Leeds Banter Archive December 11 2011

11 Dec 2011 21:04:49
Roll on january, need holding midielder and not a loanee please. Hard to know best team with all the loanees. We played well with a settled team. And please dont wait until 3 hours before deadline to get someone in, hoping the shortlist is already made to be honest and by mid january we will have a bit of depth. And about keogh, yes he works hard for leeds but so should everyone. And i dont like the fact that leeds are using the death of a leeds great to try and inspire the team, i mean what if we finish 12th, sounds like too much pressure to me. Anyway just my opinion. MOT.

We certainly need a right back too. If bates is gonna show his ambition he should back grayson. I think realistically gunther from forest is someone we could get. Wouldn't be too expensive. We need someone like michael brown but 10 years younger. A mid 20s david batty also andros townsend would be a good punt. 3 realistic possible targets. The centre mid I had in mind is someone like clingan from cov. Also maybe bring the gimp into the first team set up.

I dont think we can sign a 'mid 20's David Batty' unless we are growing one in the lab......now theres an idea!

11 Dec 2011 19:04:58
bad performance comes down to one missing player in my view - Jonny Howson, people on here who have slagged him off for being in the side, hes missing from the side and we played worse, think hes one of them players who people may slag off when hes there but when hes not, we know what we are missing.

Rubbish! Jonny Howson does not constitute the team. Yesterday was a combination of the wrong system and an off day from which we still got a valuable away point. We need to play 4-5-1 and improve our home record. My team for the game against Reading would be:

Lonergan

Connolly
Lees
O'Dea
White

Sam
Clayton
Howson (if fit otherwise Vayrynen)
Pugh
Snodgrass

McCormack

What the team needs is the 100% backing from the fans for the whole game and not the usual loud start, followed by 20 minutes of silence and then constant sniping from the stands. MOT.

Like when he was missing and we hammered Hull City you mean.

One game and in all honesty we were playing a very poor hull side

And about the formation mccormack is not a lone man

11 Dec 2011 18:08:20
The only thing that can get us promoted this season is us the fans
lets not be divided into whether Grayson is inept or lacking confidence in his tactics or selections let's just get behind the lads and bat the season out - already this year we are better off in points than last season and our away performances have been pretty good in terms of victories irrespective of whether we have stole the points or not - what it shows is the lads are fighting for 90 mins every game so lets give them the backing they deserve..

victories will come at Elland Road and the odd victory away from home should keep us in the top 6. All the teams in this league are capable of taking points off each other as proven so nobody is nailed on for promotion..! a new CB and RB in the January window is all i ask Santa for this year

Woody Marching on Together

Sadly it is not down to the fans alone .....were that the case we'd be in Champions League as Leeds is rated as one of the top five clubs in regard to a loyal & large fanbase.

Think results will decide it


But do agree with your sentiment.

MOT

If we're in the top 5 loyal fan bases how come the ground's almost half empty every home game. Not just down to the prices - too many 'fair weather' fans who are happier slagging off the manager every time we get a bad result than they are paying half the cost of a night in the pub to get down to the games.

Half empty home games mate I think uv bin turning up on the wrong day mate

Just a quick point about fair weather supporters... It IS about the money to me. I can't afford it anymore. That's why I dont go. Doesn't make me any less a supporter than a season ticket holder who goes to every game home and away. I had a season ticket for 7 years, but people's lives change. It doesn't stop me listening on the radio, reading about the team every day, and getting along to all the matches that I can afford to. It doesn't mean I'm not behind the team, it doesn't mean I support them any less than I did 30 years ago, or you do now. A fan is a fan, surely...

Think the half empty games hes referring to are the reserve games

11 Dec 2011 13:19:07
Lets all pull SG to bits for taking leeds into the top 6 for xmas with a good young improving team,and not spending 10 million along the way. PS from a leeds fan that follows his team and doesnt just read newspapers .

Yeah with rose tinted glasses on get a grip, Grayson is not good enough.

So tell me who is then??you maybe
?

Get back to cheating on football manager grayson hater

No Rose tinted glasses mate Grayson has done so much with so little (financially and personal backing) from the start that I'm shocked where top half mate
In Grayson we trust MOT

I seem to say this all the time, but he's improved year on year since coming to the club, and unless he finishes a season with a worse position than the year before, then why would we even think about replacing him?!

Quite right ,onwards and upwards. M.O.T

11 Dec 2011 09:45:04
Well looking back at yesterday we escaped with a point against a team that scrapped like mad and are improving. We were very unsure of our game plan and looked nervous throughout. I thought that apart from Clayton, no one really looked like they wanted the ball at times. But a point is a point and apart from Hull winning we have not lost ground overall and are 3 points clear of 7th, so our destiny is in our hands.

However, one thing has become increasingly clear to me though - Paddy is finished. He is constantly caught out of position and due to his lack of speed or acceleration he ends up giving away goals and penalties. No questioning his heart, but it time to say goodbye and thanks. As much as it pains me I would rather see O'Dea play alongside Lees as he at least possesses some speed and does need to make desperate last ditch tackles that lead to deadball situations in and around the box. Keogh is another player who is not adding anything to the team as a whole and he can pop off back to Wolves at the end of his loan. Becchio does a similar job of holding the ball up and he also knows how to score unlike AK.

You can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear and I think, with the available resources, SG is doing a reasonable job at getting us in the play offs. But lets see more of Mika Vayrynen and maybe a glimpse of Mr. Forssell!

At last a fan with a clear insight, whenever others suggest these options we are lambasted as S.G haters or morons - good post mate

Agree about Paddy - nearly gave away two goals yesterday with the penalty. I think Keogh's done a good job for us as backup when Becchio was injured.

Thought Forssell looked uninterested when he's played.

Forssell has not played for more than a few minutes has he? Hard to assess his interest level from that! He is a first choice for Finland who are a reasonable side which says something. Agree abouy Paddy. He could not get near Kightley for the goal and just backed off and practically invited the shot. O'Dea ain't great, but he has to be a better bet than Kisnorbo.

I meant to say in the original post that O'Dea does NOT need to make desperate tackles. Doh!

O'Dea does NOT need to make desperate tackles?? Have you ever actually seen him play as poor as Paddy is playing these days O'Dea is without a shadow of a doubt one of the worst centre halves to have ever played for Leeds in all fairness anyone who was behind Daniel Majstorovic in the pecking order says it all.
Oh yeah and by the way how many clean sheets have Leeds kept with O'Dea??

Think we got our first 2 clean sheets with o'dea in the side, words spoon eat

Think you'll find we've only kept one clean sheet With O'Dea in what has he 17 appearances it it? I hope you have a sppon at the ready now get back in your cage.

Nope it was definatly 2, pompy at home and then donny away, so now who needs to get back in their cage?

So 'think youll find' a spoon and a bowl with your words in them so get a spoonfull and get munching, biatchhhhhhhhh

10 Dec 2011 23:55:56
I haven't seen todays game. I fully support SG and think we are doing fine just now. A point is not the end of the world today, especially as i gather we did not play well. Just one thing that I would criticise. Why bring Keogh back in? Not sure about that. Onwards and upwards, need another home win next week. SG, may you reign forever!!!

Keogh's played well - brings in other players and works hard. Howson out and Brown still carrying a knock so he had to make changes.

On the SG front there's a guy below listing a couple of bad results as proof of Grayson needing to go. Let's see...

Blackpool? Preston? All teams have unexpected results and lose the odd game from a winning position.

Let's look at the other side..

What about beating Man U, drawing against Spurs & Arsenal, taking 6 points off champions QPR?

None of the above proves anything, the wins, draws or defeats.

What matters is this...

Play-offs, promotion, 7th in first season back in Championship. An outstanding record for 3 years in the job.

Whoever listed defeats as absolute proof without counter balancing is simply prejudiced and irrational. Good job he's not a football chairman.

And as for the guy below whining about what our target is and where we want to finish and where will we finish- he needs to get real. What do we want? We WANT to win the league of course. Being realistic, given the negative net expenditure on players (-£5 million this summer ) I'd say top half is the best we can expect. Given our player budget it looks like we'll overachieve again - surely that shows that our manager is doing a good job with limited resources.

How can you over achieve at mid table when your club expects promotion irrespective of what budget or resources are made available? if my employer told me they needed to sell "for example" 20.000 boxes of tampax a week to sustain capital growth and i only managed say 10.000 - would i be over achieving..

I am the original poster. Pretty much agree with everything you said there. A balanced rational assessment of how SG has performed would be that he has done well ( not brilliantly as per a Paul Lambert or Nigel Adkins), but very well none the less. Especially when you consider the pressure and expectations at Leeds, the lack of finance and continually losing players he would like to keep. Also having to beg, steal and borrow loan players on a regular basis. Those who don't appreciate SG should consider what is realistic in the circumstances. I personally like SG's way of running the club, his affinity with the fans and the stability his continued tenure brings. We should stick with him and eventually we will get where we want to go. If we replaced him, it would most likely be with a lesser candidate and we would have to start all over again.

I have been a bit concerned with KB's recent comments appearing to undermine and add pressure to SG. Not conducive to helping the team..I hope we don't see KB get trigger happy just because we are not going to get automatic promotion.

As for Keogh. Agree he works hard and helps others, an asset against a team like Watford. However, he offers no goal threat and has little guile. Would have preferred the 4-5-1 again with White in midfield and Pugh dropping to LB, or possibly Nunez ( who I think deserves a chance) playing just off Becchio. I assume that McCormack did not play after having a tough week and no sleep with a crying baby!!

To the guy above talking about his employer's targets - that's utter nonsense. I know about setting employer targets because I run a pretty successful software company and have done for 12 years. I know that the worst thing I could do is to set my team unrealistic, unachievable targets. There is nothing wrong with aiming high but targeting 20,000 when there is no prospect of selling more than 10,000, to use your example, would be destructive. An employer behaving that way simply demotivates everyone in the company and that generally leads to a damagingly high staff turnover, followed soon after by financial difficulties. No doubt there will be a few disagrees on this, but not, I suspect, from anyone who actually has the responsibility of running a company...

Just a quick point on nigel adkins. At the minute he has done no more or less than grayson has. If southamton get promoted this year, which i don't think they will personally, could be wrong, but team and squad wise i don't think they are strong enough to last the season the way they have started, but if they do then he will have done brilliantly and can be held up as an example to grayson. It's a long season though, so no point using adkins as a branch to hit grayson with until it's all done and dusted.