But, and it’s a BIG but. Anybody who witnessed last night’s debacle will realise that Leeds United, as a club, have failed to address the issues that almost saw us throw promotion away last season. I assumed that now the shackles and pressures of a promotion run-in are long since gone, we would have witnessed a controlled and quality performance against a decent League Two outfit.
Unfortunately, we were a yard off the pace for the entire 90 minutes and could easily have been one down within 30 seconds. Bury looked sharper, calmer and more comfortable and will feel aggrieved that it wasn’t more than four. Our midfield quartet were literally non-existent, Johnson contributed nothing as usual, Kilkenney and Howson are still too lightweight, repeatedly giving the ball away and Snodgrass looked like he was playing with chains around his ankles.
I’ m not usually one to over react to situations like this, but I can assure you, based on last nights performance, we should all be very worried… Our back five are probably suffering from having never played together before and that’ll take time but the only positive I can draw from them is Kasper Schmeichel’s kicking ability.
It wasn’t individual performances that concerned me most, it was the apparent lack of ideas. Without the option and outlet of a ball over the top, we looked very average and seemingly clueless about how to get beyond a League 2 defence. I hope the likes of Paynter, Sam and any additional signings we may or may not make can breath some life into Leeds United, as the only player who looked capable of performing at Championship level last night was Max Gradel.
So over to you Messrs Grayson and Bates, we need a leader and some deranged lunatic in central midfield, Oh and a 20-goal striker. Without these we are in for a very, very long season…
Oh, and Bury Football Club, charging £9.30 for 2 packaged pies and 2 Diet Cokes at a pre-season friendly is an outrage!
Follow The ‘Dirty Leeds’ Blog on Facebook, Twitter, via RSS News feeds and E-mail Subscription (YouTube channel coming soon…)
We have no one who can win a ball or even looks to win a ball. Grayson recognised last season we need a ball winner and while Doyle wasnt a total success he at least tried to fulfil that role. Kilkenny and Howson drift around waiting to be supplied by a non existant ball winner and constantly lose the ball or waste it when they have it. If the rumours are true that we have clubs offering £1.5m for Killa we sould snap their hands off. Its going to be a long preseason unless Grayson sorts this out.
ReplyDeletePS Have we bought another duff LB ???
Jeez, you dont htink you are maybe seeing too much in this? It was our third pre-season game against a team that will have seen this match as being their world cup final. The lads have just got back from Slovakia and we were missing several first team players and we had a defense who, like you pointed out, have never played together..... A bit early for the mass panic and "Grayson out" routine me thinks.
ReplyDeleteGood post Anonymous! Keep your hair fellas, pre-season is all about fitness and should be an exercise in team gelling without the pressure of defeat hanging too heavy. I don't care if we lose every remaining pre-season game, at least get the loses out of the system now. Come August 7th that's what counts! Mid table here we come!
ReplyDeleteI'm not on a "Grayson out" mission, far from it. I'm pointing out that anybody who was at last nights game will agree that a performance of that ineptitude is unacceptable no matter what level you're playing at or what might be at stake. We simply have massive weaknesses across the park.
ReplyDeleteAnd do you think for a moment that come August 8th it won't be Derby's World Cup final either? I'm not suggesting that because it's Leeds that they're going to play 20% better but its the opening game and they're going to want to win it! Unfortunately, last night we looked a million miles away from being able to stop them...
Dirty Leeds...Sorry m8, you misunderstood, I wasnt meaning to imply you were starting a "Get Grayson out" campaign or anything.
ReplyDeleteThe big difference between last night and the opening game of the season will be that on the opening game, we will ALSO want to win the game. As Matt pointed out, pre season is all about fitness and building an understanding. We have made a lot of changes to our squad and it will take a little time for them to get that understanding. The only thing that last night was.....was a good night for the Bury fans and another step toward our aim of fitness and understanding....nothing more.
Calm down man..
I hope you're right!
ReplyDeleteWe are looking very very light as a squad. Reading a lot of fan’s comments on players who have left to join Leeds doesn’t inspire me with confidence either.
ReplyDeleteWe seemed to have concentrated on signing one season wonders (Paynter) or Championship club rejects. Surely we should be looking to sign players who are there or there abouts a Premier League quality.
The McArthur statement recently really angered me – why are we stating a player is very good but then that we have no intention of bidding him???? Yet both Wigan and West Brom feel he can do a job in the Premier League. Surely this is they type of player we should be bidding on. Just look at Boro’s signings. OK they will be spending a lot more than we would want to on wages but it seems like were not trying to attract the type of quality player we can.
There are not many clubs in the Championship that can attract the type of quality player we can – why are we not taking advantage of this??!!!
25th July 2009…Leyton Orient 6, Newcastle United 1.
ReplyDeleteEnough said...lay off Howson.
Clarkeonenil...Excellent post m8 that pretty much says everything that needs to be said...
ReplyDeleteCalm down everyone...
what do we expect, just scraped promotion with a defense that was looking more dubious by the game and then we sign Collins... To sure things up even more we bring in a defender who cant get a game at Preston. The only quality we've added in 6 signings is Paynter and he's not as good as what hes replaced so all in all a decent 1st division squad that this year would probably just miss out on automatic. Gonna be a painful season..... Bury had 4 trialists!!!!
ReplyDeleteYou can point to Newcastle all you want, they still had many players who were Premiership quality - We don't!
ReplyDeleteThose of you that were there last night will know that our squad is not good enough and I include Howson in that, he can leave for me...
It is not rocket science, unless Bates ( or our mysterious owners ) reinvest more of our cash into the playing staff, how is Grayson supposed to produce a team capable of challenging in the Championship. Continual "free transfers" simply bring in players who are unable to get a game at the "lowly" clubs which they are leaving. ..... Why as supporters are we prepared to support this devious ownership "regime" !! !
ReplyDelete270 minutes football played
ReplyDelete1 goal scored
5 goals conceded
Won't Burys 5 trialists be available on free's?
Sign um up Ken...
We need 4 players at least. The defence looked a complete sham and was cut to bits more than once by two passes. We couldn't string one fucking pass together in the midfield mainly because of that tit Howson standing behind the two fucking other central midfielders. Thus leading to KS booting the ball over every cunts head. We look wank upfront with no goal threat until Somma came on and he hit a fucking rocket of a shot and probably should of scored. Gradel also did OK when he came on as did Aidy White, both showing a bit of will and desire to go at and passed players.
ReplyDeleteIf Grayson thinks this squad is OK to compete next season I'm seriously fucking worried. We struggled over the line last year and on last nights evidence we wont be struggling back over that same line.
O' and as for that fucking Snodgrass. He looked like he had been on the fucking ale all summer. Hands on hips every fucking five minutes looked nakerd from the off!
Worring times ahead is a fucking understatement on last nights perfomance.
A promotion campaign has to be build on defence and we ain't got one .... we we're cruising last year until we started loosing defenders..
ReplyDeleteNot heard a mention of this new left back in 3 games?
Bessone was dreadful last night but got very little support from Johnson, both going forward and defending
ReplyDeleteArds White, Pre season is what it is lets look to the next game and try and judge the squad from the next performance and the response. That my friends will show more about the team overall than bury... T
ReplyDeleteSo, there you have it. 5-0 against a higher class opposition today. We really have to stop panicking when we have the odd slip up lads. I read nothing more into this 5-0 win than I do in the 4-0 loss. Like I said previously it's what counts during the open season that counts. MOT
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete