It seems that the Warnock targets we got are questionable and the ones that either got away or were decided as not good enough are on fire.
No matter what way the results go tonight we are set to lose one more place in the table, could drop 3 more places
Norris and Green have looked good! Credit to Diouf as well, he seems to have regained fitness and really looks one of our best players. (Yeah I know, sadly its true though) Varney's not handling playing for us at all. Thank god for Byram coming through. Wheres Thompson at? I would have him on the bench over Pugh
I said last season i'd have kept Bruce I rate him and always gives 100% Tom lees was awful yesterday but has been solid this year. Aidy White WTF? awful truly awful
Drury was injured mate, Norris is better than Clayton and we got austin and green aswell for the same money, good business hes just been unlucky! Clayton was shocking for the last 6 months of his leeds career.
A few players might have looked good Bucks here and there but results speak for themselves. Yesterday the whole back line has to be questioned, some feel it is poor defending, others say we cannot retain possession, one way or another Warnock assembled this squad, not his finished article but a squad he thought would be hard to beat and we are far from it. I remember Warnock saying we have our replacement for Snoddy - Varney
We had Thompson on the bench alongside Pugh, incidently we couldnt fill the bench yesterday! Poleon n Byram got hull worried by running at them, Diouf was composed but Becchio n Varney where absolutely pointless if Drury is back fit saturday id go Kenny Pelts Lees Pearce Drury Byram Thompson Austin Poleon Diouf Gray
Pearce is by far the most solid defender we have had since we dropped out of the premiership nothing he could do about any of the goals last night and not sure many of them this season where is fault, he must think wtf has he come to
I will bring up the psychology argument again. When the focus is off the pitch, the players will not perform. The focus at Leeds United has been anything except the football for the best part of 3 years. Pretty much since we got promoted from League One, all focus has been taken away from the football, be it in favour of building projects, protests, takeovers, pens, whatever. Regardless of what anybody says, this mentality gets soaked into the subconscious of the players, and they lose focus on the game. They're probably not even aware of it.
agreed, everyone in an organisation soaks up subconsciously the values of that organisation (some more than others, but all do so). And the person leading the organisation has a massive influence on the culture, and what is truly important. I have had personal experience of examples of that - man at top said all the right things, but people underneath knew full well his priorities were somewhere else, and it was the something else that got the real focus. Another lesson of business is they all need momentum. A small decision here to let player x go, not pay the asking price for player y there, and you end up with - slightly - the sub optimal answer. Then, when its a close run thing, you draw rather than win, you lose rather than draw. And soon in their hearts players start to expect that sort of result, whatever hype is put out.
ask yourself this - how many of that team last night (and the manager) went out there really expecting in their hearts to look great, score a hatful and win another 3 points in front of an adoring home crowd. We even had fans betting against us getting a single point, when we went 1-0 up. Contrast that to how you would have answered at the time of several previous LUFC teams, whatever your age and preferred period.
Ristac, buying a programme puts more money in Bates pocket. With regards the expense of getting there, 450 mile round trip for me = £90 petrol, and usually a thoroughly depressing drive back, so think I'll stay over in Leeds next time( probably Sheffield Wednesday) as a few beers will help my mood! It's a hell of a lot to fork out though, so I really have to pick my home games carefully.
Afternoon everyone I agree that there is obviously some psychological issues going on, and like Marko says I'm sure none of them are even aware how much things are affecting them. HOWEVER, that's not the main issue here. It's pure and simple a lack of quality in my eyes. I try and avoid being totally negative, but I think this is realistic: It seems we have a spine of players who are doing well (Kenny, Pearce, Austin, Diouf and Becchio) but outside of that we seem to have players making silly mistakes or just not performing. I know I'm not alone in being surprised that Varney was brought in seemingly as a starting XI player rather than as cover, and now we don't really have cover for him, with the exception of Byram. That leads me on to question Warnocks handling of the youngsters as well really. Take White as an example. He was progressing well as an attacking LB / LM, and we all knew he needed to work on his defensive game a bit, but then NW started playing him as a RW towards the end of last season. Now a position switch such as that obviously will have meant a massive change in his training. He now seems to be much worse as a LB than he ever was earlier last season. I worry that the same is going to happen with Byram, started him out at RB and now seems to be pushing him on as a very attacking RM. What happens if Pelts gets injured. Will Byram's out and out defensive game have suffered as White's seems to? Also Thompson came in and seemed to be doing a good job, but he doesn't even seem to be getting near the bench this year, even in front of players who we know aren't in Warnocks plans such as Pugh? Now I know Warnock has a bit of a record for bringing in shall we say "experienced" (read old) players who have been there, and can win promotion in the short term, but should our youth suffer as a result of this? Maybe we try a different system? -----------------Kenny----------------------- -----------Pelts---Lees---Pearce------------- --Byram-----------------------------White--- -------Thompson--Austin---Tonge----------- ------------------Diouf------------------------ --------------------------Becchio------------- Then as players come back from injury, Norris and Green can slot into that mid 3, Rosco can take Diouf's place and we start to have players like Diouf, Poleon, Brown/Tonge who can come on from the bench and hopefully give us a different edge in the later stages of the game? 3-5-2 like that seems, to me, to suit the players we have at the club a lot more than forcing a 4-4-2 with a lack of proper wide midfielders. (rant over)
Becchio is **** without Ross to set things up for him I don't care how many hes scored. I loved the guy but he frustrates the **** outta me
Thats alright then, as Becchio will struggle to make Saturdays game with the injury he sustained last night
Evening Elland. Bruce never was that bad, as I said on numerous occasions at the time. That said, I think we're now better off than we were. No, relegation is never the answer. Been there, done that, got the headache as we finally started moving in the right direction.
Evening Boggers, TOUGH ONE TO CALL, but if I knew Bates would walk away from the club if we went down, I'd have to think very carefully what I would want to happen
put peltier at cb with pearce, build a solid spine, and work from there brown with austin in front of him becchio up top with someone that will work alongside him and feed him in front of goal we have the players, just not being used right
