Obviously no-one's even whispering 'automatic' in a Leeds context, so playoffs are the realistic aim and momentum is all-important when you're going into the final couple of months and then the semis themselves. So after the January window and with players returning from injury, what would you hope would be our first XI as we mount the final push around March time? For me it would be: Boyd/Becchio Townsend - Howson - Snodgrass DP/MB/AC* - DP/MB/AC* White - St Ledger - Lees - Lichaj Lonergan Subs: M Taylor, Bruce, Thompson, Nunez, McCormack. *I'd hope we could rotate Pugh, Brown and Clayton in these two positions quite regularly.
Once again, please not Boyd. Becchio, McCormack and Somma are all better, I'd say Forssell is aswell.
Loving the back 4 not the strikers, Becchio hopefully to get his scoring boots on once we have the two wide men. Wouldn't mind seeing Andrews come into the middle to complete the dream.
If we're playing one up front would rather see Forssell than Becchio tbh. And St Ledger, is he really any better than the defenders we already have? Same goes for Boyd, always looks overweight to me, is he better than McCormack? I don't think so. We need more quality than mediocre players like Boyd & St.Ledger. I'd settle for more quality loanees like Townsend. Pity Kilgallon seems to be back in favour at Sunderland, he'd have been a great addition alongside Lees.
Yeah the only characters I see lacking from that team are a resulute Becchio-of-last-season centre forward and a creative midfielder alongside the steel of Pugh/Brown. But I think Clayton can do that if he's given the freedom, so Andrews wouldn't be a necessity. A nice luxury, yes. I just don't know what the secret is to getting Becchio back on track. It's a great mystery. You'd instinctively think 'give him as many games as possible and he'll be back', because we all know he's a grafter, not a flair player who'd normally flounder due to a lack of form/confidence (like McCormack for example). Simon, maybe you're right about Boyd. I admittedly don't know a lot about him but you can't deny that he's scored goals whenever he's had good service. Six goals in eight starts for Forest in this division is a very appealing stat. But maybe he is a bit of a Berbatov and just gets hattricks and braces against **** teams. Not that a player of that sort is useless by any stretch.
That's exactly the kind of player he is, he'd always get 5 goals a game against Falkirk, St Mirren etc. A RB and CB are what we need now. I don't see CM as the must improve area I did before, as Vayrynen impressed me against Arsenal, looked good going forward and defending and you could see his experience at a higher level, but a quality creative CM to push Clayton for his place would be a good addition.
As Lonnergan said, Becchio's the laziest player he's ever seen in training, so maybe he's not doing enough to get back to peak condition. It's all very well giving him game after game to get match fit but he'll never get his sharpness back if he's not putting in a decent shift on the training ground. Forrsell looks sharper to me.
His 6 forest goals were: Swansea (A) 1, Reading (H) 1 PEN, Bristol City (A) 2 (1 of them a PEN) and finally Scunny (H) 2.
I don't have the answer to Becchio's problem either, but I wonder if Grayson is persisting with him to rebuild his confidence? I'm not so sure about him being a poor trainer being a factor - presumably he's always been like that? And don't they regularly measure everything & his brother with the players on a regular basis? That would tell them if he was back to full fitness or not. Grayson has insisted before that players would not be rushed back before they were back to full fitness. I know I've rambled a bit, but can you see where I'm coming from re. the confidence angle?
To my eyes it seems like everything is back in Becchio's play apart from the goals. Hopefully they'll come back with Snoddy and Townsend providing the service.
sorry but i think hes been dreadful all round recently. he was always slow but now its like he cant move. he doesnt win headers no more and he comes so deep into the midfield, it leaves us with no CF
Feck Boyd, he is utter pish, where the feck does his fecking name appear for Leeds? ****e player, ****e person and feck all talent.
please.... Boyd??? Is not good enough to polish Becchio's boots.... St Ledger??? Is a greedy second rate player who Leicester do not want... Lichaj??? Why should be rebuild him for Aston Villa? We are sending Parker out to get fit why would we take another sicknote... We are better than this lads. Lets buy U21 talent and loan the experience.