Afternoon all - Cooper is a tricky one, I watched the Brentford game and the amount of times they cut through the middle was alarming, I think I would put Bamba on the bench and play Cooper but I accept it is a no win situation, drop Bamba and lose or keep it as it is and one glaring mistake and it will be Cooper should have played, personally I wouldn't play all three together. I have been giving Redfearn a hard time but I do like what he has said about Adryan and Doukara if it is a case of them slacking on the training pitch although maybe nail on the head LeedsLover in regards to Cook being banned. Sorry to hear you are not well BoggersMOT hope you make a speedy recovery.
I thought it was a date, just let me know when ur across and I will be there. Didn't realise you needed to form some sort of emotional attachment.
KIWI, What I am anti is the bull, excuses and crap that Redders comes out with, there's no need for it but he continually spouts it to try and justify his actions. I was one of those that wanted Redders in as first team coach, as time went on the crap Redders come out with changed my opinion of him. I did the same with BM and Grayson, once they start going down the road of bullshitting to the fans and media then they lose me. I'm not anti any player who plays for Leeds United provided their talents and work rate for the team are above par. Cellino signings play for Leeds United, as do the academy boys and other British players. What you say about Aidy White and Adryan is what I say about Cook and Austin, so where's the difference, other than we both have our differing opinions. You question my opinions, yet I could turn it around and personally question your opinions, from what you wrote in your above comments, I could easily say you're anti cellino signings, works both ways on a forum or in any feedback. For me Cook does a lot of running around but creates no impact for the team, yet Redders talks him up every game, even when he has bad games which he's had, even claims he's a freak; so what is Cook doing that Adryan isn't? and why is it, stats wise, if you follow'em, which everyone does from time to time, that both Murphy and Bambi have much higher performance ratings in only a few games than Cook, who's PR went backwards over the course of the season so far. Austin is inconsistent, some say he's like a bull in a china shop in midfield and brings the team what it needs, yet his shots go no where, his passing is mostly erratic and he loses the ball a lot. People say Morison is playing well, yet as a striker hasn't scored for Leeds yet in 2 years, but Redders keeps picking him saying he'll score eventually, he'll score eventually, aren't strikers suppose to score goals for the team? and isn't it the coaches job to pick a striker that can score goals consistently. Funnily enough, after 31 games played, Antenucci and Duke are still our top scorers with 8 and 7 goals. If you're a stats man, check out the stats, I think you'll be surprised. http://www.squawka.com/players/lewi...eason-2014/2015#127#all-matches#1-31#by-match Have a look at the championships top scorers this season. http://www.soccerstats.com/scorers.asp?league=england2 Berardi got 2 red cards back when the season started 31 games ago, and you judge him on that and say he's reckless, yet, he has the least goals scored against us from down his side. Byram replaced him and opposing teams were consistently attacking Byrams side and getting around and behind him. Bellusci and Byram have both been red carded, are they reckless too? Cook is now suspended for two games for 5 yellows, is he reckless too? Warnock was hailed as a brilliant defender by many, I disagreed, we were leaking more goals down Pearce and Warnocks side, they both leave and Taylor takes over, we don't leak too many goals down the left side any more. Many said we'd miss Warnock and needed him at LB, really? Taylors far better than Warnock imo, still learning but doing a better job than Warnock, and Cooper far outshines Pearce. Thing is, fans say we have good players, then they get replaced by someone better and the previous player is not missed any more. Redders had 3 wins and a draw as temp coach, then, as first team coach kept blaming Hockaday and Darko for his own failings rather than accept responsibility, not my cup of tea and I won't support it just cos he's the Leeds coach, BM use to do same, why do we need another one? Redders mentioned in a past article "they're his academy boys and he loves'em" certainly sounds like bias to me. I mentioned right at beginning that I fear Redders may well be bias in favour of his academy boys, but I hope he isn't, I now believe he is, has been and always will be. I don't think Redders will be in charge next season. I admit I'm a bit of a straight talker, and I say it as I personally see it, but I'm not the only one on here, on other forums or in media articles that are that way. I look at things a bit more deeply than some, I analyse, I read between lines and sometimes see what others don't, but that's me, we all see the game differently based on our own personal perceptions.
Good marker put down. LL has raised you, kiwi are you fighting or running? With that nym if you mention cricket I am backing LL up. Crew, crew, crew
Looks like I have a lot of things to cover here Had to delete some of your quote just so it would adhere to the number of character restrictions! Personally, I couldn't care less what the head coach/manager says in the press conferences. They're all the same anyway; subtle variations of well used footballing cliches that, more often than not, have very little depth. If the manager is winning games, I'm not that interested. Even if he isn't, I'm not that interested. Find me a manager who hasn't ever bullshit the fans or the media. That may just be my outlook though I can certainly see how my comments may have come across anti-Cellino signings - I can guarantee I'm certainly not, but I do admit I find some of them very questionable and it does annoy me that a lot of fans seem to think we've radically improved the squad based purely on the fact these new players are foreign. For me, our two best signings have been Cooper and Bamba (you may dispute that, but I don't think too many Leeds fans would) - two players with prior experience of English football. A lot of them haven't been given a real chance - Benedicic, Del Fabro, Montenegro, etc - and I know you and perhaps many others would suggest this is because Redfearn prefers his academy players, but do you really, honestly believe that Redfearn would risk getting sacked by sticking with Cook and Mowatt and the rest if he didn't genuinely believe they were worthy of being selected? That he would blindly put faith in his academy babies even though he had better options elsewhere? Maybe I'm naive, but I highly doubt it. This is a man who's played professional football, been involved in coaching and managing for nearly 15 years, and watches the players in training virtually every day: I think it's safe to say his knowledge on football far surpasses ours, and his opinion of the players' current worth to the team should be respected. He has his flaws, and he does occasionally make daft decisions regarding player choices (dropping Sloth after Reading) but I honestly don't believe anyone can seriously think he'd put out a weakened side just to accommodate his perceived favourites. Have to say, I'm not a stats man - they can be manipulated in any way you want. Cook's passing success rate may only be 65% (literally making this up, I have no idea what it is) compared to Murphy's which could be 90%, but if Cook's attempted 1,000 passes and Murphy's attempted 10, it's a totally unfair comparison. Even an average per game isn't entirely fair, and it wouldn't tell the whole story. If a player is always on the front foot looking to make things happen, it stands to reason that his success rate won't be as good as someone who's content to play safe sideways and backwards passes all the time. On Cook, no he is not perfect, but he is only 18, and there has to be a reason why pundits and managers alike are waxing lyrical about him. I'm expecting your reply to this to be something along the lines of 'Adryan is only 20!' so I may as well cover that too: yes, Adryan is very young as well, and he probably suffers from having so much pressure on him. Whenever I've seen him, he hasn't looked all that interested. He does have nice touches and occasional flashes of talent, but he hasn't offered anything to the side, for me. I get if that's the way you feel about Cook, it's your prerogative to hold that opinion, but there must be a reason why pundits get excited over Cook and not over Adryan. And don't tell me it's bias - Adryan has the whole 'Brazilian playmaker wonderkid' bias going for him. I'm actually with you on Austin - my point was that if you get excited over Adryan occasionally beating a man, running for a while and then losing possession, Austin does that for us anyway. And at least he's a physical presence. I don't think they're at all similar though so there's not much point in further comparison. On Morison: again, of course he's not perfect, in a perfect world he'd have scored 10 goals by now. Is he a long term answer? Of course not. But in the current system, one that is winning games - albeit without playing brilliantly - he's the only striker we have who can fulfil that target man role. I don't think he's playing badly: he occupies defenders, runs the channels, creates space and brings the midfield into play. Redfearn can't win at the moment: either he keeps faith in a striker who suits the system but doesn't score goals, or he risks reverting back to a 4 man midfield (like at Brentford) and being overrun and losing us the game. Strikers are paid to score goals, of course they are, but if you think a manager/head coach will formulate opinions on strikers based purely on their goal output you must be a bit naive. Look at Emile Heskey for christ's sake - he's had a decent career with scoring all that many goals! Sometimes there is so much more to a striker's game than purely scoring. Obviously, in an ideal world, our striker would be scoring, but it's not an ideal world and we're in the Championship so it's unlikely we'll be signing our own Diego Costa anytime soon. I actually quite like Antenucci, but he's not the same sort of target man that the system needs. Personally, I don't buy into this 'strikers need to score goals, midfielders need to assist and defenders need to prevent goals' view, it's outdated and far too rigid. I want to see all players contribute to all phases of play. Full backs are expected to get forward, midfielders need to score goals and strikers need to defend from the front. Yes, they each need to adhere to their primary objective, but if you're going to judge a player purely on one statistic, you're never going to see the full picture. Again, I don't buy into stats - Byram could've been against the best wingers in the division, Berardi could've been up against Millwall. It's easily manipulated. I haven't been to as many games as I'd have liked to go this season, but I've seen Berardi in the flesh four or five times, and every time I've seen him he makes silly decisions: he attempts challenges he'll never make or he'll dive in rashly and be beaten. Pretty sure he managed to concuss himself attempting an overhead kick in training too - that screams reckless to me. Red cards can occasionally be understood - 'taking one for the team' and the like - but if you want, try and defend this: http://www.101greatgoals.com/blog/g...ious-red-card-for-leeds-v-accrington-stanley/ If that's not the definition of reckless I don't know what is. Also using Bellusci in your argument is something of a mistake, he's even more of a liability! Good defender, but christ he makes me nervous whenever he goes in for a tackle. Red card in waiting One red card or suspension a season I can understand - a la Byram and Cook - as football is a competitive game and sometimes you can get frustrated, especially as a younger player, and make silly tackles. I stand by what I said though, two is reckless, and borders on stupidity. The same applies for Bellusci (I think he has two red cards too?) although at least both of his were professional fouls: 'taking one for the team', as it were. Not sure where I mentioned Cooper, Warnock and Taylor, but I'll cover this anyway: Cooper is excellent, and in my opinion our best signing. Far better than Pearce, I agree. Much better on the ball, too. I admit I was slightly nervous regarding introducing Taylor, purely because without Warnock, we had no other left back should Taylor begin to struggle. Thankfully, he's been tremendous. We were conceding goals down Warnock's side, but I daresay teams probably intended to attack down that side, knowing that Warnock didn't have the legs that Byram/Berardi have. I do think Redfearn should have held his tongue on those comments regarding Hockaday and Milanic, but in his defence, he's not wrong. Between those two we managed a magnificent tally of one league victory. Pretty grim reading. Milanic had us playing some dire defence-orientated anti-football - I doubt the players chose to play that way after looking so good in Redfearn's final caretaker game vs Huddersfield (stupid Berardi sending off aside!). Obviously Milanic was teaching them to play that way. You're right though, he shouldn't really blame them for his inability to get us results. That said, as I've previously mentioned, I don't really care what he says to the press. I don't really think that quote is bias. Comes down to interpretation, I guess, but to me it seems like a perfectly innocent thing to say. He's been working with the academy for years, surely it makes perfect sense to have formed a bond with them and for Redfearn to be proud at what they've achieved under him? I don't think he'll be in charge next season, because I think Cellino panicked when he realised he may actually end up getting us relegated so decided to employ an English coach who knew the club. Either way, I hope Redfearn takes his academy job back - even if you're not a fan of Cook, you've got to admit this is the best batch of academy products we've had in years! No problem with you being a straight talker, I respect that, just wanted to know your reasons for your opinions
Two things just occurred. 1. He ain't having it LL, it's like watching a slow motion me and 60. Are you twisting or sticking. 2.my eyeballs started to get tired.
KIWI, No disrespects, you asked for the reasons for my opinions and I gladly responded. We can go round in circles differing on each others opinions, and why. I love a good intelligent debate / conversation but when all's said and done, you'll be sticking with your opinions and views based on your own personal perception, and I'll be doing same, and so will other posters on here. Kiwi, we're not going to agree on everything, I think that's obvious, but neither does every poster on here as well. If you, or others make comments, or share opinions, part or whole that I agree with then I will gladly say I agree with it, and other posters do the same, it's what the forum's all about. Whenever I write a comment or post, I tend to write in my reasons for my opinion/s, which is sometimes why they get a bit long, but mainly so others can see, and understand, whether agreed with or not, why I think the way I do. I don't go on twitter or facebook because I believe one liners etc don't give any detail or enough info, and if someone is curious then they have to delve into it elsewhere on net any way. Question, are you on JA606? I'd like to thank Chippy for chipping in as ref, umpire, go between and mediator, job well done....
??????? I can only admire the pair of you for expressing your views in such a polite detailed manner and with such clarity of thought. We are unused to seeing such levels of intelligence (WJ tries, but in reality he is as thicka pig **** and it always ends up showing when he stops copying and pasting the work of others). The reason no one is taking sides is that although you are both taking diametrical positions we are agreeing with both of you! I blame the complexity of the arguments you are putting forward. What completely fecks us though is any post that starts or ends in the killer phrase " with the greatest of respect".
Chippy, I can completely understand, respect.....and see your point in regards to the use of the word "respect". The word can be construed to have some underlying meaning however, because text is not actually brilliant for showing one's true feelings, emotional intentions or sincere replies in word format, unless certain words or icons are used, then I use the words "with respect" and "no malice" to inform the intended receiver, and other forum readers that I am not attacking or degrading them, or what they wrote in any way, shape or form, but do have the utmost respect and understanding for their own personal opinions and views. In other words, I'm just trying to be nice...... Chippy, was a tenner enough?
Nope, lost me. Nope again. The wife says Its a twenty at the weekend unless you are talking about the special pensioner discount rate for coachloads! PS The phrase " listen you thick cnut" has the same effect for fewer key strokes.
Completely agree, it's nice to have a civilised, intelligent debate from time to time. I'm not on JA606 - never have been, nobody on here seems to hold it in very high regard!
