BFTG - Leeds

[Avon Royal]

What exactly did Drenthe do except run into blind alleys and either :-

A) Fall Over
B) Pass to the opposition

My point was that you said Drenthe was the worst player, yet went on to stay you thought he was better than Blackman.

That doesn't make sense.

[Handsome Man]

A nil-nil would have been fair, I suppose, but who cares. We beat Leeds.

McCarthy 7 - poor kicking but ok otherwise
Kelly and Bridge 7 - good at both ends
Morrison 8 as a defender ? as a striker - at least the fifth chance ended up setting a goal
Pearce 7

Williams 7
Guthrie 9 - ran the game and +1 for the 40-yard run that ended with him being tripped by the 18-yard line
Akpan 6 - ok

Drenthe 3 - positively Marek-like at times in the way he gave up possession when challenged
Blackman 7 - good strong attacking game
Robson-Kanu 7 - must cross better but good

Other subs
Alf - a dilemma, as we play so badly when he is on the pitch, but he scores goals
McCleary - should have done better at times

[mikey0406]

No mention so far of the old bloke who seemingly had a heart attack/fit in the north stand during the second half, and the absolutely sh1te response time of the st johns medics being summoned by hundreds of fans. Possibly linked with the calls for a matthew to let himself known. Get well soon.

best of luck to the ill fella, maybe the south stand started singing to cause the heart attack

A friend of mine went to the hospital with him, he had a fit of some kind and they kept him in over night for observation

[mikey0406]

as for the game, the back for look solid and was very pleased by their performance last night....was disappointed by Morrison by his attacking element. he needs to start hitting the back of the net, those chances were gifts and we would of been punished by other teams in the league for missing those chances.

I thought Akpan played ok, won most balls in the air, maybe did pull out of a few challenges but his first home start of the season and with Karacan coming off injured you couldn't blame him if he thought if he keeps himself fit he may get a run in the team from here

Drenthe is a class act but with his skill he is going to loose the ball a lot, but I think his moments of class far outweigh when he looses the ball, noticed he was quick to get back a few times to do his defensive duties too

disappointed that blackman played wide right in the first half when we have a winger on the bench?? doesn't make sense...still crying out for that striker to play the lone role up top and who can bring others into play...is Jay bothroyd still available??

Guthrie is making players look average at this level, good to see

[LoyalRoyal22]

I thought 1-0 was a fair reflection. Good performance tonight i thought, you could see the 4-3-3 working. Pearce bringing the ball out from the back brilliantly, the full backs offering width. Guthrie controlling the midfield. Also think HRK looks perfect for the centre forward role. Stick with this system Nigel, but drop Blackman FFS!

Did feel sorry for Brian at the end, but you could see how better our football was better to watch, even though we are short in a few areas. Think the fans get frustrated because we don't play the high tempo we used to.

McCarthy- 7(untested)
Kelly- 6(Would prefer Gunter)
Bridge- 8
Pearce- 9
Morrison- 7
Guthrie- 9
Williams- 7
Akpan- 6
Drenthe- 6
Blackman- 5
HRK- 7

[Terry Tibbs]

Seriously worry about some of you guys. Blackman was perfectly decent on the right, skinned Warnock a fair few times, linked well with Kelly, just lacked that final killer ball...but certainly wasn't found lacking in effort and commitment.

Any of you that jeered him off are cunts of the highest order.

+1 agree thought he had a decent game on the right wing

[loyalroyal4life]

Finally: Kelly > Gunter. Many thanks.

Amen to that!!!

[loyalroyal4life]

Seriously worry about some of you guys. Blackman was perfectly decent on the right, skinned Warnock a fair few times, linked well with Kelly, just lacked that final killer ball...but certainly wasn't found lacking in effort and commitment.

Any of you that jeered him off are cunts of the highest order.

+1 agree thought he had a decent game on the right wing

Apart from the fact that he hasn't got a right foot and got moved to the wing as HRK is seen as more of a goal threat??? I'd play HRK and ALF up top.

[ayjaydee]

What exactly did Drenthe do except run into blind alleys and either :-

A) Fall Over
B) Pass to the opposition

He tap danced around the ball.

Edit: In his defense there was one particular point when he had three on him in what looked like a lost cause, and he flicked it up over them all and somehow got the ball away. The crowd made that hushed ooooh noise.

One other sublime piece of skill when he 'megged a Leeds player with a back heel to Bridge. However two or three skilz in a game do not a player make otherwise we would have signed Mr Woo.

[Handsome Man]

Fan fustration is going to be a problem, but shouldn't be. Our passing is improving, and can only improve further, but while this happens we might get stuffed by more direct teams. Trust in Nigel - everything will be all right in the end.

I'd play Pogonowski on his own for the next few weeks, with any three of HRK, Drenthe (I suppose), McAnuff, Blackman and McCleary. Williams and Guthrie can do the rest of the midfield work. Morrisson and LeFondre as sub can score all the goals.

[melonhead]

What exactly did Drenthe do except run into blind alleys and either :-

A) Fall Over
B) Pass to the opposition

Recieve the ball under close pressure and come away with it. Scare the shit out of the defence with his close control and pace. Draw alot of fouls and take a bit of a beating with no real protection
And ran about too much first half.

Not as good as his early games yeah.
Useless, no

[melonhead]

Blackman wasn't as bad as he usually is, but was still far below our other players and McCleary showed how much better he is when he came on. Blackman shouldn't be anywhere near the team.

Mcleary was about the same as blackman imo considering he should be destroying those tiring fbs; couple of tricks but f all in terms of end product

[melonhead]

Where was McAnuff last night? Presume injured because I can't believe NA would ve picked Blackman ahead of him on the wing.

Picked Alf ahead of him there on sunday

[BraisingsteakRoyal]

How far away is Leigertwood from a return? What with Karacan's injury and Akpans lack of bottle we're now looking rather light in that position.

[SWLR]

Hope the guy waiving his "Morrison to score first goal" at me after the scorer was announced, collected his cash before it was changed to Le Fondre.

Please to hear chap in NS was OK, at least he was able to walk (aided) down the steps

[Gordons Cumming]

I was pleasantly surprised tonight.

In the first half we dominated possession & Leeds couldn't get the ball for most of it.

Official possession stats for 1st half 50 - 50.

Sorry to disappoint.

[genome]

Think the comments on Drenthe are harsh. He looked good in the first half, good first touch, couple of really nice through balls, but it looked like he did something to his foot at the end of the first half. Consequently he wasn't anywhere near the same in the second half.

My main frustration was the lack of movement and urgency off the ball. It seemed to improve in the first part of the second half which also made the game a lot more open, but then we started doing it again.

A defeat was very harsh for Leeds. But I don't care!

[Nameless]

Think the comments on Drenthe are harsh. He looked good in the first half, good first touch, couple of really nice through balls, but it looked like he did something to his foot at the end of the first half. Consequently he wasn't anywhere near the same in the second half.

He clearly was in a lot of pain for the last 10 minutes of that half and could barely put his foot to the ground. I was sure we'd see Obita second half but things obviously weren;t as bad as they seemed.

The OS credits Drenthe with the free kick for the goal. Presumably the excellent delivery for that was of no consequence in the context of the game.

And LOL at the people who can;t tell Blackman from HRK. I couldn;t tell who was playing wide and who was central most of the time so I'll avoid rubbishing one and praising the other. Maybe worth others getting their player id right as well....

[Silver Fox]

We're far too soft up front but hey we're 7th, so imagine what we'd be like if we weren't in the crisis some of the clowns on here seem to think we're stuck in

[HoneyRoastHoax]

We're far too soft up front but hey we're 7th, so imagine what we'd be like if we weren't in the crisis some of the clowns on here seem to think we're stuck in

'greed.

We're not settled or at full pelt but we've only lost once and we're only out of play offs on goal difference.

Where is the crisis?!