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Leeds United but Warnock pays the penalty

3/2/2013

16 Comments

 

Mark Rasdall

Picture
There was a perceptible trepidation about messages and comments on the various football forums before Leeds United's home game with Cardiff City yesterday. We lost of course. As with the likes of Millwall and Derby away there seems to be some kind of hidden asterisk against these fixtures. If we could actually scroll down to the bottom of the list when it is published at the start of each season the small print would state clearly 'LUFC to lose.' Cardiff also do pretty well at Elland Road, as they did again yesterday.

Don Revie's superstitions would probably have run not just to gypsy curses but some kind of exotic disease carried on ships blown into Cardiff Bay by the trade winds. The trade winds are always there, as is the temptation to take a fatalist stance on these matters but it needn't be like this. Our losing streak to the Welshmen was there to be halted every bit as much as was our winning home run in the league.

Last week few people gave us much chance against Tottenham in the Cup and we played our hearts out within an excellent game plan to get a great result. I posted immediately afterwards that we could now build on this and bring the same kind of passion and hopefully consistency into our league performances. I have also written recently that if Neil Warnock was losing his passion or tactical cutting
edge then he should admit it and we could try something different.

Cardiff came to Leeds yesterday with a similarly robust plan and they stuck to it. Leeds matched them pretty well for an hour and then an unfortunate mistake enabled Cardiff to go ahead. Sadly, during that last half hour, the realities of our entire season was exposed: Ross McCormack was played out of position on the wing and struggled; Austin lumbered around throughout and appeared to not be match fit and yet was not substituted by Norris or, at least, Green; we resorted to a long-ball game that the poor attendance following a massive Cup victory and a game against the Championship leaders showed again is not what we want to see - win or lose, promotion or not - and one which would be simply annihilated in the Premier League. None of us want to be Stoke City.

It's fine for Warnock to praise Lee Peltier now but that didn't stop him playing him at left-back over and over again when it was obviously not working. He brought Poleon back early from his loan spell and we haven't seen him - not even for fifteen minutes or so. He blamed Becchio for his own lack of tactical insight by not being able to make the hoof ball work; I really hope Morison won't get the same treatment but suspect he might.

Instead of explaining why he didn't try to bring some energy into the team or at least attempt something different, Warnock preferred to talk about refereeing decisions that went against us. We're Leeds United - they always do.
 
We've loved blaming Bates for everything and probably with some justification though I'm sure it's much more to do with 1970 than 2013. We are already complaining about GFH, whilst conveniently forgetting about the Peter Ridsdale years when we lived the dream and woke up to the nightmare. We blame the players coming in and love to find fault with each and every one of them when we think they're not performing or don't care. We're entitled to do all of this because we care more about Leeds United than any of them. For most of us, love always comes before money, even if the relationship gets a bit strained from time to time and we wonder if we're just being taken for granted again.

I don't think we played badly yesterday against a team that are now ten points clear at the top. My issue is that not only were our expectations from the game matched, which is a pretty sad indictment in itself, we simply never really looked like winning the game and at the point where we really needed to turn the
tide we blamed the lighthouse for not shining its light strongly enough rather than changing course to avoid the rocks that everyone knew were there beforehand.

16 Comments
dubreyfirkin
3/2/2013 03:42:13 am

Well said, nice analogy at the end.

19000 crowd v worrying, says it all really.

Keep heads up.

MOT

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Cumbrian White link
3/2/2013 04:18:43 am

Our fans keep saying we are a big club , the 19000 yesterday was a really poor attendance . I travel from West Cumbria to every home game and i really thought that once our new owners had taken over the running of the club then, all of those fans boycotting because of Uncle Ken would then return.
We are one of, if not the biggest one club city in Europe and we need our fans to return in their droves if we are ever to have any hope of returning the the premier league. Come on Fellow leeds united fans lets get behind the lads and behind the new owners and show them what we are all about.
I also know we have had almost 10 years of watching poor quality teams and becoming a laughing stock for other football supporters to ridicule and people are fed up with paying good money and getting very little in return. So come back to Elland Road and support the boys. They need you - On On On

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Leedstooth
3/2/2013 05:35:25 am

The supporters are staying away because of the style of football being played. It's boring and ineffective. Many supporters I know will not return until Warnock has gone. The man is a self-centred has-been.

P C link
3/2/2013 03:47:45 am

Great article. Warnock needs to go before it is too late.

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nico loco link
3/2/2013 08:04:35 am

Sad but true

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Tare
3/2/2013 03:49:44 am

History is always there whether you like or not. Still thinking that we will get out of this division sooner or later. Some boys that have lived League 1 and CS are giving back burners here but what comes to LEEDS UNITED FOOTBALL CLUB then we are talking about the real issue- Tare

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Paul
3/2/2013 03:54:14 am

If I was in GFH shoes, I would do anything I can to bring Adkins in. Warnock is not right for Leeds United. We have allowed quality to leave and honestly we have brought in nothing (with any value) Fans don't like Warnock. 2012/13 may well be over for LUFC, so lets plan for next year.

Only one problem - Adkins needs a lot of money, to get rid of the crap Warnock purchased and get players that want to play (and can)

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Mark
3/2/2013 04:44:08 am

The relentless criticism of Neil Warnock is unwarranted. I have supported Leeds United for 43 years and, except for his predecessor Simon Grayson, never has a Leeds United board of directors undermined and let down a manager as much as the Board of Ken Bates until GFH became the owners. Warnock has a very good track record as a Championship manager and yet he has been given next to nothing in funds to rebuild an entire squad. Many of the players he has brought in are well established Championship players and he has acted rationally and logically given the paucity of available money. Even Ken Bates has admitted that the new owners will be able to support Warnock more than his Board. "we have allowed quality to leave" - that was Ken Bates not Warnock and not Grayson, because Bates has sold every single one of our best players relentlessly for the past five years.

Furthermore, a large number of the missing 10,000-15,000 Leeds United fans need to look at themselves in the mirror. Supporting a football club does not just mean turning up at high profile FA Cup matches (suddenly 29,000+ appeared), it means turning up at every home match regardless of who the opposition is. The attendance for the home match with Cardiff was indefensible and abysmal and only serves to undermine the efforts of the new owners and of Warnock.
We can still finish in the top six and when Morison is fit enough to play, he will score goals and is a better all-round player than Becchio.

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PC link
3/2/2013 05:19:20 am

I don't turn up any more (after 40 years) because the football is dire and while Warnock is manager it always will be.

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Leedstooth
3/2/2013 05:40:33 am

Why pay £30 to watch football you see played on the local park for nowt ? It's Warnocks fault - he provides the tactics. He's always hated Leeds and now is just lining his pockets for retirement without a care for where the club ends up. I feel sorry for the supporters who cannot see this and simply follow like sheep.

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adam link
3/2/2013 04:52:00 am

i agree that warnock isnt the right man for leeds atm,i also agree that he has done an ok job given the circumstances.we should see it out till the end of the season and give him his chance.if we are nowhere near i think he will DEFINATELY retire.if we just miss out he should be given another season IMO.
the attendances-it just seems like there is a cloud over the club and it is only going to be lifted by a long run of good form home and away,this is achieved by investment in the team obviously.bates retaining a link with the club was a HUGE mistake by gfh but i dont think it would have made a difference on the attendances this season if his connection with lufc was severed in november.
in short,i think we are going to have to persevere through this lull and hopefully we will come out stronger in maybe 12-18 months time. LUFC MOT

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john wilson
3/2/2013 05:27:54 am

Leeds season will be over in 10 days time if we don't win at Middlesborough. We would be too far away from a playoff place with too few games left to turn it round. In the likely event this happens we should start planning for next season including identifying the shortlist of managers. At the moment Leeds are nowhere near being a Premiership team. We have a lot of players at the wrong end of their career and we need a younger, fitter squad who can keep going for 90 mins.

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Ben
3/2/2013 07:57:04 am

Yeah I don't get all the Warnock hate, we're still 17 games out and only 6 off the playoffs. He's got form for getting teams up - and the fact we are 6 points off the playoffs depite no real transfer funds is a credit to the man imo.

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nico loco
3/2/2013 08:10:39 am

Why Becchio hand the transfer request is all so obvisiuosly, Warnock blame him for to think to much of wanting out after the Barnsley , and of course he dont want to play for the club because the critisism was unfair. Its Warnock to blame for Becchio leaving the club and maybe the owners because they should rather sacked Warnock. And Bates of course, isnt he still in Leeds to as a adviser for the owners? Its all sucks...

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shazzan
3/2/2013 09:10:29 am

Got to say the standard of football was rubbish. Entertainment value of zero. What was Austin doing in midfield?? Get rid of him. We want the ball on the ground. I'm sick of watching head tennis. For me Warnock is running out of time and I was pleased when he first came in. How about Poyet or Adkins. But whoever comes in we want to watch football played on the ground!

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Paul Cranswick
3/2/2013 12:47:16 pm

Ironically Brown and Varney who I never wanted to see in a white shirt have actually done quite well for us in the last couple of games but are clearly not long term answers. Austin has looked extremely poor and his coverage of ground abysmal. We should either extend Barkley or get him out of the line-up - we should not be a feeder or training ground for other clubs.
Peltier has been a revelation in the centre whether accidentally or on purpose and the two full-backs have done well (Byram's error on Saturday notwithstanding) I would be hardpressed to think of another pair of full-backs that have dealt so well with Bale and Lennon all year.

We need the youngsters coming through and we need some pace and width. Habibou based on his fifteen minutes is not going to help us much.

There is the makings of a half decent side there but it needs somebody to get them playing properly to propel the club forward.
Naylor, Adkins, Poyet, Di Matteo or possibly Lambert if tasked with building for the future and with a modicum of support could get this squad up. Get Poleon and Dawson in the team for some youth, pride and exuberance.
KENNY, BYRAM, LEES, PELTIER, WHITE, GREEN, DAWSON, TONGE, POLEON, MORISON and McCORMACK in a 4-3-3 at present.



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