View from. . . Leeds

[peaty]

Leeds have 4 points out of 6. Can't complain? Think again. Like all of us, they're experiencing start-o-season nerves.

Part 1 is a selection of comments from fan forums. Part 2. . . tells you what the Leeds Service Crew think about the draw vs. Preston on Saturday.

Part 1: LUFC fans on Fulham match

I'm going for a hard fought 2-1 victory. At the end of last season I always blamed that 95th minute screamer from Cairney at ER as the reason we did not finish top 6. Let's hope we can avenge that loss and chalk up another 3 points before a tricky away game against Sunderland. Wood to score both goals for us.

We should see a return to fast flowing football against Fulham and with Fulham being one of the fancied teams you could say this is a 6 pointer. 2-0 Leeds

Lets see what TC and his new look team are made of. I went to Craven Cottage last season and they took us apart for 90 minutes.

Apparently Cairney or Carney is struggling to be fit....so expect him to score another screamer against us. Glad we let him go.

Ok we didn't lose on Saturday, that's the plus point out of the way, on the downside it was a pretty disappointing display at home, Can we do better on a Tuesday Night? Let's Bloody Hope So

Christiansen has no new injury problems following Saturday's goalless home draw with Preston, but full-back Gaetano Berardi (shoulder) and on-loan Everton centre-half Matthew Pennington (ankle) are still out. Samu Saiz could make his first league start for the club and fellow midfielder Ronaldo Vieira is pushing for a recall.

What do we change? Who do we drop and who comes in? For me....
Viera for Phillips
Siaz for O'Kane
Bridcutt for Roofe
Play a 4231. With a bank of 3 slightly more narrow behind Wood. Fulham without thier best mid who always scores against us (Cairney) and best CB Kalas. Up the tempo and show more aggression without fail.

I'd like to see us up the aggression level and get in their faces without going overboard. I think they have a bit more quality than us until we fully gel so we need to match them in another way

Squint and pretend we're playing Port Vale. Saiz should be quite a threat as Fulham ain't gonna sit back and pack midfield.

Think Cairney will be fit for the game and he'll be up for it but will hopefully get a lot of stick... Saiz has to start and hopefully create a load of chances....looking forward to seeing Allioski. Hard fought 1-0 win with Wood notching a brace....

If we play anything like we did again Preston, then we will lose this, TC9 [Christiansen, head coach] needs to make some changes

No changes likely in back 5 or Wood (unless sold) so about getting midfield to work. This is where we will most rotation I expect.

For this is a game we will need high paced players as Fulham are quick with almost everything. Ball movement, players movement. I am thinking maybe a midfield change. I would bring in Vieira and Saiz for Phillips and Hernandaz. I would also bring in Ekuban.

Part 2: After Preston last weekend (Leeds Service Crew not happy)

Had to work today so didn't go but I'll be there on Tuesday to see where we are. Fulham are quite a fancied team so if we do ok with them it could be reason for optimism.

There will be far better teams come to Elland Road[than PNE], and they WILL take points from us. We need to take points from the shite and get what we can from the "big boys" to sustain any sort of promotion push. I'm worried, fuckin big time, that the lads bought in the window are no better than the Sacko's and Antonnson's of the last campaign. I'm more worried that the likes of Sacko have reached a peak and aren't "projects" any more. There's a distinct lack of pace and directness down the flanks, and a lack of penetration down the middle from the midfield.

If you look at Hernandez, Saiz and Allioski, they are one and the same player, small, weak, no real pace, and happy to sit off the front man just flipping about. There comes a time in a game where someone in that area needs to grab it by the scruff of the neck "Strachan" style and go for the jugular. I don't see any of the above having anywhere near enough quality to do that. I came away from that game today feeling like I have done for the last 13 years, like this lot have absolutely no chance of taking us back to the Premier League. Don't think of me as a miserable c*nt, think of me as a pragmatist.

4 from 6 and a big cup win IS a good start. We've played 3 games and had to try 7 different defences because of injury/suspensions or new players so a bit of perspective might be in order. New manager/new ideas/new players takes time to gel/get right.

There are 2 main issues as I see it, otherwise we're in reasonable shape:
1) Phillips is poo. God knows why the managers persevere with him. He's slow, can't tackle, loses the ball, makes bad decisions... Basically everything you don't want in a central midfielder. I'm not sure why they don't give Anita a run in CM alongside O'Kane. I thought Anita looked great against Bolton. Also - before anyone says how good phillips was against Bolton - he was average, and scored a deflection and a tap in, so nothing special...
2) Hernandez is not a number 10. He's too lightweight and doesn't have enough awareness in that position. Get him out on the wing where he can do some damage. I'd give Saiz a go. He looked a bit livelier when he came on. I think if Christiansen made those 2 little changes, we'd look a lot better. I tweeted him to tell him so hopefully he'll sort it for the next game

PNE played us off the park in the first half and we couldn't do the dirty side of the game well enough like closing players down and winning the first ball. Our philosphy is to continue playing out from the back and our keeper making over ambitious throw=outs and passes which just put us under pressure. You have to do the dirty side of the game in order to earn the right to play like brazil imo. Jannson looked unfit to me and it will be interesting to see the real impact of Bartley departure from our back line on players like him. With games coming thick and fast it will test our squad strength to the max. The fascination of playing a 'number 10'baffles me especially when they are as powder puff as Hernadez was on saturday.

'Enforcers' are a myth in modern football as the rules don't allow for it, the best holding midfielders are intelligent not enforcers like Kante, Schneiderlin, Kroos, Busquets, Pirlo etc. People who are good passers, but their talent lies in being in the right place at the right time and winning the ball cleanly. And as far as I remember they barely threatened our goal and we kept a clean sheet as well as over 60% possession, so if that is us being dominated I can't wait to see us on top. It wasn't a great game, but feel people are wildly going over the top with some of the assessment you'd think we'd lost 3-0 and been battered when in reality we had the best chances and were the better team on the day.

Dress it up how you want, our midield still looks way too lightweight, and as for being on top, we were at home, in front of 34,000 fans and didnt have a single shot on target before their player was sent off. If that's us on top, I'd hate to see what it looks like when we are up against it!

I'm tellin ya'll the leeds midfield at present is way short of what is required for a top 6 finish. I'm stickin to my guns a central MF pairing of phillips and o'kane absolutely will not pay dividends for leeds utd. Neither is good enough. Saturday underlined that starkly. If TC can solve that conundrum (and he can start by dropping both of them!) then we may finish in the top 6. Neither have the guile or presence to dictate the play. O'kane was useless saturday until their lad got sent off. Phillips is just very, very average. He might improve. O'kane might. But i'm betting neither will.

Hernandez seems to be running on half empty constantly. Roofe is not living up to what we expected either....seems a very league one type player to me.  I know many of you think i'm talking bo=llox and that's fair enough as i do most of the time.  But i've seen enough football to know a good player from an average one from a very lower league one.  And i am 100% confident LUFC will not make the top 6 with o'kane/phillips as regulars.

[e4b]

Thanks for that.Some interesting thoughts from them.Overall they don't seem to confident but then are we?

[Legate21]

"Think Cairney will be fit for the game and he'll be up for it but will hopefully get a lot of stick... Saiz has to start and hopefully create a load of chances....looking forward to seeing Allioski. Hard fought 1-0 win with Wood notching a brace.... "

:005:

[Mince n Tatties]

"Think Cairney will be fit for the game and he'll be up for it but will hopefully get a lot of stick... Saiz has to start and hopefully create a load of chances....looking forward to seeing Allioski. Hard fought 1-0 win with Wood notching a brace.... "

:005:

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[fulhamfan]

Why are we always playing Leeds away on a Tuesday night?