Hall Of Fame
After the horror show vs Brighton
Game 1- Man U 5-1 defeat (2/10)
Fairly drab 30 minutes then embarrassing, toothless and pathetic sadly a cracker from Ayling will be forgotten. Brief chink where thought we might get back into it before collapsing like a deck of cards.
Game 2- Everton 2-2 draw (8/10)
A good performance, probably deserved a win but were also indebted to Meslier for some quality saves. Cooper with one of the dumbest penalties of the year.
Game 3- Burnley 1-1 draw (6/10)
A tough one this, they were dirty and made it a battle. Fairly toothless throughout but plugged away and in a normal season a result you wouldn't be too disappointed with.
Game 4- Liverpool 0-3 defeat (3/10)
Crap, they made us look like a Championship team. The result was hidden by Struijks ridiculous red card but the game was long gone by that point. Toothless going forward, again.
Game 5- Newcastle 1-1 draw (6/10)
A garbage Newcastle team and we let their one good player run rings round us for 90 minutes. Looked good going forward, should have been ahead but didn't take chances then paid the price.
Game 6- West Ham 1-2 defeat (6/10)
A trend that seems to befall us currently. We played well for 45 minutes actually looked pretty good then West Ham changed something, upped their level and we looked hopeless, unlucky to concede in 90th minute but it had been coming.
Game 7- Watford 1-0 Win (8/10)
A good performance, dominated them but again just couldn't score, took Llorente at a corner with a bit of luck to get us the win.
Game 8- Southampton 1-0 defeat (1/10)
Where to start with this one, embarrassing, spinless, toothless, pathetic. Missing Phillips, Raph, Bamford, Ayling, Koch all in this one but didn't excuse how bad they were.
Game 9- Wolves 1-1 draw (4/10)
Crap for 70 minutes then turned it on with Gelhardt providing the spark. As per this year, toothless going forward.
Game 10- Norwich 2-1 Win (7/10)
Absolutely dross Norwich team, nearly gifted them a point after a poor first half limited with nothing happening took Raphinha to do what he does and take the game for himself and score. Some stupid play at back then gifted them a corner and a goal before we got back into it.
Game 11- Leicester 1-1 Draw (8/10)
Actually one of few games I've enjoyed, took once more Raphinha class to get us on the scoresheet then gifted them a goal straight from kick off. Sloppiness nearly cost us yet again.
Game 12- Spurs 2-1 defeat (3/10)
Really struggled with people praising this performance, they literally didn't try first half they stood off let us have the ball and never tried to get out of their half. Second they bothered we looked horrendous and as soon as they went 2-1 up game was over and we never for a second looked like getting back into it.
Game 13- Brighton 0-0 draw (1/10)
Possibly the worst of the lot and what is more worrying is we couldn't even blame injuries. Abject and embarrassing, they should have routed us 4-0.
Players
Meslier 9/10- As usual keeping us in games, distribution poor at times but what options does he have
Cooper 6/10- Classic Cooper moments but hard to criticise a guy working beyond his capabilities
Llorente 8/10- Has genuine class and in a better team would really stand out
Struijk 8/10- Solid, dependable and someone I've glad we've got for years to come
Firpo 2/10- I want to give him a chance but it is carcrash tv watching him 'defend' he is never where he should be
Dallas 6/10- Never fault his effort but just looks off it this year with passing, defending etc sure he'll get it back
Koch- LOL
Ayling- LOL
Forshaw 9/10- To come back from what he has and do the job he has is outstanding
Phillips 7/10- Not seeing the same Kalvin too inconsistent can be brilliant but also poor
Klich 3/10- Odd good spell but generally poor
Shackleton 6/10- Hard to criticise him, nobody knows where he should play or what he is good at anymore
James 2/10 - Works hard but I struggle to remember a player with worse end product that we've paid for.
Harrison 2/10- Looks lost, can't track his man, constantly running into dead ends.
Rodrigo 4/10- Really not convinced anymore, I tried with him, I so want him to do well but just don't see it
Raphinha 9/10- Need I say more, we'd be below Norwich if he wasn't playing.
Roberts 3/10- Look, you can't blame him, it is like putting me on the pitch and being surprised I'm not good enough
Bamford- LOL
Overall the gist of it is we can't attack and look leaky at the back the second a team really puts the squeeze on us, we've bottled it four times this season and looked panicked on the pitch, gifting goals away or being under the cosh and just being lucky not to give goals away.
Questions need to be answered as to why we've not replaced likes of Pablo, Berardi and Alioski. Pablo issue has been 2 years in the making now and still I'm sat here waiting for it. I love Bielsa but his obsession with Roberts being that guy is costing us. The fact we spent 25m on Dan James, who is genuinely one of the worst players I've seen us pay money for, but couldn't find a striker or CENTRAL attacking midfielder in the window is beyond me. At some point we have to realise the squad needs to evolve and we can't depend on 18 year old kids to make up those numbers. Signings this year just don't look like working we've added James and Firpo and both look horrendously bad, I will give them benefit of the doubt but Raphinha joined and has looked different class.
Do I think we will go down? No, I do think we will be bottom 2 come January though. I think we will just be fortunate that Norwich/Newcastle are utterly garbage and we have enough individual quality to get us wins. We need 4 points if not 6 from our next two games, anything less than 4 and we will be in big danger going into a horrific run of games where we'll be lucky to get 3 points from 4 games.
Hall Of Fame
Crikey lad are you after a job as a reporter, that must be the longest post I've seen on here other than some copied in pre match reports from a certain chap living in Ireland.
One or two noises that Bamford is on his way back; sadly you are right re the fixture list we have a tough December to look forward to; there again if Burnley (and Man U) today can steal a point from Chelsea ho knows what can happen.
Hall Of Fame
Ha sometimes I just need to write things down to work it out in my head, it is as much for me as it is for the forumOriginally Posted by CalverleyBoy
My fear with Bamford is we need him for these next two not for the 4 nightmare games after as I don't think even with him we are going to get anything out of those games. I think we will sneak a draw or a lucky win from one of them but that's about it
Hall Of Fame
Anything that helps has to be worthwhile - I did read it all and agree in general, Harrison has certainly lost his mojo. I am not sure what Bamford will be like when he comes back, hopefully firing on all cylinders but maybe that is expecting too much!Ha sometimes I just need to write things down to work it out in my head, it is as much for me as it is for the forum
My fear with Bamford is we need him for these next two not for the 4 nightmare games after as I don't think even with him we are going to get anything out of those games. I think we will sneak a draw or a lucky win from one of them but that's about it
Hall Of Fame
Currently we've a £100 million wage bill for starters.
We've now got billionaire Peter Lowy on board via 49ers.
Rad's not always got things right but 3 days ago MB publicly stated that 'he is not offering value for Rad's money'.
Defeat at Spurs & Leeds players were given a 'rare day off' in London by Bielsa followed by a players party in a London nightclub which was kept secret until Philips suffered a minor cut to his head during the evening jolly and the press found out.
One clean sheet since August prior to Brighton & Bielsa states 'bigger groups of players limit emerging youngsters coming through' - so team selection of players obviously lack experience.
So a loyalty through the club in desperate run of injury, performances & results, publically stated.
I'm no bottler & PL season 2 was always going to be tough with the start of a needed team rebuild happening - the bigger picture is emerging but a master piece takes time to construct I hear.
Maybe Kalvin as a local lad should revert to becoming a complete player, leave his Lamborghini in the garage and have an honest look in the mirror on Monday and have a chat with the lads about putting a shift in against Palace for starters & not on the dance floor but for his coach and fans.
Hall Of Fame
Young people and money well that doesn't get to their heads nothing will. Some have a clear head get married buy houses cement their future others just don't get what life really is and resort to expensive cars jewelry waste money on what they call them women that go after them for money?
Drugs play a big part in their lives also and unfortunately not many make it such in their lives.
No one can predict who will come out and no one can really help them as it's one who owns their own brains.
Ones that actually find a good partner and keep their heads endure beautiful long-lasting lives after football.
It is what it is and young people don't listen and look for the easy life others go the way of Gascoin whatever his name is on drugs booze and short lives eg George Best.
From our team not that I know but seems like Ayling Dallas Bamf has a good head but who knows.
Hall Of Fame
Don’t think our wage bill is 100m MT but I maybe wrong - sure I saw something putting us in the bottom 4 or 5 in terms of wage bill - possibly due to the small squad size and we don’t have many huge earners in the squad.
Good summary Joel and totally agree that a lack of a Pablo like schemer in the middle is hurting us as is a lack of experienced back up for Bamff.
At the moment unless there is a dramatic turn around in individual form then Harrison, Klich, Roberts and Cooper should not be first picks or near the first team squad next year.
Hall Of Fame
'Northern'.....
Never mind my copied and pasted threads, that beats MT by a country mile. 🤣
Hall Of Fame
Current Board of Directors at Leeds Utd. https://www.leedsunited.com/news/clu...d-of-directors
ALL Staff wages maybe ?
https://www.teamtalk.com/news/big-mo...nted-100m-bill
https://www.footballinsider247.com/s...w-deal-agreed/
Hall Of Fame
Could be - the article references 46m last season so to more than double that with outgoing players and not many incomings would be odd. Think Paddy B, KP and Rapha all got new deals not sure who else beyond that.
Who knows though in the crazy financial world of football.
Last edited by hopelesslyoptimistic; 29-11-2021 at 11:30 AM.
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