Crawley Town - v - Leeds United ***Matchday Thread***

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

Would gladly have a young Roy Keane now - much as at the time I detested him with a passion - god what a player he was and he drove that team on relentlessly.

Some players love winning but you also need players who hate losing more than they like winning to keep the standards super high at all times.

[LeedsFTW]

I know we have just seen a horror show, but in all honesty when I saw our line up, I thought it was a good blend of key players, people returning to match sharpness with a few youngsters getting an opportunity to prove themselves. I really thought we would smash Crawley.

What I couldn't and still can't fathom is the positions some of them were asked to play. Then add in a mix of inexperience and bad performances and the only conclusion to be reached (imo) is the club got a heck of a lot wrong today.

Even worse, it was on the Beeb and everyone got see it first hand. Sometimes I feel that we are guilty of trying to be to clever when keeping things a bit more simple could be more effective at times.

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

I know we have just seen a horror show, but in all honesty when I saw our line up, I thought it was a good blend of key players, people returning to match sharpness with a few youngsters getting an opportunity to prove themselves. I really thought we would smash Crawley.

What I couldn't and still can't fathom is the positions some of them were asked to play. Then add in a mix of inexperience and bad performances and the only conclusion to be reached (imo) is the club got a heck of a lot wrong today.

Even worse, it was on the Beeb and everyone got see it first hand. Sometimes I feel that we are guilty of trying to be to clever when keeping things a bit more simple could be more effective at times.

First half it wasn’t too bad (not saying it was great) as we had most players playing in familiar positions and a solid experienced spine - Cooper/Phillips, Struijk and Rodrigo.

Not sure why Shacks was at RB surely need to give him time in mid?

Second half was bonkers, Harrison up front, Casey playing alongside Phillips (surely play him with an experienced C, Jenkins and Greenwood in midfield in the face of a maelstrom, Poveda comes off and Costa left on.

Looking at the highlights we were very poor but Kilo properly cost us, each of the goals was stoppable even though we deserved to lose.

I wish Berardi was fit that was the sort of game we needed his no nonsense grit.


Bielsa is clearly a crazy genius but I wonder if he ever gets challenged by Orta and the board or whether they are too afraid to say anything for fear of him leaving?

[LeedsFTW]

Shackleton at RB, doesn't work for me. If he is a CM play him there.

Struijk in CM and Philips CD, can only think it was an experiment to see how we will cope without Kalvin in the next match.

Not going to judge Rodrigo as a CF based on that match as he had very little to feed off, though there was a chance where I thought if he had been braver and gone for a header instead of a volley he might have scored.

[klix]

First half it wasn’t too bad (not saying it was great) as we had most players playing in familiar positions and a solid experienced spine - Cooper/Phillips, Struijk and Rodrigo.

Not sure why Shacks was at RB surely need to give him time in mid?

Second half was bonkers, Harrison up front, Casey playing alongside Phillips (surely play him with an experienced C, Jenkins and Greenwood in midfield in the face of a maelstrom, Poveda comes off and Costa left on.

Looking at the highlights we were very poor but Kilo properly cost us, each of the goals was stoppable even though we deserved to lose.

I wish Berardi was fit that was the sort of game we needed his no nonsense grit.


Bielsa is clearly a crazy genius but I wonder if he ever gets challenged by Orta and the board or whether they are too afraid to say anything for fear of him leaving?

Orta was getting rid of Bielsa after the Brentford game away last season if the result went against us.

In the stand hidden away was Chris Houghton ready to step in, that is a fact.
It was squeaky bum time and the money invested we had to go up no ifs or butts otherwise it was carnage.

[Billyni]

A roy keane or a david batty would be sent off and jailed these days.

[ozleeds]

Mb in his press conference was like cat and mouse. Looked like the cat on tv where the mouse always beat him up.

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

A roy keane or a david batty would be sent off and jailed these days.

They would both have adapted but would have fought complacency and any drop in standards.