Good Morning Everyone (or is it) A Liam Hearn second half brace was enough to inflict pain, misery and dread for the forthcoming season, opening up the wounds of old, just to remind us we haven't yet turned that corner. To make things worse Mansfield had four trailists playing, who although eager to impress had never played with their team mates before! Is it too early to be calling for wholesale changes? Are Hockadays days numbered? Who feels confident that we will get a result at the Den in a fortnight. Needless to say we we sign half a dozen new players in the next fortnight, the first of which will be Federico Viviani who will sign a season long deal later today. Thoughts? Former Cagliari sporting director Nicola Salerno is set to be officially announced as director of football today at Elland Road. Thoughts?
Hock talks a good game but he's a worry for me. Hunt and Morison were supposed to have impressed him yet have both failed badly in the last 2 games and if they can't score against these 2 sides, then we need someone who can. Hunt off injured again and Hock moaning about wasting chances? Well they need moving on because we don't have the time to wait. Our first team chioce starts on Saturday for the first time, as they haven't even met the squad yet. So with luck we'll have a better idea of what to expect then, but with another few players landing and the kick off in a few days, not looking good for team gelling together as a unit. It will also highlight the number of players tat need moving on otherwise we end up with 30 odd players
Morning all. Not a great night. But I'm waiting to see what the Hock thinks is his starting XI. Then we may have some idea of the season ahead.
Morning All - I understand and fully accept pre-season is about trying out new ideas and getting players fit however surely the coach has a pretty good idea of his best starting 11 by now? Both the 60 minute and 30 minute changed squad looked to have a mix of first choice, second choice and a sprinkle of players that will probably never get a game this season. I would like to see a proper starting 11 for at least 60 minutes each and every pre-season match, we need to be playing as a team and McDermott refused to see that the diamond formation has too many weaknesses highlighted when your squad isn't good enough to adopt it in the first place and the sooner Hockaday see's it the more weeks he will be in a job. We had a whole season of seeing Hunt and knowing he is useless, how many more games does Hockaday need to watch to come to the same conclusion? Be daring, try something different, if a striker isn't scoring try playing 4-4-1-1 with a loan striker. Maybe we are being unkind to Hockaday, mayber he continues to play Hunt and Morrison in an attempt to say to Cellino look these guys are not good enough. As you will know I haven't been the most confident supporter all pre-season, nothing has changed to improve that after yesterday. As Doc rightly says, the real test starts now, that is assuming Hockaday picks a proper starting 11 and a formation that they can fit into and play. Mansfield two tiers below us and as Elland pointed out playing four trialists.
Morning ... must say I didn't expect that "thrashing" at Mansfield, and no doubt the usual "it was a training excercise" and "we were working on fitness" bull dust will be rolled out again ... sorry, I really don't buy that, as I've written elsewhere its all about expectation, and we are expected to win these games ... for me, Hockaday hasn't instilled the correct mindset just yet, but he better start demanding results from his players and quickly ... if we go into this season with the attitude of "let's make sure we have a team that works hard and see where we are at Christmas", well I can tell you now where we'll be, right down there with the Wall ... I fcuking hate this non committal approach of "we're just trying to consolidate", its a defeatist mentality and allows leeway for excuses when we're sitting in fifteenth place ... if the Hock continues with his "as long as the team works hard I'm happy" rubbish then we will fail yet again to deliver the results expected of a club like Leeds, and we'll be condemned to duking it out with the likes of Donny for the lower places ... for me it doesn't matter if there were fifty subs used, every single player who runs onto any pitch anywhere in the world wearing the famous White shirt has to do so with the mindset of "I'm playing to win", nothing less ... of course, if our problem is lack of quality (and I don't believe the players we currently have should be losing at Mansfield) then we really are in trouble ... I expect things to improve though, I just want to see a "we're going for it" attitude within our club, from top to bottom ... Viviani looks promising, although its a pity he only wants to come on loan when Cellino was hoping to sign him outright, maybe there will be a buy clause but I doubt it as the player was only considering loan options in Italy as well ... Salerno will be good if he can find talented players for us, and by that I mean quality we keep and don't sell ... remember, Cellino's track record is to sell his stars and replace with up and coming players, which is why Cagliari never pushed on ... it may be that Cellino felt Cagliari were never going to compete in Serie A so he stuck with his policy and focused on stability ... anyway, dispointed that we are huffing and puffing but can't create or finish, look very narrow yet again (jeez we need wide men), and once again concede late goals .... other than that all is rosy .... hmmmmmmmmmm Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
Good Morning Matt and co from an overcast Bardsey What has been highlighted to me is that we are too stereo typed we need someone or two who can unlock defences and set up chances for Matt.In a word we need wingers pacey one and perhaps a tricky one and a second striker Morison and Hunt are useless get rid Vivani is coming on loan but we can buy him at the end of the loan period
Just been thinking about this: I agree we need two wide players but are we or has Cellino resigned himself to the fact they are not coming? Bianchi, Vivani, Austin, Murphy - 4-4-2 only two of those can play, yes good to have depth but why have depth in the middle when you have nobody who can play wide and one striker who knows where the back of the net is? Surely priority would have been wide players first, Ross leaves so a new striker jumps to the top of the list and when you have your possible starting 11 you start adding the depth. With Norris and Tonge along with the young players breaking through it isn't though central midfield is a position where we can't fill in if someone suffered an injury. I have a horrible feeling we are not going to see those wingers join and that we are sticking with the diamond...
You all need to forget about playing 4-4-2 & having wingers, Cellino likes 4-3-3 which he is buying the players to play in that formation. I will judge when the first team gets put out not when we play 23 players 5/6 who wont be here at the start of the season. 2 bad mistakes cost us the goals last night, step forward Morision & Thompson!
You all need to forget about playing 4-4-2 & having wingers, Cellino likes 4-3-3 which he is buying the players to play in that formation. I will judge when the first team gets put out not when we play 23 players 5/6 who wont be here at the start of the season. 2 bad mistakes cost us the goals last night, step forward Morision & Thompson!
The wide spread panic caused by a 2-0 defeat in a pre season friendly where we played two different 11's is over the top. Lets see what happens in the next one, see what Hockadoodledo changes. Very little should be taken from these games as to what will happen when the competitive season kicks off. In the past teams that have had excellent pre seasons have then stuttered at the start and teams that have had poor pre seasons kick off well. I will judge the team. tactics, new players, coach etc after the first couple of games. That will be the true test.
Its not just "its only a pre season friendly" though, and "its just about the fitness" They're just soundbites really. Its important that the players start to gel and more importantly, look like they can play the formation we're trying to play. They can't, which means we need to try something different and/or we need some different players. If we get too many more players we'll be heading towards a squad that some say is too big. We need some quality as well as quantity. If he changes the formation for the next game and its better, then i'll be happier, but i sense he will persist with the same. Hope i'm wrong.
What a superb through ball by Morison, eye of the needle stuff. If only he could remember which way we're kicking
I want to see this striker/winger Ducari or whatever the fook he's called. Apparently he's really a winger who can score and he's big and fast and creates chances. Have we seen him play out wide?
Morning all. Dread to see the panic whenever we lose a league game given the reaction to last nights effort
Fitness - You go to boot camp, you run around and hopefully get fit. Players report back to training to get fit, hence why the friendlies usually start a couple of weeks later. Not that as a professional footballer you should allow yourself to get that unfit in your 4-5 weeks off. Pre-Season Friendlies - If they are for solely for the purpose of fitness you don't play 60 minutes, you can stay at your home ground and play an A v B game for that. Friendlies SHOULD be to try out tactics and formations, for players to gel and sharpen up. YES teams lose friendlies and go on to do well, it depends on who they are playing though doesn't it? We seem to play far lesser teams in pre-season so surely if this was about fitness we should be playing better opposition who would make us run around more. I don't believe it is time for panic just yet but take the best out of everyone who played yesterday and we would still lack creativity and goals. How long before the season starts and we still have no replacement for Ross??
Or we could all turn a blind eye to the obvious lack of quality in the squad and believe that everything is hunky dory and that we are going to be fine and just panic when we are sitting at the bottom of the league or in a relegation position 6 games in with a closed transfer window Then we will get the usual avatar and comments like "Can't wait to see the I told you so's" joining in. Fact is we currently have a pretty poor team and we are not looking promising. If we went into this season with last years squad we would be relegated, I have no doubt about that. The latter part of last season we were relegation form, not just for a month, we were diabolical for 2-3 months. Since that form we have lost Ross, we are praying that the guys Cellino brings in are better than what we had, if not we are in trouble. It is okay saying we have got rid of the deadwood but unless they are replaced with quality players we are not going to be any better than last season. I know it was only a friendly but so what, we were poor, the result doesn't matter, it was the lack of goals, the way we were outplayed by a team two tiers lower and the fact that when the league does start the quality of opposition is going to be far greater than Mansfield.
When Cellino & the Hock took over they said EVERYONE will be given a chance, they have now had their chance so now is when I expect to see players surplus to requirements moved on. All have had their chance to prove they are good enough for Leeds Utd and some have failed miserably i.e Morison Hunt .....and so on. That`s what they have used these 4 games for, expect to see the team trimmed to the first 11 for games now, and obviously with new players still to come in to be added to that.
