Good Morning. It's Monday 7th April, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Leeds slip out of autos after dismal Hatters display Leeds United's automatic promotion hopes suffered a significant blow on Saturday as they were held to a 1-1 draw by relegation-threatened Luton Town. The result, coupled with Burnley's win, means Leeds have slipped out of the Championship's top two for the first time this year and are now reliant on slip-ups from their rivals to secure automatic promotion. Daniel James' stunning strike rescued a point for Daniel Farke's side, but it wasn't enough to mask a stuttering performance against a Luton side fighting for their lives at the wrong end of the table. Isaiah Jones had given the Hatters the lead with a well-taken volley in the 15th minute, capitalising on Leeds early defensive frailties. The draw see's Leeds drop to 14th in the form guide with seven points from six games. They squandered a golden chance to win the game late on, with Solomon firing high and wide from close range after James' cross took an unfortunate bounce. Farke's decision to drop goalkeeper Illan Meslier in favour of Karl Darlow made headlines before the match, but neither goalkeeper was overly troubled, though Darlow made a crucial save to deny Thelo Aasgaard in the second half. While Leeds ramped up the pressure in the final ten minutes, Luton defended resolutely, with Christ Makosso making a vital tackle to deny Isaac Schmidt in stoppage time. The draw leaves Leeds in a precarious position, needing their rivals to falter if they are to achieve their goal of automatic promotion to the Premier League. please log in to view this image Recklessly wasteful Leeds The Championship is a relentless battle where most teams cling to any advantage, no matter how small. A long throw becomes a weapon, a free-kick in the opponent's half a chance to pile pressure on, and a corner a potential lifeline, but all season Leeds seem quite happy to pass up cheap opportunities in favour of ball retention! This unconventional approach extends to the loan market, a resource that most Championship teams eagerly exploit to bolster their squads. While rivals strategically fully utilise their loan quotas, Leeds maintain a seemingly nonchalant attitude, almost dismissing the potential benefits of external reinforcements. please log in to view this image Is Farke losing control Daniel Farke's position at Leeds United appears increasingly precarious after a series of disappointing performances that have seen the club drop out of the automatic promotion places. While results on the pitch are concerning, it's Farke's recent press conference comments that are truly raising eyebrows and fueling speculation about his future. From previously guaranteeing promotion a week ago to constantly contradicting himself, the mood around the club is one of the manager being under pressure. His post-match assessment of Saturday's draw as "a good point" did little to inspire confidence among the Elland Road faithful. His public criticism of Largie Ramazani has ignited a significant backlash. Singling out the player's "maturity in duels" and demanding he "step up" has been met with anger and disapproval from many fans, who have taken to social media to question Farke's tenure. This public rebuke suggests a potential breakdown in player-manager relations and raises serious questions about Farke's ability to maintain control of the dressing room. please log in to view this image
Morning all. Glorious sunshine and the birds are singing. The footie is what it is, garbage and has been for a half dozen games
You can definitely make a case largie should have had more game time/rotation to keep him sharp. But he’s been a liability recently when he has come on. So you can see the manager’s predicament. Does he need calling out in public? No, I wouldn’t normally advise it, I didn’t see the presser but presumably he was answering a direct question. As for the team display. It was ugly, a continuation of poor form, but in isolation - Luton do that to everyone at kenilworth Road. He picked too attacking a team in my view. You need to win the ball in order to attack. We’ve been better away from home with Ampadu/gruev in my opinion. Tanaka has been great for us but is way off it at the moment… and has been heavily involved in gaffes that have directly or indirectly led to our last 3 conceded goals. He’s the new meslier
Can anyone see us turning this around against boro ? It's really now or never and we are lucky Burnley have to play Sheffield United
I think(with maybe a large dollop of hope) think we’ll beat Boro. Suspect the fact they’ll want to play will give us the space we need to play our normal game. My crystal ball says Bamford to score the winner late on.
Carrick is a bit like Farke... he has an ideological way of playing and tends to stick to it, so Boro this season have created loads of chances going forward and been open and given stupid goals away at the back. A few things have changed for them, though. They have lost their two big attacking threats in Doke and Latte Lath. They have replaced their lumbering mistake-filled centre halves and are playing two midfielders as CB's. They're actually better defensively as a result. Yes Jonny Howson still has it seemingly as a ball playing CB. They also did what we didn't in January, and replaced their calamity keeper. Their midfield pairing of morris and hackney is one of the best in the championship and an area of the pitch we have really struggled in recently. I think it will likely be less open than recent games between the two sides, but both value attack over defence so hopefully a good game. Fck it. I don't care if it's a good game as long as we find a win.
Good morning all It’s going to be tough, but hopeful we can win this, because as others have said Boro are a footballing side. Was always worried about what looked on paper an easier run in than Burnley or Sheffield Utd, as we play a lot of the struggling sides which play more hoofball than football and are very physical and constantly falling over looking for free kicks etc.We have always found these games Difficult by nature and really struggle for a result. The only positive on Saturday for me was the world class Darlow save (didn’t stand a chance with the goal) but could be a solid reliable keeper for us and inspire a bit of confidence within the team, which is sadly lacking atm but is it to late? I hope not. NB I have only seen the highlights of saturday (thankfully)
Spare yourself the extended lowlights. Darlow’s distribution was so so but solid on crosses and made a really good save as you say. Also Liked that he pushed it away from goal… one of my many gripes with Meslier is him palming shots back into the danger area. Hey one swallow doesn’t make a summer and all that
Afternoon all A win against Boro will put us back on track, Oxford beating Sheffield means if we win our remaining we go up. Not so confident about us winning them all, on the flip side, one defeat in 21 games
Anyone else watching Leicester City getting a butt ****ing by Newcastle. Beginning to think Eire might be right
Can’t believe you ever doubted me. The further the season progressed the gap continues to widen. Southampton, better than us last season with 10 points. There is nothing to suggest next season will be any different
they weren’t better than us - they just had our number - but then we had Ipswich and Leicester’s. For most of the season we have been a cut above any of the sides this year and in my opinion any of the sides last year. Key words in that sentence was ‘for most of the season’ - we’re obviously awful now at the business end we’d need to invest significant sums and get lucky… but it ain’t impossible. Sure we could do a Southampton but we could do also a Brentford, a forest etc. Getting there is the problem
I saw that the record for consecutive home losses that Leicester have taken, was from Farke’s Norwich. A ray of hope, if we did go up, that our manager might not actually be worst manager in PL history. Ya see Eire. Everything’s in our favour if we get promoted
