Good Morning. It's Monday 15th April, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Leeds are falling apart - again Leeds unbeaten home record came crashing down, and their automatic promotion hopes severely dented, as Blackburn Rovers produced one of the surprises of the season at Elland Road on Saturday lunchtime. Having just been thumped 5-0 (Blackburn) three days previously, expectations were high in the Leeds camp, but in football, you can't take anything for granted. In fairness to the Whites, their performance wasn't all that bad, especially when compared to their previous four. They dictated play in all but the most important discipline, but were duly punished for their wasteful execution and poor distribution. For all Leeds superiority, Blackburn produced the best two chances. Meslier had to be at full stretch to deny Szmodics, after breaking free of Ampadu on the half way line, followed by one of the best tackles you're likely to see in the Championship, with Connor Roberts denying Dolan a simple tap-in at the far post. The creative duo were not to be denied, and combined well for the winner eight minutes from time. Dolan sliced the Leeds defence wide open, finding Szmodics in acres of space on the edge of the area. His first time effort was both clinical and assured, something desperately needed by Leeds during their final three games of the season! please log in to view this image Why don't Leeds have a set piece coach On average, Leeds are producing 15.4 efforts at goal every game (second only to Southampton who have 15.6), yet have one of the worst goal ratio's from set pieces in the Championship! The amount of wasteful free-kicks and corners has been totted up, and doesn't make for pleasant reading. Leeds have scored just eight times all season from set-pieces. Only Blackburn (5) and Plymouth (5) have worse! The club have invested heavily in the squad, and have some of the finest players in the division, so why have they not scored directly from a free kick in three years, and only once from a corner in 110 attempts? Aerials won is also a problem area for Farke's team, with only 13.4 headers won each match (19th). The Whites are top on goals from counter attacks (12), and spend the most time (42%) attacking down their left flank. please log in to view this image
Let's address this issue of a set piece coach. We are lacking two obvious elements in the team and have done for many seasons. We have no height. Bamford one of the biggest and he's only a string, easily knocked out of the way at set pieces. This has been a problem for years. No point in floating in high balls to lads that are 5ft 4inches at best. Point two. Last player we had who could actually strike a ball properly was Pablo and he's a long time gone. Willy has a decent shot on him as has Summerville. The rest you would see as good at my grandsons under 8 training. You can introduce all the coaches in the world but if a [layer hasn't learned to kick a ball by age 22, he's not going to learn it
I don’t really believe Leeds are falling apart. There was a big difference between Leicester City’s performance compared with Leeds and Town. Leicester have been playing as though they don’t really care. Unless there is a shift in the Leicester camp this week then they are in danger of finishing fourth in a three horse race. Having said that, Farke needs to chill out a bit and get the players to be patient. They are looking rattled in the second half of matches.
We must be more dangerous, especially from corners. This is someone you can train, so why havn't we? We also don't have a player that can hold the ball up (without falling over).
No you can't train it. All previous managers back to and including Bielsa failed. Add to the problem is the poor delivery, although this isn't just a Leeds thing. We have only Summerville capable of sort of taking a corner and the vast majority of them are useless. Either 3ft off ground at near post or hopelessly overhit. You need big fearless centre halves like Cooper willing to charge into the box at a corner and heat it full on with power and not be worried about getting his hair tossed
Morning Leeds fans. A minor improvement over recent performances yet still not good enough to beat Blackburn at home. Thought it was a banker after their recent results. Happy to see Bamford dropped but Piroe is not the answer either. Some odd substitutions in the second half too, the writing was on the wall. Yet still, miraculously, we are in with a chance. And so too are Southampton, wouldn't be surprised if they finish with autos at this rate.
Good morning all My Southampton mates after resigning themselves to the play offs, say they now have renewed hope as they feel they have had their blip and will finish the season strongly, where as the top three all seem to be losing their nerve. And i am still reeling after Saturdays result, hopefully we will get back on track.
You cannot make big changes like Farke did with his substitutions and keep a balanced team, we were all over the place and Blackburn exploited it. He brings Bamford on…… you seen his attempts to head the ball, ffs this is a professional footballer who trains week in week out, cannot jump over a foot off the ground, Joseph must be well pissed off. Archie Gray a midfielder? are you sure? He took Gruev off and we lost all of the midfield. Sam Byram, big mistake there Mr. Farke, he was in no man’s land the time he came on. So yes Mr. Farke it was your fck up and responsible if we don’t go up, be a man and stand up and be counted, Bielsa used to when he got it wrong.
The last decent set piece taker Leeds had was Raphinha but that’s because he has loads of natural talent. Didn’t need to be taught how.
Same thing applies to the likes of Bamford. Some believe he can be taught to shoot or head the ball. No he can’t. He’s in twilight of his career and won’t ever be one iota better than he is. Coaches will have to develop systems to suit his lack of ability. Terrible setup
Sam greenwood was a great set piece taker. Just not good enough to hold down a place for his all round play. And even a great set piece taker is going to struggle to pick out one of the seven dwarfs. We’re only talking about this because our open play goals have dried up. That’s the bigger issue here.
Whether the open play goals dried up or not it's something like 190 corners since we've scored. Its deplorable and if we were to get promoted wed need to be able to score from all sorts of situations, free kicks, corners, playing down the wings, through the wings etc and not this one dimensional nonsense that has set in
David batty would be considered prolific in our midfield ATM.... it's woeful the contribution from them, and I said before I'm convinced bam a lam hasn't got an actual forehead, the above picture looks as if he is doing a Mr grimsdale impersonation FFS...the smodizcs guy has done the business in a crap side I think he's called a striker
We should have tried to sign Kiefer Moore in January. He has 6 goals from 12 games for Ipswich and the lad is 6ft 5inches. He'd be a target at least. But as usual the powers that be decided to stick when offered the chance to stick or twist
I just can't get excited at the thought of promotion. Last time felt we were cheated out of a promotion party or meet up. After seeing live games last season i will not be in any rush to fork out again. Mr contract and his 49 chums have gone awfully quiet lately. Rads did a job on them along with his mate Orta. Left them with a run down squad and has beens. Some idiot let the rats insert there own clauses so off they went.. For free... Brilliant. Has anyone seen the plans for ground expansion and modernisation?. Do they exist? as i doubt it. The 49ers have been sold a pup and now need to spend their way out or lose lots of Dollars. As pointed out by those that really know about football (the fans) our midfield does not score and rutter is the most wasteful of all. Anyone with a brain would have brought in players the january window.
So sadly i am posting this link it's a fund raiser for a wakefiield fan who collapsed next to me at this game. We did what we could till help arrived. It's an eerie thing listening to a defibrillator beeping in a silent crowd. The match was abandoned with wakey losing 4 nil with over 80 mins played. If you wish to donate here is the link. Do not feel obliged because i am your favourite poster. Mainly posting this to bring some reality back to football. RIP Jakob. https://gofund.me/86d46cea
