Match Day Thread Leeds United v Newcastle United

Agree about Nmecha mate, but the ball forward without him there would have just gone to pope. Theres literally no one else that would be there. Hes not the answer, but could be handy if we had a ten or positive wingers overloading


Enough of the work hard, give me an absoulte prick who can say I told you so and skin some one and put it on a plate for DCL

Just one will do

 

I really like Gnonto on the right with Bogle

 

Perri - 6. Much better today. Unorthodox, eccentric but it worked. Kicking far from decent. Plenty of heart attacks to come this season.

Bogle - 9. Good going forward, good defending. Excellent night for him. In the discussion for man of the match.

Rodon - 8. Reliable, saved Struijk a couple of times on the cover.

Struijk - 6. Lack of pace shown again. Went wandering in the 2nd half and that can cost you the game in this league. Strong in the air and his partnership with the quicker Rodon is okay.

Gudmundsson - 7. Very solid start to his Leeds career. Good cross in first half should have given us the lead.

Gruev - 7. Lots of good stuff off the ball. Frustratingly sidewards and backwards but he always presents a passing option and covers the full backs when they push forward. Unsung hero.

Stach - 7. Looked knackered in the last 10 but vital challenges and covered lots of ground. Passing wasn't quite there tonight.

Longstaff - 9. Man of the match. Ran lots, tackled everything, good in the air and economical with possession.

James - 4. Nowhere near fit and flying. At risk of being dropped and he is the weak link in this team on current form.

Gnonto - 7. Leeds only real attacking spark 1st half. Needs to mix up his play a bit more instead of coming inside on his right all the time.

Nmecha - 7. Hard one to score. Won free kicks, held it up but 1st touch was all over the place, luckily it always seemed to bounce the right way for him. Made his runs half a yard too late. More presence than Piroe.

Subs.

Harrison - 7. Worked hard. Good ball in to DCL but too many set pieces went astray.

Aaronson - 7. Some nice link up play, ran hard. Just lacks the final ball.

Calvert-Lewin - 8. Stretched Newcastle. Won some battles and had the best Leeds chance. Gets in the mixer more than the other strikers and will probably be first choice if he stays fit (unless a new signing comes in).

Justin - 7. Steady away for last 10 minutes. Saw the job out.

Farke - 8. Gambled by settling for 0-0 at 60 minutes but it paid off for him after a tough week. Some of the issues at Arsenal were clearly not to be repeated today.

 

Could have wrote this myself. My only worry is you may need to copy and paste the DCL paragraph when we fail to score again

 

Yep, pretty much agree with all of that. Ben & I had Bogle as MOTM and scratching our heads at how we find a way to play that allows DJ to look like a Premier League player because, at the minute, he’s a passenger

 

I'll have to watch more of Nmecha because I can't figure him out.

In the flesh, he looks a little cumbersome and not very mobile. On the idiot box he looks better. He's got the 'Ayling flop' down to a tee and might come 2nd to Grealish in the 'free kicks won' table.

One common theme with him is that he is strong, backs in, and wins the ball. He can't trap a bag of cement but it somehow comes off his shin and goes to a white shirt. This happens all the time in the multiple games I've seen him. I once played with a striker who would run with the ball and it would bounce off his shin, through a defenders legs, then off his knee, send the keeper the wrong way before falling over the ball and it ending up in the net. He used to get 30-40 goals a season for years. We used to think it was luck but he scored goals for 15 years like that. Nmecha might be one of those (not with the goals but the ball bouncing clumsily off him and going where it should)

 

Tough match to pick one player as MOTM as nothing much really happened. Bogle was excellent tonight. Most of the team were very good.

I was really pleased with the workrate of the lads. They all worked very hard.

 

Did you use to play with Paulo Wanchop?

 

yeh that’s Farkeball… wingers usually subbed 60-70 minutes. Why he wants so many of them

Considering he was bit part behind Solomon last year, willy genuinely looks PL quality. Only guy who has consistently hit someone wearing the same colour shirt with his passes in all 3/4 games. He lacks a bit of X factor but he’s doing well.

And so is Harrison much to many Leeds fans disappointment

 

Did you think Gnonto was anonymous today?

 

Well spotted.

Gnonto added.

 

I haven’t been very impressed with Longstaffe until yesterday where for me he edged MoM. Thinking about why I wasn’t impressed was maybe because he was playing on the right and trying to link with Schmidt who wasn’t even on the same wavelength or acreage at times. So I hope the kid keeps it up and that performance wasn’t because he was having a dig at his old boss.

the other top performer yesterday was Bogle, but does anyone have an idea why Farke was ripping into him in the first half

 

I think we all know theres a player in longstaff. A few more performances like that and Farke will have a welcomed headache

Bogle is a magic and a joy to watch.

Sheffield United fans saying he wasn't prem quality too

 

You’re wrong. I think the Sheffield fans were saying the rest of the team weren’t pl standard. Now it seems they’re no longer championship either