Good Morning. It's Wednesday 15th March, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Leeds could be bottom of the pile by tonight Leeds could find themselves bottom of the pile if Southampton beat Brentford tonight. The South Coast outfit have been on somewhat of a revival lately, having picked up seven points from their last four games, and are brimming with confidence. Their West London opponents will need to play a lot better than they did against Everton last weekend. Dwight McNeil's wonder strike after just 35 seconds was enough to give the Toffee's maximum points, and lift them to 15th place. Does seeing the likes of Brentford and Fulham lauding it in the top half of the table put perspective on Leeds achievements during their first season back in the top flight? Perhaps if the hierarchy used their 9th place finish to continue to build, rather than consolidate, we would't be in the position we are in now! please log in to view this image Cressy fires Lions to fifth place On loan Leeds defender Charlie Cresswell scored his fifth of the season last night, steering Millwall closer to an unlikely return to the top flight. The Bermondsey gang last hosted top flight football 33 years ago, but are looking strong for a play off place with 60 points from 37 games, (leaving them currently 5th in the Championship). Individually, Cresswell is flying. With a 'WhoScored' rating of 7.03, the Preston born lad is second in the rankings, has five MOTM awards and an incredible 4.9 aerial ability. How Leeds came close to selling him in January defies belief! please log in to view this image Vultures already circling over ER Various media platforms are suggesting that rival clubs are already beginning to circle around Elland Road, ready to swoop, and rob Leeds of their prized assets should the worse were to happen. Robin Koch, Illan Meslier, Jack Harrison, Georginio Rutter, Tyler Adams, Brenden Arronson and even Junior Firpo are all attracting interest, in moves away from LS11 Having a relegation clause built into your contract, is part and parcel of contract negotiations these days, and it's no different in West Yorkshire. Most footballers these days, have their own agent, and legal team to protect their interests. It goes without saying that Leeds will not recoup anything like the amount of money they splashed out on these so called mega stars, and face a daunting couple of months, fighting for their Premier League lives. please log in to view this image
Morning all Cresswell - We came close to selling him as we had Jesse in charge of things, it just shows what a difference a bit of coaching can do for a player or having a coach that can actually recognise potential. Brentford/Fulham - Brentford a well run club with great scouts and coach. Fulham have a great coach, everything is going right for them. Lots of 1-0 wins, next season they might struggle. Robin Koch, Illan Meslier, Jack Harrison, Georginio Rutter, Tyler Adams, Brenden Arronson and even Junior Firpo are all attracting interest, in moves away from LS11 If we got relegated I’d only really miss Adams out of that lot. If we stay up, I hope Rutter comes good. We definitely over rate Meslier, Arronson should be sold either way, Koch is average, Firpo average recently, I’d not lose any sleep over any of those leaving
Morning everyone what i want to know is who at Leeds was willing to sell Cresswell. If that is on the advice of Orta i would not be surprised. Why recoup a couple of million on a great prospect then splash stupid money on rutter.
Agree with much of the post - re the first paragraph. What’s your logic to this. Most agreed loan time for cresswell was a good thing. He’s had his ups and downs at Millwall which is to be expected for a young player. You wanted that to happen in the PL? You think Marsch had anything to do with wanting to sell him? You really think this or just hanging out bait?
word from a respected source elsewhere is, (as per Harrison to Leicester) that this was entirely the doing of radz.
Marsch to blame for our defence and what he saw as prospects in defence. Drameh yet again doing well, Cresswell and not forgetting Hjelde who is being used as a LB and doing great….
Regardless of other results. its time this lot started to earn their wages and take three points from Wolves at weekend. Prefer not to head into international break in bottom three or worse still bottom. As for who stays or goes, don't really give a toss. Many many more players across Europe as good as what we have. Hope Orta gets the door though as Im sure he will
my biggest criticism of marsch is that I never felt he twigged/prioritised what was required in a defender at PL level, but seriously you can’t have it both ways Doc… you can’t tell us that Koch llorente firpo are internationals and then complain that we send the kids out on loan like every other club does. I like hjelde, I like cresswell… Loan moves were exactly what they needed for experience of decent standard men’s football. The one that’s open to debate is drameh. The club had issues with him before marsch’s time and we’re overloaded with full backs. It was a tricky one. Hindsight suggests the Mistake may have been the Rasmus signing. people also need to remember the gulf between the divisions. The best fullback in the championship last year was widely regarded to be DJed Spence. Went to Spurs. Didn’t play. Now in France on loan, apparently having some shocker's.
Cresswell has been playing out of his skin these last few games, during the transfer window when there was a lot of talk of him leaving I was indifferent as to whether he stayed or went because after a great start his form had dipped where he had just become 'another centre half'. From all accounts it was him that had the final say and he wanted to stay and since then he seems to be really enjoying his football, the last few games have been a bit niggly and he has more than held his own, after this season finishes he is definitely Premiership ready.
What's the definition of improvement. Our goals scored under Javi have been a miskick, a deflection and a wonderstrike. The game where there were positive signs going forward was at Fulham, where we didn't score. Because that's football.
We created alot of chances under Marsch but leaked alot of goals. We've tightened up under Javi but we don't create as many chances. It's just two differing formations and style of play. For us to score as many goals under Javi as we did under Marsch then the attacking players will need to up their conversion rates (Rodrigo excepted this season). Obviously works the other way around at the back. I'm fine with criticism but only if its fair and consistent.
Let's have a look at the facts shall we; Marsche had a +/- of minus 0.53 goals per match this season. Skubala had a +/- of minus 1.00 goals per match. Gracia has a +/- of 0.00 goals per match. So already a half a goal improvement per match over Jesse.
Are these stats going to be a trend we can look forward to going forward, Jammy. Obviously. they may become more statistically valid 'facts' when there are a more than 3 games for Javi. I'm sure we all hope they look so rosey after the arsenal game.
