Why's it going Pete Tong?

23/4/2017

Many fans will have woke. up this morning and looked in their brew this morning searching for answers on why the wheels have fallen off the bus on Leeds' run to what looked like a certain place in the top six.

I know it's not over until the large lady sings, but she's warming up her throat already. A lot of things need to happen for this season to deliver what it had promised since November.

If I may I will put my case on why it seems to have gone Pete Tong;

1. Strength in depth
The most important reason is that if you look at most of the teams challenging, Leeds' squad is small compared to most and the reluctance of the co-owners to invest in January has in my opinion come back to bite the team in the arse.

I'd like to put a little 'meat' into my argument too, around the time the window opened we'd just beaten Preston North End away, without Chris Wood who was out injured but still a few negative murmurs were coming out of the club. In one Massimo Cellino said the squad was too big and advised his co-owner Andrea Radrizzani to keep his euros or pounds in his wallet.

Big mistake boys, as we have found in April the squad is 'treading water' and a few, in some games look to be honest, knackered.

I don't like to single out player's but can anybody tell me one contribution that Mo Barrow has done since his arrival from Swansea on loan?

Barrow has not been present during the loan spell and seems a poor price of rushed business.

At least Alfonso Pedraza on occasions has shown he has the ability to score a goal and go past a player or two, signing Barrow came out of desperation from the owners not the Head Coach.

2. Sutton United FA Cup
There are times in a Head Coaches tenure at clubs when with the best possible intentions you get it totally wrong.

I'm sure Garry Monk thought he'd pick a decent team to beat their Non League opponents but the one's left out may not have been so impressed, a live TV game with a chance to show football what they could do.

The performances straight after that showed a 'chink' in the armour and maybe morale was affected. I'm not privy to the inner workings of the club but that's how it seemed to me as a supporter.

3. Constant Changes
A can count on my fingers the time Garry Monk keep the same team, even if we'd played well and won the week before, look at most teams that do well and you'll see that their supporters could name their team week-on-week, at Leeds this didn't happen and I'm still not sure Garry Monk knows his best eleven even now.

4. PontusGate
There is no doubting the ability of the Swedish marauder but two incidents remain within the confines of the Theatre of Everlasting Hope.

On both occasions whatever happened was serious enough to drop the centre half and the way it was kept quiet still needs a little explanation and his agent hasn't helped with constant hawking of the talents of said player around the Premier League. Rumours they may be but it doesn't sit well with fans or colleagues if you might be 'talking the talk, but not walking the walk'.

Is it a simple misunderstanding or has their been a divide between Jansson and some of his colleagues

I hope he stays; maverick or not alongside Bartley he has been immense, but I feel he may always have a little 'baggage' with him.

5. Defeats
Barnsley A, Cardiff City H, Brentford A, Wolves H and Burton A. All games that you'd expect at least to get a point from each. We didn't seem to come out of international breaks in the same way as we went into them.

I may be a bit premature, because if Ipswich, Brentford and Sheffield Wednesday do Leeds a favour I may be writing a completely different article, my head made me write this article not my heart.

As it stands I don't see anybody doing that and we've still to beat Norwich City and Wigan Athletic to give us a chance again.

I'm not saying it's been a poor season, because it hasn't. The links developed between team and supporters has been superb and the belief is that this is the start of better times at Leeds United.

We've waited so long for a team that we could aline ourselves with. I'm immensely proud to be a supporter of this team, I just feel that like the team that got so close in 2011, a little bit of money spent on the squad would have been the difference between a good season and a really great season.

MOT

By Keith Ingham

17 Comments

Wayne

23/4/2017 08:36:28 am

Great article totally agree games up I'm afraid Leeds have been found out if teams domanate the midfield it leaves cw isolated wingers not good enough even on the break seems to me monk came in and concentrated on the defensive frailties but not much else

James

23/4/2017 08:47:36 am

Sheffield Wednesday have a 10 million pound striker sat on the bench to bring on when necessary. This sums up the difference in our squad and some of those around us. Investment is needed to add to the current squad and we will be up there again next season.

Sprake

23/4/2017 08:56:16 am

Good article. I think players have failed the Club, fans and manager.
I am not talking about the young players like Kalvin Phillips etc. but the likes of Pablo, Bridcutt, Roofe, Doukara, Antonson and yes Pontus plus most of the wingers. The squad is inbalanced with far to many wingers, lacking center half and play maker plus Wood if the only striker. I hope Monk will get a new deal and make the chances he wants like get rid of the players that failed him this season. Maybe the best way forward would be to sell Janson and Wood for 25m pounds to use for a new and stronger squad.

Andy link

23/4/2017 03:11:51 pm

Monk has been with us all season and has had chances to shape the team. Tactically he has been poor apart from against the top sides. Playing 1 up front and especially someone without pace or unable to hold a ball up just does not work unless you rely on shutting up shop against the good sides and hope for a one off chance. Against the weaker sides it has been a dreadful strategy. We have scabbed single goal wins against some poor teams, but poor teams who have been better than us. Sorry but we have only played about 3 good games this season, and playing poor football and winning games is not sustainable, hence why we have been found lacking at the end of the season. Mr Monk needs to pick his first team and stick with it, but his midfield has been deadful. We are good at the back, have a striker that has scored well considering his lack of ability, but Gary Monk has got to take responsibility for our dreadful midfield as he has signed most of them. If he can't fix this then he needs to go. Being top half and not in the playoffs is not acceptable.

Bluesman link

23/4/2017 09:47:05 am

Spot on. Look at the value of the squads in the top 6 and compare them to Leeds. We are at the business end of the season with a tired, inexperienced and imbalanced squad. The other teams have the strength in depth and it is now showing. Investment, investment, investment! Sorry, don't want to mention anyone's name but the other owners are more ambitious and put their money where their mouth is!

Steve Jennings

23/4/2017 10:11:25 am

Really good article that is just about bang on. Well done mate.
We haven't played well for a fair while and, whilst I totally agree about investment and the unbalanced squad, I also think our tactics have been lacking as has the players desire at key times.
It's a brave call to say that Pontus comes with an amount of baggage but I think that is fair. He needs to forget his own legend and get on with it. Class act and I love him to death but no good if he is getting booked every other game (therefore suspended).
Monk has been brilliant for us but also needs to take stock. He has made some really good signings (Pontus, Barts, Ayling, Green), signed some players he has not used to full potential (Roofe, Antonnson) and some very poor ones (Grimes, Barrow). Selling Mowatt was also a big mistake. He needs to accept some constructive criticism too. The Sutton debacle has clearly caused some issues within the changing rooms.
I think there's a lot of positives but we are a distance away from being a really good squad / team capable of promotion. The owner needs to stabilise and protect what we currently have and the unit stronger. Over to him now.

Rex

23/4/2017 10:40:28 am

Excellent article & thank goodness for some sensible comments. I'm really sick of knee-jerk moaners slagging off everything to do with the club. We are no way ready for the Prem just now, look how badly Middlesbrough are faring. I really believe we are on an upward curve & look forward to some substantial investment over the summer. The most pleasing thing this season has been the re-establishment of the relationship between the team & the fans. MOT

Brian O'Boru link

23/4/2017 10:50:10 am

Good article. Shame about the really poor spelling and grammar.

FRED

23/4/2017 11:53:51 am

Very good article. The central midfield has been the weak area of the team for most of this season and has been far too negative.
Despite playing with two defensive midfielders, the goals have still been conceded and was playing that system really worth it in the end ?. NO, it's backfired on Leeds.
Murphy and Diagouraga should have been given a chance in the midfield, because at least they both get forward and have goals in them.
What's been going on with Grimes ? Is he on a gentle work experience course at Leeds, where you watch and learn, because you are not good enough to play in the team ?.
Let's start to build now, for a serious promotion campaign for next season and let's hope that Cellino doesn't close the club until June, like he normally does, which explains why Leeds are never ready for the start of the season and are always behind every other team in preparation.

Dean Krol

23/4/2017 12:14:04 pm

I personally don't feel that Garry Monk is the right man for us, I think he's too inexperienced, too gung ho, too arrogant and has absolutely zero plan B. I got hammered last week on Twitter for saying so, got called a nonce, a peado, told to kill myself (by our own fans none the less) simply because I feel this way. But look at it from your head and not your heart for a minute. Monk was still tinkering with formations and tactics during the first month of the season when most managers had settled on a set up and stuck to it, we were 2nd bottom of the league, only when we signed Pontus and Ayling did results start to improve. Monk made Sol Bamba club captain and a week later, told him to do one (why make him captain in the first place?) He refuses to play players that are miles better than the ones he plays, he brings in players and then leaves them sat on the bench every week, as you pointed out, he chops and changes the team every game for no reason. Drops (or as he puts it) rests players for no reason and plays crap in thier place. He picks players who are playing shite every week like Hernandez, Doukara and Phillips and he just can not motivate the team to start matches on the front foot. When was the last time we actually dominated a team in the first 45 minutes? We look half asleep and only seem to wake up in the last 20 minutes. He has been extremely lucky with some of our results this season, I mean, stats don't lie, a majority of the games we have won, we've been drastically outplayed and relied on teams wasting chance after chance before we've put one of the few chances we've created away. We have the 3rd lowest goal attempts ratio in the league and have had to rely heavily on last ditch defending from Jansson and great saves from Green. We create almost nothing under his way of playing and yet he just will not change it. He watches us get battered for 45 minutes and you'd expect him to change it around at half time, but no, he just sends the team out and does the same thing in the 2nd halves. It really does show how class Chris Wood has been this season, that he's managed to score as many goals as he has from probably the lowest number of chances of any striker in our league. Monk tries to play like Barcelona but we don't have the quality to do that. What I mean by that is, we get the ball forward down the wings but instead of then crossing the ball for Wood and co to attack, our players seem to turn back and try to play int all around the box and 90% of the time, this results in us losing the ball and ending up under attack ourselves. Seriously, what's wrong with getting the ball forward and crossing it into the box? That's how you score goals, not tippy tapping it backwards all the time and trying to play it around the box until you can find a gap to play it through, we don't have the players skillful enough to do that.It frustrates to watch how we play every week and to see how most Leeds fans adore Garry Monk and see him as some sort of messiah when he's clearly not got a clue what he's doing half the time. I hope on here I can get some sensible debate rather than having my life threatened or being called a kiddie fiddler for having a passionate and brutally honest opinion.

M Willatzen

23/4/2017 08:36:33 pm

Spot on Dean Krol. Garry Monk's poor tactics shows everything. His stupid and ridiculous positive statements after each game, indicating hope where hope is not to be found, makes me angry and sad.

peter duval

24/4/2017 02:23:06 am

Every man has the right to his opinion and providing its expressed rationally and fairly there should never be issue.
Some supporters think Okane is good, i personally do not.
Some supporters think Bridcutt is good, i personally do not.
Some supporters think Phillips isn't up to the task, i agree with them.
Some supporters worship Gary Monk, i do not, but i believe that he is the best manager we have had at the club in several years and a little stability was clearly needed with all the comings and goings over the past few years. If Gary stays next year and the right investment is made then i believe we will improve under his stewardship. Would, i be disappointed to see him leave ? then that would depend on who was brought in to replace him and again if the right investment be given.
I look at things in a very simple way, for example there is a young lad playing at Peterborough called Da Silva Lopes. Is this player better than Kalvin Phillips - The answer is hell yes ! - Then we are clearly unbalanced given that our centre backs would walk into most starting line-ups in the Premier league. Games are won and lost from the central midfield and our current crop (Vieria excluded) are simply not good enough- Doukara, Sacko and co would not in my opinion get into any top championship starting 11 - We have a great defense, a great prospect (in Vieria) and a very good striker . that is it. Our offensive play is too labored and we have failed to create sufficient opportunity - How many goals would Chris Wood have scored if we had Knockaert ,Mooy and Shelvey

Richard ONeil

23/4/2017 12:32:42 pm

I can do nothing but totally agree with the comments made, which are Blunt and honest {typically Yorkshire}. I want to add a couple of points though. In Monk I trust, he is young and lm sure a future England Manager, he can only put out a team of the players he has at his disposal. He's happy to give the youngsters opportunities, which surely encourages other up and coming kids at ER. We have a good youth policy and have had some excellent youngsters come through. In my opinion we have 1 goal scorer in CW and 1 playmaker in Pablo, if they have an off day who else is there? Let's hope Gary has an extended contract offered and let's pray he accepts.

Jim

23/4/2017 10:05:12 pm

Very good article that sums things up perfectly. We have punched above our weight this season. Yes we are a PL club in terms of fan base and stadium but that's it. It's going to be another uncertain pre-season of what players we can keep and if Monk decides to go you know its because there is yet again no guarantee of finances to support his plans. Until we get that backing it'll be a few more years of yo-yo-ing up and down the Championship. Hopefully we'll keep are best players and find another 'Strachan' with experience and quality to sort out our midfield and get us back to the promised land.

Peter Varley

24/4/2017 12:23:32 am

I agree that the massive error made by Monk was picking a joke team against Sutton. This defeat knocked the stuffing out of Leeds. Before then Elland Road was full of energy, excitement, enjoyment. After it all this energy dissipated. Fact: points per game before Sutton was 1.9 points, points per game after Sutton was 1.3 points Something changed. Another error was not playing O Kane. O Kane has the best return in points per game played, not just among the midfielders but amongst the entire squad. Did Monk not know this?

Malcolm Meeson

24/4/2017 09:05:03 am

Great report, you would do well writing the matchday report in the Yorkshire Evening Post. Agree that the "Sutton" result didn't do us any favours, and that a lack of a couple of new midfielders in January would have helped.

Sloughwhites

24/4/2017 10:19:34 pm

Good piece picking out some specific moments in our season which were significant.
Lack of any investment in January was a huge mistake but what followed was worse. As Monk set up to play Sutton Cellino offloaded the playmaker for that match Mowatt without his consent, this after losing Cook in pre season too. Now Mowatt wasn't playing great but was at least a replacement for a knackered Pablo. Jansson gate, oh the joys of a player running to cellino yet again & turning on his manager & team mates, huge bust UP's continued even until now. Torino hated Jansson due to his attitude & were so pleased to see the back of him & now we know why. All of this saw Cellino wanting to sack Monk straight away but now he had a partner so was stopped, cellino hated that & so now we've two owners who no longer talk.
Monk tactics are a little overly defensive but given the lack of a Mooy, Cairney type his options were limited. For those slating Phillips our record shows when partnering Vieira we're pretty decent, not exciting but we win regularly in part due to Phillips being the only one of 4 midfielder a willing to give it a go and attack. O'Kane I hear, well he is lightweight, poor in attack & passing also not great, Dallas is still on honeymoon, Bridcutt so deep he may as well hold Rob Green's hand so lay off 2 young lads in their 1st season. Pablo is a 20 game a season plyr & knackered thereafter & has the odd moments & rarely ripping teams apart. Berardi again a very defensive & yet Taylor benched because Pedraza was there to attack instead & yet Taylor does both jobs.
What happens next is most important, cellino goes & Monk stays, Cellino stays & a boardroom battle ensues while our best players head for the door. While we've been watching the football Cellino once again got involved & time will tell us that when he does the team goes hits up.

Why's it going Pete Tong?

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