Leeds United Chat

Our season thus far ... and a look ahead

Being bored and anxious before the all important game against the Villains, I had a  look back at our performances and results from team, management and board.

In truth, probably a bit too early to tell us how the rest of the season will pan out, but maybe at least an indication of how things could turn out.

First and foremost the results and performances show a real divide between us at home or away. With away results and performances showing and proving to be nothing but relegation from, luckily our home form tells a different story.

Home (8pts from 15): some really good performances against top sides, up for it and at least giving as good as we got. With a bit more know-how, experience or better management we could and should perhaps be looking at 2 or 3 more points. Even if there have been moments in these home games when we either ran out of steam or are told to just sit deep (drive me nuts). In general at home we look a much more solid team that attacks and defends in unit, rather than away from home when and where individual players in turn seem to try and make something happen.

Away (3pts from 18): just the one win against a poor Wolves side, the only other time we came close to a point was at Fulham where a very late own goal cost us. In other games we never looked like getting anything  and that includes the game at fellow lowly Burnley.

Simple maths shows we would/might end up with 38pts. That said, we’ve got plenty of the big boys still to play us, so that may not work out.

As for individual players, stand out players to me have been Rodon (solid, strong, quick and a couple of vital goals) and GG (even with those blips). Others like Ampadu, Longstaff, Bogle have had good games followed by poor ones. Okafor has shown promise but not consistently so, Stach looked very good in pre-season but only reached that level for limited periods in some games. I’ve not been convinced by either Bijol or Perri as of yet. Aaronson to my surprise has been better than I hoped, but the question remains if that’s enough to get a starting place? Then again the lad isn’t a winger. DCL has looked the part in a number (home) games but struggle’s to find the net. Nmecha has got 2 goals (incl. 1 pen) from limited time but can’t say I would go with him as our main striker.

Onto Daniel Farke, tactics, line-up/set-up away from home has been far from convincing. Doesn’t seem to intervene in tactics or subs until it’s too late. Goes on and on about stats, but never seem to looks at himself or own up to a mistake. Games against Fulham, Bournemouth, Spurs and even West Ham one could feel the games were slipping away from us and still there seemed to be little or no intervention from him. I’ll admit that in regards to making attacking replacements there isn’t much he can do. I’m hoping that James and Gnonto get over their injuries because we need them back and at their best.

The board/recruitment team. The more I think about them, the worse it gets. So many mistakes were made. Where to start? I’ll start at the back, with the goalkeepers position, and yes most of us wanted a better option than Meslier. But the open question is if Perri is the one who, come the end of the season will save/get us 2, 3 or 4 pts? Because that’s what we should expect for ± 15M.  If Darlow is our nr. 2, why on earth keep both Meslier and Cairns? Remember money is tight! With Struijk being prone to the odd mistake(s), an additional CB was also an obvious choice. We got Bijol for ± 18M, so one should expect to have signed an improvement & first team starter. But have we improved? Just to make sure we got another in with Bornauw for 5M, who hasn’t played until now. And we already got Ampadu, Gruev and later even Longstaff who can all fill in at CB.

We also gave Sam Byram a new 1 year deal and later went on to sign Justin for another 8M, so again a decent mount for just another back-up player. In midfield (holding position) we had Tanaka, Gruev, Amps and we decided to add Stach and Longstaff for those exact the same positions. Meaning at least 2 of them wouldn’t play. Even last season (and the one before) we missed a real nr. 10.

Finally the striker position (nothing against freebies) but one shouldn’t be surprised if they’re not exactly turning out to be prolific. With either Nmecha or DCL being picked as main striker, what role did they have in mind for Piroe. Yes, we knew that in certain tough games in the Championship he could become a passenger, but why then not sell him?

Have all the signings been poor? No, there’s GG, Okafor & Longstaff. Pretty sure Stach can do much better too. It had more to do with the getting the wrong type of players or for the wrong positions. With money being restricted we needed to make sure we got true reinforcements in and more importantly in area’s we lacked Premiership quality.

Looking forward my biggest concern is that when we get relegated there won’t remain much to rebuild around.  Can’t see many of the new signings staying (sell at a loss?), nor the likes of Rodon, Amps, AO. Think the message is fairly clear, fear that if we go down there will be no coming back up again any time soon.