Got to the point where it's utterly pointless for me to look at the record of the opposition. Their a good side, who have had a couple of wobbles ( lost v Blackburn last time out ) but this season Leeds seem made of stronger stuff. Player for player we are worse than them. Zero clean sheets vs 11, strikers that cannot score and a 7-2-1 formation with Skuse/ Chalobah so deep. Got a feeling Bart may come back in for this. We won't win this game. We don't have it in us. Even if we take the lead, we won't keep a clean sheet. We need 2 to win a game of football, and how likely is that? One possible ray of light is a D at Brum / W at Swansea - however, we scored 5 out of 6 shots on target and that's a hard record to carry on. 2-0 Leeds looks a good scoreline to predict. Zero idea where our goal is coming from and feel Leeds have 2 in them. As ever, please serve me some humble pie Mr Hurst and climb our mini league. Defeat here really makes Millwall more difficult............. Thoughts?
As far as I'm concerned, this Leeds match is a write-off, I wouldn't be too concerned if we lost, because Leeds are a demonstrably better club than us this season and are playing better football. Having said that, Leeds did lose against Blackburn on the weekend and this division does throw up surprise results, so its not a foregone conclusion that we will lose this. The big games are the six pointers against Millwall, Preston, and Reading, where we will more accurately gauge if we're capable of staying up. I hope we can see a much improved performance on Wednesday night. We always seem to struggle in front of the live TV cameras, and although this isn't a Sky 'main event', we still haven't won a televised match for a few years now (and we were on a fair amount during the McCarthy years). What are people's ideal starting eleven? Leeds typically field a 4-1-4-1, so I'd match them and set us up for pacey counter attack and pressing their possession game. No long balls to Sears in this system either: Bart Donacien / Chambers / Pennington / Knudsen Skuse Edwards / Dozzell / Chalobah (could work further forward) / Edun Sears
Think we'll huff and puff and look ok, but lose 2-0 I personally think we should line up 433 Bart Donacien | Chambo | Pennington | Jonas Chalobah | Skuse | Dozzell Edwards | Jackson | Sears
I see a huge beating on the cards here....even 5, 6 nil. Defensively we're all over the place (we looked quite tight earlier in the season), and Leeds will be looking to get back to winning ways. They have players on the wing who will destroy our full backs. Our only hope is they have a man sent off early and Bart starts and has his velcro gloves on.
That's essentially where I'm at with us Scowey and you've certainly put a better more positive spin on it than me. I view each game as 10 minute spells - we will beat Leeds in some 10 minute intervals. We will have a spell of playing alright. The issue we have is we don't keep clean sheets, and we give away laughable goals for fun. Added to that, Leeds are good out wide. Pennington vs a good winger could be comedy gold and Donacien at LB, I'd rather at RB. Donacien and Edwards on the right would give us a flank with a chance of success!!!! I just do not see how over the course of 90 minutes, barring a smash and grab late how we can win this game!? I have zero faith - that we can go to Leeds of all places and keep a clean sheet considering all season we have one at home to a poor 10 man Bolton. Why are we going to do that all of a sudden!?
Haha! I remember one Sunday - our first season, we were playing a far better side. Witham Friary the name. I didn't play either game vs them as it was pointless and I knew we'd lose. I told the manager to cancel the game, do a whip around and pay the fine. ( Essentially they'd ALWAYS start bottom league in one local league, win it, the division above etc.... then fold........ ) so when they entered our league we knew what was on the way. I think we lost 13-0 and 14-0. I didn't play either so not entirely sure will be on football mitoo or the fa somewhere. Sidenote - the team that challenged Witham for the league title that year was Ac Mee Lamb. Upfront for Ac was a young Ashley Barnes! Back to us vs Leeds, the only hopes I have = * It is the championship, and mad things go happen. Ie the year QPR walked it, Scunthorpe beat them 3-0....... * Leeds could get a red. * We could get a penalty. * Leeds could have a shocker and we could have the game of our season. I'm sadly for this fixture in that kind of camp. Look I'd love us to win 2-0 there, any scoreline and beat Millwall Saturday. I'd like things to click - however I see little reason for them to vs Leeds. COYB though. Do not like that lot at all.
If it’s any reassurance it doesn’t seem quite so easy from a Leeds perspective. We don’t have as much penetration down the wing as you seem to think and we’ve not been dominating recently like we did earlier in the season. As someone wrote above, pressing on us to hinder our passing game is a good way to make life difficult. However the bad news for you may be we’ve had several key players out and they are starting to come back. If Pablo Hernandez plays it gives us extra options, when Sais is our main playmaker you can try to snuff him out, it’s much harder to do that when Pablo is on the pitch as he can do the same job. Anyway good luck, I doubt it will be a walkover though obviously I’m hoping we win. Most Leeds fans would take 3 points in any form, never mind the score.
I like the look of this line up: Bart, Donacien, Chambers, Pennington, Knudsen, Skuse, Nolan, Downes, Edun, Sears, Jackson.
No Donacien and Edwards is a concern but good to see Bart, Knudsen, Downes, Edun, and two strikers on the pitch. Whether he goes two up top remains to be seen.
This is the selection we needed. OK I’d rather not Spence but win or lose tonight Hurst has answered my major criticism now.
Happy with Leeds team, given a few players out. Especially with Roofe back up front and both Sais and Hernandez starting. This is close to the formation that was beating everyone at start of season. However we’ve gone off boil a bit recently so not certain we’ll get that back. We’ll see!
