Diary of a Leeds Fan (04/11-11/11/17)

Saturday 4/11

Remembering my Dad.
Gone one year ago today.

Brentford v Leeds

Team News: Berardi, Cooper and Phillips come in, Dallas, Pennington and Roofe drop out

Team: Lonergan, Ayling, Jansson, Cooper(c), Berardi, O’Kane, Vieira, Alioski, Phillips, Siaz, Lasogga.

The Game

Seven defeats in eight Championship fixtures leaves Leeds in tenth position, two late goals gave this impressive Brentford side the three points.

Leeds’ dismal decent down the table hasn’t been help by individuals making mistakes, another one from Lonergan gifting the opening goal to Brentford and after that, instead of upping their games the team in while and gold sulked around the field, whilst their opponents made intelligent use of the ball.

The hosts should have doubled their lead, Jansson, (a shadow of the player he was last season) upended goalscorer Maupay but Watkins penalty skimmed the bar and went over into the crowd, Leeds were very lucky to be only a goal behind at the break.

Christainsen brought on Roofe and Hernandez for the inadequate and extremely lazy Lasogga and O’Kane, Roofe played as a central striker and for the first time in the game Leeds looked to be in the game with both Hernandez and Roofe heavily involved in the improvement, after sixty seven minutes Leeds were level, Bentley flapped at a Berardi cross and Alioski headed powerfully past two Brentford defenders stood on the line, Siaz and Cooper had opportunities before Brentford hit the bar.

The home side went in front five minutes from time, Barbet somehow beat Lonergan direct from a free kick with five minutes from time, out of form Ayling should have scored with a header from a Hernandez free kick but his header dropped inches wide. Deep into injury time MOTM Woods rubbed salt in the wounds taking advantage of a absent Leeds defence. The scoreline flattered the hosts, but without doubt the better side won the game.

I struggle to understand why, with the team playing better, especially Roofe and the match in the balance, Christainsen brings on a player (Grot) that doesn’t look good enough for the under 23’s and moves him centrally with Roofe moved to the right, another example of a poor substitution decision by the Head Coach.

If he had to change things; Dallas would have been a better option to replace Alioski. Decisions like this ultimately can sometimes be the reason why Head Coach/Manager’s lose their jobs!

Two weeks for the coach and players to sort this shambles out!

Apart from a twenty minute spell in the second half it was another ‘rank’ bad performance.

Post Match:

Thomas Christiansen: “I know it’s the same question from the last few weeks but if we don’t have faith, if we don’t believe, then we can throw everything away and go home. We are here, we are fighters and we’ll come back again, all of these situations will be hard. There’s more pressure now and if we lose the next game then there’s more pressure than today. This is the business of football, we all know how it is but there’s only one way to come out – stick together and fight back.”

Dean Smith: “I have always had great belief in what we do even when some people were looking at me like I was mad when our performances weren’t getting the results we deserved. Once again against Leeds we have worked hard and shown the quality in the squad, so now it’s just a case of seeing where that takes us. For me the performances were the main thing.”


Sunday 5/11

Andrew Butterwick see’s no ‘fireworks’ in the latest lamentable performance at Brentford

http://leedsfan.blogspot.com/2017/11/brentford-v-leeds-utd-4th-november-2017.html

Sorry state of affairs, after it looked so different a month or so ago. Thanks Andrew.


Monday 6/11

Happy Birthday Johnny Giles, 77 years young today.

Heidi Haigh tries her best to lift the gloom on a frosty Monday morning

http://www.followmeandleedsunited.co.uk/brentford-away-4th-november-2017

Thank you Heidi.

Slaven Bilic sacked as West Ham United manager.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, it bloody did ! Three defeats, two at home have turned a enjoyable early season to a nightmare period when it seems a win is beyond Christiansen's team. What has to change?

A meeting between owner, management and players may be the answer, clear the air before it gets any worse. The Head Coach has come in for a fair amount of flack for the recent defeat at Brentford and the look on Radrizzani’s face may give the softly spoken HC a few bad night’s sleep, hopefully by Middlesbrough everything will be back in place.

I’m off to stare at a wall and forget for a few days. See you after the international break.


Tuesday 7/11

@Lufc releases a stat of the clubs current top goal scorers this season. Youngster Kalvin Phillips is currently joint top with Lasogga.

The Leeds United foundation have joined a partnership with Blue Apple Training to work together in creating opportunities for the unemployed within Leeds.

The new opportunity will include skill courses, training programmes and links with employers and will kick off with an employment drive at Elland Road on November 23rd.


Wednesday 8/11

On this day Dom Matteo scored 'that goal' in the San Siro.

The game was in the 2000/01 season and Leeds went on to face Valencia in the semi finals.


Thursday 9/11

During Leeds' international break they will have no fewer than nine players on International duty, including seven from the first team.

Leeds trio Eunan O'Kane, Pontus Jansson and Stuart Dallas will feature for their respective national sides as they try to keep their World Cup hopes alive in the playoffs.

Other players to feature; Cooper, Alioski, Shaughnessy, Grot and Development Squad duo Oliver Sarkic and Will Huffer will all feature for their respective national teams or Under 21's.


Friday 10/11

Voting has opened for Leeds' October Player of the Month has now opened with Lasogga, Saiz, Phillips and Vieira all nominated for the award.

Leeds Under 23's drew 1-1 against Nottingham Forest with Spanish youngster Oriol Rey scoring a scorching volley to open the scoring.


Saturday 11/11

Let us never forget their service

Let us never forget their service

MOT

By Keith Ingham