The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Thursday 16th March)

Good Morning. It's Thursday 16th March, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road


Whites pull plug on McKennie deal

Italian news outlet 'Tutto Sport' have suggested that Leeds will not be exercising their right to make Weston McKennie's deal permanent in the Summer, whether they remain in the top flight or not. He arrived on loan in January, but eight games in, has done little to change Leeds fortunes.

With a mediocre 'Whoscored' rating of 6.47, is it not surprising that the Elland Road hierarchy are reluctant to shell out £35m on another dud, especially after just signing one from Hoffenheim. Aston Villa are reportedly interested in striking a deal with Juventus for his services, but at least until the Summer, the 24yo remains a Leeds player.

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Adams sidelined with Hamstring injury

Tyler Adams has been sidelined after picking up a hamstring injury in training this week. The 24yo has been one of the few success stories, in what has turned out to be an absolute shambles this season. With 2157 minutes of game time under his belt, and a respectable 6.73 rating, the US International will be sorely missed.

Hamstring Injuries are notoriously difficult to treat. Normally, rest is the best course of action, but time is not on Leeds side. Bring him back too quickly, and he could be miss the rest of the season.

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Saints remain at the foot of the table after Brentford loss

Southampton remain at the foot of the table after defeat against an in-form Brentford side, at St Mary's last night. Under the leadership of Ruben Selles, the Saints have started to pick up points, and are now just four points (because of their inferior goal difference) from safety.

The visitors deservedly took the lead on 32 minutes, through Ivan Toney got a decisive far post touch, following a well executed corner but, had to wait until virtually the final whistle to make the game safe after Yoane Wissa doubled their tally, deep into injury time.

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Mckennie is a dm or cm, potential injuries and suspensions to roca and especially Adams were one of several reasons why we needed him. So at wolves he can play the Adams role and one he’s very capable of doing.

whoscored ratings? I like my stats but have always considered player rating algorithms to be gibberish.

For reasons only they can explain, some thought mckennie was going to be the new Pablo. He hasn’t set the world on fire but he’s done ok in my view.

Real shame about Adams. Soft tissue injuries.. can only be over-training by Javi

 

Elland loves to go fishing on a daily basis todays bait is a poor McKennie with his terrible 6.43 average rating and the massive success this season of Tyler Adams at 6.73 rating. So ignoring the bait mate

 

Good results for us last night. The league’s form team that we did amazingly well to beat… were dispatched pretty comfortably by Brentford. Palace probably should have won at brighton but missed a series of early chances then conceded to Brighton’s first shot… very leedsy. Palace are in a serious rut. Long may it continue.

 

it’s his job to be fair

top of Leeds whoscored ratings:

1. pascal struijk

4. Rasmus Kristenson.

I rest my case m’lord

 

Morning all

McKennie might come good covering for Adams, I’d not completely write him off. I was excited about his capture but I was surprised that he arrived looking a little overweight and unfit. I always assumed he was a replacement for Roca or any two from three with Adams.

Love him or dislike him (or his methods), I can’t help but feel we’re missing having a squad that is “Bielsa fit”.

Between them Jesse and Orta have made some curious and questionable signings. Kristensen when we had Ayling and Drameh, ignoring LB and playing Struijk, McKennie when we were crying out for creative, Aaronson who by all accounts played his best games wide right and record signing Rutter for the future when it’s here and now we need

This extends to Orta and Bielsa the previous seasons when we had Costa and Poveda, and activated the Harrison purchase and still went and spent a fortune on James.

 

Palace could soon be our 2nd team (a very distant second on 8th April)


Home to Bournemouth and Forest in May too!

 

yep they have an 'easy' run in - if 6 pointer relegation scraps every week are 'easy'.

It's mad how many of the bottoms sides play each other in April... though maybe it seems more that way due to how many sides are currently in the fight for survival.

 

Morning all.

Only saw the 2nd half of Southampton v Brentford last night but it's fair to say the Saints were a little unlucky to come away with nothing. Constant pressure without really creating gilt edged chances is probably the story of theirs and our seasons.

Brentford with only 33% possession soaked up the pressure admirably before scoring a second in the 7th minute of added time.

The McKennie story is total bollocks as no decision will have been reached by the club who have far more important matters to focus on at the moment. Plus they'd hardly wish to unsettle a very important player during the run in.

 

It certainly seems a pretty unusual situation down at the bottom this season. Usually by now there's at least one club that are dead and buried, adrift by 10 points at the bottom, another that's in deep **** and 3 or 4 others that are in danger. But to have 9 clubs within 5 points of each other at this stage of the season must be unheard of.

 

In the same sentence he also managed to sneak in another dig at Georginio Rutter ffs

“is it not surprising that the Elland Road hierarchy are reluctant to shell out £35m on another dud,especially after just signing one from Hoffenheim.”

Terrible fishing

 

It's the Brentford way innit. They never dominate possession, just make themselves very hard to breakdown and always carry a threat on the counter, don't often get many chances but they're often good ones when they do.

Southampton had no attempts on target.

Agree on the similarities with our season, they're like a slightly worse version of us... they don't create as much as we do... and take a similarly poor number of the chances they do create. Fans like to point at managers, but that's the difference between bottom 3 and midtable... forwards taking chances, defenders fckng up.

 

yeh, I don't recall a season like it. I'm sure Aski could tell us

 

In his quest for first team action, I'm hearing (voices in my head) that Georginio Rutter travelled to Southern Ireland to play for a local 5-a-side team called Alcoholics Un-Anonymous. Unfortunately for the former French U21 International, he wasn't up to par, and spent most of his time on the bench.

Catching up with their spokesman after the game (known affectionately as shorty), Rutter's lack of match sharpness and inability to pass made him a liability, and he would not be welcome again (unless he bought all the beers after).

 

Seems Marcos has sent you some of his ' special cookies '.

Flipping space cadet

 

Without looking too deeply into it, this is probably the closest I can find that would be similar to the league table now

February 20 2020 - 8 of the bottom 9 teams were all within 7 points of each other after 26 teams. The bottom team Norwich were however 13 points behind the team in 12th

February 7 2018 - whilst 11 points separated the bottom 12 teams after 26 games, there was only a 3 points difference between Huddersfield on 24 points in 19th place, and West Ham on 27 points in 12th place. Bournemouth were 9th on 31 points

February 27 2014 - Swansea in 10th place after 26 games with 28 points, 6 ahead of Fulham who were 20th with 20 points.




Sunderland finished 14th that season with 38 points. Fulham, Cardiff and Norwich were relegated

 

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Looks like having a number of clubs bunched together in the relegation area isn't as rare as we would believe. 5 points separating the bottom 8



Wolves finished 16th that season with 40 points. Birmingham finished in 19th position and stayed up due to their goal difference being 1 better than Blackpool's who finished 18th and were relegated on 39 points with -21 goal difference