Good Morning Everyone, Leeds travel down to the DW Stadium on Saturday looking to hammer a further nail in the coffin of the Latics. Wigan will be full of confidence having beating Blackpool, and then Norwich at Carrow Road midweek, leapfrogging Millwall on goal difference in the process. Both Wigan and Millwall remain six points from safety with 11 games of the season remaining. I wouldn't imagine Redfearn will make many changes to the line up, (he never does) so we can expect Billy Sharp to continue his role as lone striker. Hopefully, if we win at the weekend, Redders will experiment a little with the side, and give the likes of Del Fabro, Dawson, Montenegro, Cani, Phillips and Walters some real game time, in preparation for next season. My biggest worry is goal scorers. So far this season :- Antenucci 8 goals Doukara 7 Mowatt 7 Sharp 5 Then we move onto 2's and 3's. Cellino will have to dip his hand in his pocket in the Summer and bring in a couple of quality signings to give us a realistic prospect of promotion in the 2015/16 season. There's nothing wrong with our keeper. I'd keep our current crop of playing defenders (and sign Bamba), but would want a specialist right back, unless Coyle can bridge the gap. Our midfield, looking at who we have should be one of the strongest in the division, and can think of 6 I would keep. In all honesty, I cannot think of one forward I would want to keep next season. I cannot believe to signed Doukara permanently for circa 1.5m. What were we thinking?
Morning ell, Doukara doesn't seem to be worth the £1.5m we paid for him but he's shown glimpses that he'll turn out to be a useful player in the future. His goals to games ratio is the best of any of our current strikers at 7 goals in 24 appearances, compared to Sharp who's only scored 5 goals in the same number of games. He's quite clinical in front of goal. Would like to see us employ a system between now and the end of the season which would allow us to play Doukara and Antenucci up front again.
Going to Wigan tomorrow and for the first time in ages can say its nice to be looking forward to the game, pressure off, no relegation worries and a decent pie for lunch. 0-3
At this stage of the season most teams are starting to wake up and smell the roses, and they're putting in better performances. We were lucky against Ipswich, in that Murphy missed a penalty and Ipswich had some good players out. I suspect Wigan will come out hard at home, they seem to have a belief they can get out the relegation zone; leapfrogging Millwall will be seen as the the first hurdle. Malky seems to have instilled some belief, and confidence in his team. His job is to purely get them out the relegation zone, and it looks like their run has begun. Our performances are nothing to write home about, we've been lucky, not dominating. Since Redders ousted the Italian influx our performances have dropped imo, we are still getting overrun in midfield and our strike force are lacking a strike and venom, and we can't keep doing that, but Redders continues to turn a blind eye. Our defence is very strong imo, but they can only soak up so much pressure if the mids don't do their bit, which I've always believed is our weak spot, and opposing teams can see that. I suspect a win for Wigan by 1 goal, more if we drop a gear.
Morning all I wouldnt put money on this one! Wigan have some great players but it just hasnt clicked for them, however, it seems to be clicking for us and we seem to be more resilient but still prone to individual errors. This will be won in the midfield, so if Murphy and co are on song we could take them. Glory, enjoy your day out
I can only tell it as I see it and Feel it chippy, I might be proved wrong but Wigan have their heads up, especially after beating Norwich. Last season I was putting a Leeds win for every game, irrespective of who we were playing, this season is being more realistic, as I see it of course.
Morning all I think Wigan will give this a real go, but I think we will sneak it. Elland you're right on the goalscoring front, we need those sorts of figures to be scorers 2-5, with a 20+ one in front of them. I think promotion next year would be a very big ask, but we will have to see what happens over the summer. It's nice to not be looking over our shoulders now, so should be a good game. I should be back around here a bit more now, so happy to resume normal match thread service for next weekend if you like?
Duke was originally signed to score goals, which he was doing at the beginning, then Redders starting tinkering with team. He's not scoring for same reasons as Antenucci isn't scoring, but a lot more valid reasons than the Wandering nomad not scoring. Cellino / Salerno obviously have Duke in their future plans, along with their other permanent overseas signings.
We have already moved on, suggest you do the same. Gillingham and Posh are already looking forward to your input. HTH. ;-)
Gillingham and Posh Does that mean i will have to brush up on my intellectual skills ? i will miss the pond life here
Morning/afternoon all, at the start of the season I said I felt worried about where our goals were going to come from. Unless we find a new position for him I can see Doukara becoming surplus to requirements. I would still like to see Ajose being given one more chance before the season ends with a nice 3-4 game run in the team.
please log in to view this image Phil Hay @PhilHayYEP · 4h Just an observation but Redfearn today was like McDermott at the end of last season - a boss who doesn't know where he stands.
please log in to view this image Phil Hay @PhilHayYEP · 4h NR's aware that Wigan's pitch is dire and that they haven't won at home since August. "We don't want to be the side that breaks that record"
please log in to view this image Phil Hay @PhilHayYEP · 2h Redfearn said earlier that a top-10 finish should be the club's aim in the last 11 games. Four points and five places off at the moment.
Afternoon Essex, for such a big unit he should have been able to hold the ball up a LOT better then he does.. Worth 500k tops
Afternoon LL, With the likes of Murphy (player of 2015), Cook, MOWATT AND BYRAM, WE SHOULD BE DOMINATING MIDFIELD
