progressing well. Green, Ayling, Bartley, Jannson, O'Kane, Sacko are all an improvement on what we had before. We have a decent defence now, of course we still concede it's football and all teams concede goals. We now have Bridcutt on a permanent deal and along with O'Kane that is the central midfield sorted for at least this season and next. Wood has improved his movement and his work rate, some of his play this season has been outstanding. The overall team pattern of play has improved, which is down to the coaching. Monk and his staff are superior to what we had before. The players are working hard in training and bringing some of it to the pitch. Plenty of room for improvement but the signs are there. Yes we need a couple of quality additions for all of this to reach fruition and if we get one in January and then add another one or two next summer and we could really go for automatic promotion from the off. Don't write this season off yet though as anything is possible in this League.
Morning all... Physical to me means unfit, not hard to sort out on the training ground and on the back of an International break. Schoolboy errors, unfit players, players out of position, it's surely not a hard fix? Our biggest problem is if Wood doesn't score, we don't win. The three behind the striker need to start chipping in. As Jammy touched on, at least we have half the team sorted, probably 65%
Morning elland He's excellent. Really quick feet and can pop the ball off at just the right time, links the play well and quick enough to close down when needed. He made a great run into the box last night when Sacko broke clear and would have a had a side foot tap in if the pass had been played. Needs to add a bit more of that to his game to become the complete box to box midfielder.
