Leeds Banter Archive April 05 2017

05 Apr 2017 19:52:55
Saturday needs A surprise change in tactics. something which the opposition aren't expecting. a change of formation, 2 or even 3 up front. It's got to a point where they don't need to even scout us anymore. were so predictable. mark wood out of the game and we don't score!

05 Apr 2017 22:30:30
agree Cura, I'm still very confident that we'll make the play offs and that's why I think we can afford to try tweaking it a bit. we seem to have hit a wall atm (still no need to panic) as in we're predictable. this is in no way a dig at monk (he's been superb) but i'd like to see us try a 3-5-2. don't get over run in midfield, help for defence when needed and help for woody up top. just my opinion. thoughts guys?

06 Apr 2017 01:38:42
I have no problem in principal with a 3-5-2 Degsy but we just don't have the squad for it right now. By my count we only have two available CB's . Ayling could step in as a third but we would need him elsewhere as he is currently our only RWB. At that point your talking about playing either someone out of position or throwing a youngster into a promotion fight. TBH if you want to throw a team a curve ball then start Antonsson, hasn't done well yet but as a result I guarantee not a single manager in the league would see it coming or plan for it. Wood has a pretty good record off the bench against tired CB's. Alternately start workhorses like Wood, Dallas and Doukara then replace with a speed injection of Roofe, Pedraza and Sacko for the last twenty rather than the other way around isn't the worst plan.

06 Apr 2017 10:59:36
i'd stick one more game on formation that has held so well over the season, before international break we beat one of the best teams i the league with it, two defeats in two difficult away games is no time to call for change, 3-5-2 is my favourite formation but we don't have three good cb's and berardi as wing back is useless as he can't go forward but is great in defence, ayling and taylor as wing backs work but then what in the middle as cbs?

berardi as cb or drop him for who as cb? if we fail again on sat with same formation maybe time to go 4-4-2 as that is staple diet of football formations. personally i would go green taylor, pontus, bartley, ayling, o'kane, veira, ped, sacko, pablo, wood for the game (no berardi as ayling better going forward and that is where we are lacking at the moment) and i'd tell pablo he has 45 minutes to liven up after poor recent form and let him know i am looking to drop him for roofe long term, i'd also let sacko know the same with me looking to get roofe on for either of them ASAP

06 Apr 2017 12:33:23
has Berardi ever been played as a CB?

06 Apr 2017 15:59:20
not sure alf but some are calling for 3-5-2 can see why but beradi would be out of place as wing back or centre back so don't think it would work IMO

05 Apr 2017 13:42:14
It wasn't so long ago we were saying, we need to strengthen FB, CB, wingers. Why are we buying O'Kane we are strong in CM. How wrong were we! CM has been costing us for weeks now. We need to go back to our most successful pairing of O'Kane and Phillips. Also when the good performances started Hernandez was out injured Roofe was behind. We need his energy back to support Woods.

05 Apr 2017 16:18:18
Agree with this. Hernandez is off form so give Roofe a go.

05 Apr 2017 19:48:57
Hernandez is our most creative player though. Take him out and who will create chances?

06 Apr 2017 01:53:50
At home Hernandez has to stay, away then I wouldn't mind seeing what Doukara or Dallas could do in there with a little more industry over style. Other option move Wood back a bit as a hold up/target man player with Roofe or Antonsson in front.

06 Apr 2017 11:02:01
Dallas offers nothing going forward. What's happened with Antonsson? He's not been given a chance, coming on for 5 mins hasn't proved he's not good enough.

06 Apr 2017 12:41:06
SG90 - pablo has created precious little himself in some games, particularly away from home so what difference does it make if he is in the team or not. i'd be interested to see what someone else could do in that position in away games at least. Give Roofe a shot at it and see what happens.

05 Apr 2017 12:40:44
Except for Fulham, all the teams around us had easy games against sides at the bottom, so them all winning looks worse than it is. Wendies have Newcastle and Reading have Norwich away, so we may see opposite results this weekend.

05 Apr 2017 10:49:18
It, s all well and good people saying it doesn't, t matter if we don, t go up this year as we will be in a better position next year but will we, which players will still be here and will the wage structure next year with another year in the championship be good enough to entice the quality of players needed to gain promotion, for me this year was our best opportunity but the January window let us down badly, if and only if we don, t make it up this year we will probably end up rebuilding half the team for next year and struggling at the start

05 Apr 2017 12:39:00
Agree. There's no certainty that we'd challenge again, plus teams coming down will have parachute payments and the likes of Villa, Norwich and Derby will want to do better. I'd be gutted if we didn't go up, as it's our best chance for years and the team who win the playoffs won't be any better than us.

06 Apr 2017 11:02:45
if we don't go up depends on what happens, we could lose monk wood veria and bartley then next year be in trouble.

06 Apr 2017 12:42:20
Don't want to sound overly pessimistic but I'm not feeling confident that we could make a promotion push next season if we don't go up this season. On paper we are probably about 10th best team in the league imo. Let's just go up this season and we won't have to worry about it.

05 Apr 2017 09:04:59
Think fans are getting far too carried away. We had a playoff rival away from home and then a difficult away game against a team we rarely beat who score bag fulls of goals, so a defeat was always likely. It's still well in our hands, as I said 4/6 defeats are needed at a minimum, which I can't see happening. We've lost 2/10, so this notion that we'll lose every game now is silly. Wendies have lost recently, as have Hudds and Fulham. Do they have no chance of the playoffs too? It doesn't matter where you finish in the playoffs, it's about turning up on the day.

05 Apr 2017 08:23:06
Lads for debate how many points from the remaining games to secure a play off spot. i'm going for 6. We have been averaging a lot higher all season but its squeaky bum time now, ) )

05 Apr 2017 08:45:00
I think 6 too. But I'd like 7

05 Apr 2017 08:12:52
There seems to be a lot of us settling for mediocrity. For me IF we finish in the playoffs but don't go up then we haven't had a good season. If we finish seventh then that's no better than last season. I'm sick of people saying what fantastic fans Leeds have. It's about time we had fantastic players again. It's the least we deserve for the thirteen years of the dross we've had to put up with. How long do we have to wait? Maybe if was younger it wouldn't bother me as much. We are a massive one club city and we have been punching well below our weight for far too long.

05 Apr 2017 08:47:43
Danum, I feel your frustration however I would argue that we have been punching above our weight this season given the resources available to Monk in comparison to other teams in the play off positions. If the progress of this season is built upon for next season then it will have been a success.

05 Apr 2017 01:58:55
So I stopped posting a little while back because of how defeatist the posts started to get, after years of optimism and hope while fighting it out at the wrong end of the table people have started to pull the team apart even when we've won.

I've decided to break my sabbatical and go on a little rant (Yes, yes, I can hear the groans from here) because honestly we should all be jubilant about this season, no matter how it ends. So first of all at the beginning of the season we wanted to fight to get a spot in the top ten this year, with a top six the season after.

We are currently on course for a playoff spot and even if we fall slightly short we will have gone above and beyond what anyone realistically expected. Obviously it would be huge to go up this year but next season might actually suit us more. First the teams coming down are a little weaker than the ones going up with most of them having to ship out their best players on top of that.

We on the other hand have built a really strong foundation this year to improve on. If we can sign Bartley on a permanent and keep hold of Wood we need such a small recruitment push compared to last year, with the upturn in attendances and the money from Taylor (probably won't stay if we stay down) we could realistically spend a reasonable amount to bring in two or three quality players and that's all we need to finish top two.

So optimism people, we might have lost a couple on the bounce (Last time we did that we went on a nice little run of form btw) but we will continue to march on, we just need to bring the 'together' back. In Monk we trust, up the Whites and down the pints!

05 Apr 2017 00:18:08
THumbs up if you think play offs is realistic, and explain why, thumbs down if not, and again, opinions why

05 Apr 2017 02:09:30
Playoffs is more than realistic, we still have a 5 point gap and probably the most forgiving run in for the last few games. We have had a couple of blips this season and it has never taken Monk and the team more than a couple of games to correct the problems. We might struggle in the playoffs if we cannot find the form of the mid season but I do think we will get that far. 2 wins and a draw would leave Fulham needing a better than 2 point a game average in the last six, currently averaging around 1.6 so a long way off.

05 Apr 2017 02:35:45
Samo it's realistic because even though and I suspect our fans maybe thinking our form is declining we are still in a strong position with 5 to go. Even with our poor form We still have winable games in wolves Norwich and burton. Not confident about Preston lol my biggest worry is how does monk change the mentality of the lads and bring them out of this slump in time for the playoffs

05 Apr 2017 03:33:17
I gave a thumbs up as the chances are more realistic than not. I think 4 points will get us in the play offs. Wether it's 5th or 6th it will not matter. As in the play offs anything can happen . just be positive as this year has been a success no matter what. Tho wouldn't it be great to get a date at Wembley and win to go up. 🙏🏻👍⚽😃