however I try to ignore it, Leeds performances recently have been seriously pissing me off, to the point of ruining Weekends and leaving me grumpy. Even to the point of not sleeping properly last night, waking several times with that horror show on my mind. Here’s my take on current matters. Rad has done a fine job with the behind the scene stuff, future planning it seems. The problem lies with the lack of quality signed who are game ready now. We have the likes of Grot who were told is one for the future. Why is he taking up space on the bench so? Despite being in no way gooenough, he gets run outs because we’ve nothing else. Our current first team, which is all I care about, is miles behind last seasons. Wood Green and Bartley replaced by cheap rubbish options in Lasogga, Pennington and two crap keepers. It’s either another attempt ny an owner to try build a team on the cheap or it’s down to hopeless staff running the show for him. Rad is still getting the benefit of a honeymoon period but he’d better get some serious work done and serious personnel in before the end of January
It does but we can’t sign any new players till January. Sadly it’ll be Orta signing them if any and rad rewarding them with four year contracts
Hi there and if you look the timing of greens departure and the sale of wood it gave rads little time to recruit quality players. Someone has convinced him that its cheaper to shop at primark instead.Orta is to blame for this .lassoga could be ok im no fan of der donkey btw he does not lead the line as wood did.lonergan was so bad yesterday but last time with us he did not shine either.four players at the minimum are needed .first a quality goalie followed by a decent centre back.two decent midfielders who can create and get stuck in.lets up my list to five a pacey striker is needed as we are too slow all round. Yesterday i called the coach a holiday rep from cyprus he is useless.wants to stick to doing power presentations. I have give all at the club a chance and this is rads to sort out.if things do not change i am not going to games.
Morning all, morning Eire.. Strangely enough I nearly started with a my take on things this morning so instead I'll just throw a few rambling thoughts in here.. Firstly Rads has exceeded my expectations, we are running a clean ship, a scouting network in place, no law suits, no GFH, own our ground numerous positives and putting us on a good foot should he eventually decide to sell us on. I'm not saying his appointments are spot on but just as in the players we can attract, the same must go for board appointments, the best at the business are already settled, it might take time to get it right, at least Rads is trying to get the right help rather than take the Cellino approach. My concerns lay at the feet of Orta, his advisor and right hand man. 1) How close were we last season? We're we batting above our station or were we just a couple of quality signings short? Granted the departure of Wood and Green never helped and I believe with those two in yesterday's team we might have still won. 2) The internet is full of rumblings about how much say Orta had at Boro, we sign the likes of Cibicki and Klitch who can't make the bench, nothing will convince me that Thomas has any say in who we bring in. 3) Sky said yesterday that Leeds had just that day brought in a Set Piece Coach who used to work at Brentford. Along with a defence coach how much say is Thomas having in all this? 4) Wieldwald - My take is that Thomas probably said to Orta we need a new keeper, one capable of playing it out from the back, Orta goes out and says here you go here is your new keeper, same as striker, Thomas asks for one and he has little if any say who actually comes in. 5) From one extreme to the other, first players on loan and keep the fan happy clauses with try before you buy promises to 4 and 5 year contracts. Ayling on 5 years sounds great but the target is promotion and I can't see why give anyone 5 years unless it was a hot prospect and we've sold all of those under Cellino. 6) Sadly Thomas is out of his depth, maybe he would have done better with last years team but he seems to have too much choice in midfield and zero up front or defence. We have too many jack of all trade players, Roofe who can play out wide, striker or number 10. Wide players who can play left or right or attack. We just need to sign good solid players who know their position and play them there. I see people suggesting maybe convert Dallas to LB, NO play a LB at LB play Dallas wide left, don't play him on the right, don't play him in defence. Play Ayling at RB don't get him to double up as a right winger when he can't get back in time to defend that position. Sort out if Philips is a 10 or partner for O'Kane, some of the players don't know if they are coming or going. 7) Strange Monk refused to shift from 4-2-3-1 and Thomas doesn't like changing it either. Summary Orta is the main person to blame, Thomas out of his depth, major problem is who would step in and work under having set piece and defence coaches already selected for them? Answer nobody with the experience of English football...
All pretty much spot on I’d say. Unfortunately for ageing fans like myself, another season over long before Xmas.
I still think people are getting carried away. Rad's TARGET for this season was top 6. Not autos. Not promotion. The target was simply a top 6 finish.. And hoping for better, obviously. It is we, the fans who have set ourselves up for this massive fall - and it's because we ignored our Chairman and set our own targets. I guess it's understandable when you consider the dream start we had. But it's OUR targets we've failed to meet, not Rads'. As it happens, we're within 2 points of the top 6, so why all the panic & upset? I think it's possible that the fans are lashing out because they're embarrassed that they got unrealistically carried away. Understandable, but unrealistic.
I said at the time that I felt (could be proven wrong) that Radz was a good businessman, seems honourable ( though he’s in PR so its his job to look good to the outside world) but that his obvious weakness was no football background or knowledge. So he takes counsel from people in the game and sets it up as a project. He did everything right in principle but his selection of Orta to me was a huge gamble considering orta’s record in the uk... the rest of the back room staff then get dictated by Orta and you have a little empire, that can only be removed with a wholesale changes rather that ‘sack the coach’. He also committed these players to long term contracts, that to me again I said at the time, at least a year too long in most cases and debatable whether all those offered them were justified. So he took a punt, it might pay off (still could) it might not. The measure of him is, down the line, his recognition of where the problem lies and how decisively he deals with it. We’re in a hell of a rut and when that happens nothing goes for you. We got the breaks at the start of the season and none of them since. We were poor first half yesterday but had better chances than them in the second... and league position belies them as a team, they’ve played well all season and had no luck at the start of it. Fortune and confidence plays a huge part in football... personally i never thought we were as good as some when it went well, i don’t think we’re as bad as some now. We’ll shin a lucky offside winner sometime soon and things will pick up in my opinion but there are serious squad imbalances that we all knew about and we pinned hope rather than expectation with orta’s cheap solutions to them. Bristol City lost 8 on the bounce last season, the manager overseeing that has them in a promotion spot now. Football’s a funny game.
It’s more because of the utter ****e were playing Wj. To be honest, I’m not fussed about our league position but our current performances are an embarrassment. There’s as much chance of the wallies or burton making the top six
Is it the performances or the results that are embarrassing you? Remember, this is a league where anyone can beat anyone. And they do. I cannot put my hand on my heart & say that I've watched an embarrassing performance yet. Some poor performances, yes, but embarrassing, no. I've also watched some glorious performances. In fact, loads of them compared to previous seasons in this league. People forget that. I've not yet witnessed a performance where we're 100% good, or 100% bad. Reason? There's always another team on the park with us. They have highs & lows too, and will often dictate huge parts of matches. Remember, anyone can beat anyone. No team is invincible. Look at the teams that got promoted last year, or the year before, or the year before that. Were they invincible? Were they on top 100%. Nope. And we won't either. We're going through a particularly bad spell atm. Not our first and won't be our last. This is when the club needs supporters to be supporters, not Victor Meldrew impersonators. Players read the media & social media. They're used to detractors, mainly from non-Leeds football fans, & because of our clubs past reputation. But the last thing they need is to read waves of criticism day after day. Every name that is known in our club is being crucified daily. Including Saiz. AND BY OUR 'SUPPORTERS'!! Tell me how that helps our team. Tell me that's not going to affect their confidence levels. Constructive criticism & debate, yes. Slaughter & carnage, doh!! Btw, this is not aimed at you or any individual - not even Gloryhole (OMG, another name check. I'm doomed!). It's an unwelcome phenomenon & it has to stop. It's not doing anyone any good.
I was embarrassed at the Wendies capitulation, from bossing parts of the first half where we almost scored and if that had gone in we would have seen a different last few weeks. We didnt score and then we rolled over and allowed them to look like Brazil and ever since we have seen poor results except 1. Yes in each of the recent losses there were opportunities to score and change the game, but just like the Derby match we cant get the goal that would burry them, we allow teams to come back at us and we lose. So I am going to take a break from here for a while as dont think I can do with the daily arguing thats about to take place. Sack him, drop him, Orta to go, Radz is bad ...... When things have settled down again one way or the other I will be back. Play nice see you later
I feel and share your pain Eire, anyone who wants to see their Leeds team playing confident, entertaining and constructive football is hurting now. The problem we have is that a sizeable percentage of the fan base seem to think that Leeds have some God-given right to win every game, and get on the manager's/owner's back early doors when that doesn't happen. Other teams' fans support their club positively all through the season, hoping for an upturn in results and doing their best to encourage the club - we just start to whinge and blame all and sundry, and actively contribute to the downward spiral by affecting the confidence of players and coaching staff alike. Yes fans pay their money and have a right to make their feelings known, but if those feelings are irrational and unjustified and exacerbate the problem, they'd be better keeping their money and shutting up if they really want what's best for the club. Did Radz or TC promise to be top of the league all year? Even top six? So why are people screaming for sackings, the worst possible course of action we could take, certain to sabotage the rest of the season? Kneejerk nonsense. Get behind the owner, he's planning for the long term. Apparently he's not benevolent, he's fleecing the club, etc., etc. - Yawn, no evidence to suggest that. He's stabilised the place, given the club structure for the long term which it hasn't had in a decade, bought the ground back - sure he owns it, if the club had had the funds to but it it would have happened years ago. Rather see it in his hands than Adler's, it's back in-house because Radz is the house. We all hurt when we've lost 7 in 9, but we should try to retain a bit of perspective and get behind the team - they are the only players we have for better or worse, it's only the start of November and at this stage the season's far from over. If all we do is gurn for the next six months it might as well be. MOT!
I found the two Sheffield games and last nights embarassing Wj. A group of players, clearly not willing to give 100% or maybe that’s as good as they are I don’t know. For first time in ages, while watching with the daughters, I didn’t celebrate our goal. They couldn’t understand it and asked me why. My explanation was we’re still gonna be hammered, it was so obvious. I’m back watching through duty and fearing every time the opposition ping a cross into our box, just like two years ago and before. I certainly don’t criticise for the sake of it but it’s either say it how I feel or leave this forum and twitter altogether. Im happy to be as positive as anyone given any encouragement. I’m lucky as two weeks of international playoffs now to look forward to. Sorry for mentioning them Wj
