Good Morning. It's Wednesday 14th February, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Rampant Leeds go second after destroying sorry Swans Rampant Leeds put on a five star display at the Swansea.com Stadium last night, stretching their (league) win record to seven in a row! The Whitesw were relentless. Swansea had no answer to the visitors attacking prowess, and found themselves two down after just ten minutes, courtesy of strikes from Summerville and Piroe, just two minutes apart. Carl Rushworth (between the sticks for the hosts) stemmed the tide by making smart saves from Gnonto, Rutter and Summerville, before Gnonto added a third after a clever assist from Archie Gray (his second of the season). With a trip back to Plymouth at the weekend, Leeds took their foot off the throttle in the second half; but Gnonto wasn't done. The plucky Italian forward added a fourth, 18 minutes from time with a solo effort that any top flight forwards would have been proud of. Elsewhere, just 80 miles down the road, Bristol City had finally ended Southampton's incredible 25 game unbeaten run, but with a third of the season still to play for, there's still a long way to go! please log in to view this image Leeds duo serve up new combo There's a new combo to be added to the list of treats on offer in West Yorkshire. Many enjoy the delicacies of a good surf n turf, whilst others may wish to keep it basic and devour burger and fries or a bacon n egg sarnie, but a new kind of delicacy is being served up at Elland Road; its called a Summerville and Gnonto or a Gnonville (not sure that will catch on)! Thick at thieves off the pitch, the duo are terrorising defenders on it. With four goals and an assist from his four league starts this year, Gnonto has been drawing defenders away from Summerville, allowing the Dutchman a lot more space. Summerville had his a dry patch over Christmas, which was carried over to the New Year. With one assist and one goal in seven games, it was feared that by double marking him, he could be kept quiet, but his best friend had other idea's. Together, they have netted eight times, and contributed two assists in the last four games. Not only that, but dare I say (without tempting fate) the victories have looked easier! please log in to view this image Forgotten men making the difference The emergement of Leeds forgotten men could very easily be the difference between automatic promotion, and a lottery play off place! More times than not, when a player is dropped to the bench for a considerable amount of time, it's very difficult to regain their space - but this is not the case for Leeds. Many had written off Ilia Gruev, Wilfred Gnonto, Patrick Bamford, Junior Firpo and more recently Joel Piroe, but under the Management of Daniel Farke, all have flourished when given their opportunity to shine. That strength in depth could prove to be decisive, come the end of the season. please log in to view this image
Morning all. Just worth noting amongst all the joy after last night that our first 2 go were a little fortunate. Their keeper should have saved Piroe's effort and Summerville's shot took a wicked deflection but hey we'll take it and maybe you make your own luck.
The way this sesaon is going would it be churlish in the extreme to criticize Farke or the players if we don't go up ? At the end of the day it's now a shoot out between three teams for the second spot and in my view the two teams who miss out on automatic promotion will have still had amazing seasons. Only one of those two teams who miss out can go up through the play offs meaning heartbreak for someone.
Morning all Just to add our goal difference has also increased by a vast amount recently, the January manager of the month curse is broken. Since the new year 7 league games, 7 wins, 6 clean sheet 17 goals scored. We’ve limited our opponents to 9 shots on target, throw in FA Cup games and we’ve won our last 5 Away games scoring three or more on 4 occasions Fantastic work by the entire squad
imagine our goal difference if we shot more! .................we're in a good place at the moment that's for sure, i presume you are in that room as well ...welcome to the grandad club, it's a blast
Happy Valentine day from a cold Bardsey I have just beeen looking at the remaining fixtrures and see that Southampton have 4 difficult away fixtures Leics Leeds WBA and Ipswich so we should be OK for the autos.However this is Leedsand anything can happen!
Morning everyone earlier in the season i was worried we were becoming the draw specialists. Now the boys are making sure of the wins and others are dropping points. I always thought a manager who promoted Norwich twice would do well at Leeds. He still has options to bring gray in to the middle if needed. The biggest plus is we are fitter and injuries seem to clear up quicker.
Good morning We all said earlier, how Farkes teams seem to become stronger in the second half of the season, and so it's proven to be, i think last night was the turning point, and now only one team can stop us getting auto's and that's us, haven't been this happy with the team since the earlier Bielsa days. We all talk about jimmy,Gnonto etc and how great their playing which is so true, but one person who goes a bit under the radar is Gruev, was trying to keep as much of an eye on him as possible, allowing for the TV cameras, i was really impressed, goes about his business and sorting out defence, constantly pointing, and always looking to set up the next attack, and hardly puts a foot wrong, does all this without hardly a mention from the commentators as he is so quick with his thinking, will possibly become a big star, also full credit must go to Farke, beginning of the season never dreamed we would be in this position with the mess he inherited. Believe it or not though the jury on him is still out with me, because if we get promoted will he be able to keep us their, as his premier league record is not great, case of wait and see i guess, but i really hope he succeeds with us.
Good post but can't agree that the only team stopping us getting auto's is us. We could get 95 points ++ and still miss out which whilst crazy could actually happen.
Equally, IF we go up, how much would you want the club to spend on new players to establish ourselves in the Premier League? After all, that seems to be the goal for most but personally, I would really like to see the vast majority of this team given a chance to prove themselves (which of course could be our undoing). At the end of the day, they are the ones fighting the cause and playing really well. A few quality additions maybe but now wholesale changes for me
Are you working on the assumption that Ipswich may improve their goal difference by 18 more than we do between now and the end of the season?
Totally agree, as we have already seen what happens if you don't add extra quality to the team, as sadly Bielsa found out sticking with the same team regardless, which ended very badly for everyone concerned, but i hope we have learnt our lesson, although unfortunately the hard way, and not repeat the same mistakes. .
I think Ipswich have already shot their bolt, and Southampton just showing the first signs of buckling and they have some tough fixtures coming up.
Not really but Ipswich have now had their difficult run of fixtures and I'd expect them to start winning again from now on. Southampton's ppg average would currently see them finish on 95 points but it's possible their remaining 15 games ppg average could be higher given the run they've been on since October 2023 The point really is though that if we get 94/95 points or higher and miss out it's not really our fault is it. Yes supporters will look at individual games and dropped points but you surely have to judge the season as a whole and that kind of points total over a Championship season is outstanding.
I thought you had grasped the principle that IF we win all of our remaining games we will go up (unless Ipswich start throwing in a few 6-0 victories)?
The thing is, we did spend when we got promoted last time (Rodrigo, Raphinha, Koch & Llorente) and it went well for a season. The following year we did negligible business and started to struggle but, in the third year we spent quite heavily again (Aaronssen, Adams, Kristennson and latterly Rutter and McKennie on loan) with disastrous consequences. Of all of them, only Rutter remains (thank god) and is why I would like to see the ones doing the business now get a chance. Consistent smart recruitment yes but wholesale changes ? No thanks.
I remember in an interview our esteemed director Anus gave when he said they mainly gambled with inexperienced 10 to 20m players who had never played in pl instead of going to the next level up of 35m plus. Its interesting Rutter is one of our most impressive players now and wed easily get our money back, he cost 30m plus and the rest bough were mainly rubbish that well lose our shirts on. Therefore Im wondering, if we go up, God forbid, instead of wholesale additions, do we add maybe three quality experienced pl players to bolster the squad. Seems most sensible approach to me
That's a good point. A couple of quality additions in the right areas could be all we need. I look at how badly the promoted teams have fared in the PL this year and it is a concern but I don't think any of them have the strikeforce we do. I really think Jimmy, Willy and Rutter would cause any defence problems. I think Gruev has been superb, he's PL quality but not sure about Camara.
