With the season fast approaching we have only 17 fit players (exluding trialists and youngsters drafted in to pre-season). Of this 17 we have untested players - Nunez, Clayton, Lees as well as players returning from lengthy lay-offs (Parker and Kisnorbo) and a player who could potentially be sold (Gradel) Its not a good situation to be in approaching kick-off. Close season surely is about getting players in early so you can gel the team and formations. It looks to me like we will see a few emergency loan players coming in again which has proven already not to work. It must be getting desperate when i was scratching around for news of Bessones injury to try and bolster the squad!!! We are relying on those highlighted players above being good enough to give us a decent season (10th in my honest opinion would be good based on current squad)
the youngseters like the Turner brothers might play a big part this season, Grayson and the club have re-built the acadamy signing players like Thompson and Gimple etc and recently an international goal keeper. Most of them help there own in the reserve league last season and if they are good enough then we should play them. Its good to see us looking at trialists too and if we sell Gradel for a large amount of money then I wont be complaining, if by all accounts he doesnt want to stay at Leeds anyway.
Where's Gimple by the way? Any reason we haven't seen him in some of the pre-season games so far? As to only having 17 fit players, I agree that its not good. We may well have to take a player or two on loan if Becchio doesn't return soon or if Paynter/McCormack fail to spark soon. We have a potentially awesome attacking midfield. But the forwards surely have to shoulder the main burden of scoring goals. Who was our DM trialist midfield? Sounded from the commentary that he's one hell of a unit.
I heard it was Mendy, and he's a right winger/RM. Big lad from what i've read. He's French mid/late 20's, but not sure hes played for anyone in particular which is strange if he has so much talent?
Grayson only uses about 13 players anyway!! Deffo need more rotation this season! If this Monty Gimpels good I might even get Gimpel on my shirt haha
The trialists Alexandre Mendy, he scored 50 goals in 136 appearances in the Czech Premier League. He can play as a right winger or a forward according to wikipedia.
I think we have enough players to cope. We obviously need a new centremid, goalkeeper and a leftback. With Becchio and Somma out, we could always play 5 in midfield, with Nunez or Howson behind McCormack or...Paytner. I don't like that we had a mystery trialist on the wing - kind of suggests Gradel may be leaving.
gimpel hasnt got a proffessional contract, he gets one next season from my understanding anyway i really dont feel comfortable in having paynter playing in our first team, i think we should loan a striker personally or even buy one and get rid of paynter. Remember that doesnt include the youngsters we have, i dont think thats far off having a decent size squad bearing in mind a couple injuries and im expecting leeds to sign an absolute minimum of 2 players which im hoping will be 4 players minimum. I think we actually have a decent enough squad to be hitting the play-offs with a couple of signings away from being auto, i dont think its as bad as many fans are making out, actually think about how many teams at the moment have a better first 11 than leeds.... west ham, mybe birmingham... and i wouldnt say leicester because they have been signing the wrong players i personally think we will be playing 4-5-1 although i've always preferred the traditional 4-4-2
Josh, we can agree to disagree on Paynter because I think that when he starts scoring, as he will need to do soon given our injury problems, he won't stop. It took a while before we worked out how to get the best out of Beckford. The rest, as we know, is history. Eventually, we'll work out how Swindon got so many goals out of Paynter 2 seasons ago. As to formations, given our injury, problems 451 may not be quite the depressing formation it could be. That said, I still think SG will go for 442, or even 352 with 4 diamond 2 as an alternative. Our strength is currently our midfield, with lots of attacking options. Will be nice to see Becchio back soon. But not too bothered about anything for now other than who our first choice keeper will be
yea i see many people with comnpletely different opinions on paynter, people either believe he is gonna do it or he is the worse player they've ever seen, i suppose only time will tell who is right. The 451 isnt necessrily a depressing formation, we proved that with the amount of goals we scored last season with it but i think its very one dimensional and if it doesnt work, it doesnt work whereas 442 you have more game styles to chose from if something doesnt work And i dont really understand how you can say it took time for beckford to start scoring. I actually grew up playing with his younger brother in london and i cant believe his brother hasnt stepped onto the proffessional scene yet, he was often off training with chelsea. And the first time i saw jermaine play i thought he was unbelievable skillful and his finishing was immense, i used watch him play alot. My point is he has always scored many goals, his first proper season at leeds where he was playing he scored many many many goals instead of paynters 1 goal in about 22 games or whatever it is
I'd say 4-2-3-1, which is what we actually played last season, is far more flexible than 4-4-2. You can easily move a couple of players during the game in 4-2-3-1 to make 4-4-2, 4-5-1, 4-4-1-1, 4-2-1-3 etc. Whereas with 4-4-2 it's really either that or 4-4-1, there's not much fluidity. I also think 4-2-3-1 gets the best out of our attacking midfielders, far and away our strongest position. I think we should give Paynter a chance, he seems to have everything in his game for the NPC apart from scoring, which is very much a form/confidence thing, and his confidence certainly isn't going to be helped with people constantly going on about how crap he is. Of course we can all express an opinion, but in a video of the Rochdale match a boy trys to start the chant "If Paynter scores, we're on the pitch", because that will really get him scoring . We should be trying to help any of our players that are struggling, not force them out of the club before they've had any real chance.
We haven't seen Gimpel because he's a young player. We have a manager who hasn't given a single youth team player their debut in over 2 and a half years at the club.
lol i saw that video, did you see paynter's shot at the end....look i really cant see it in paynter but i would love for him to prove me wrong
I don't understand the difference between 4-2-3-1 and 4-5-1 To me they're all basically the same. Indeed 4-4-2 is not any different. Ask your second striker to drop back when not in possession and have your 2 wide men ready to break forward and hey, 4-4-2 is 4-2-3-1
i was more referring to the style of play you use with one man upfront, you have to have a big man that can win headers and hold the ball up and your very reliant on that working, if he is being defended out of the game it is hard especially with becchio who isnt as gifted with control as some would like you cant play that quick interplay with him, with two upfront, you have more options because you have a big man upfront who can win headers with a finisher who has alot of movement and drags the defence around. you change your play a lot more with this but you sacrifice that midfielder that we NEEDED in the team last season
