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Leeds United (A) League 1 Saturday 25/10/08.

Reports and reaction from the 2008-09 season as Walsall finished 13th in League 1
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Stu
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Re: Leeds United (A) League 1 Saturday 25/10/08.

Sun Oct 26, 2008 6:10 pm

Rob, it wasn't just that we had no defenders, we had no strikers either. We went with 2 central midfielders, a right sided midfielder and a left sided midfielder.

I think we can now class Nicholls and Deeney as midfielders, as thats where Mullen only seems to play them as of late. So that means of the squad of 16 yesterday, there were 9 midfielders (4 in midfield, 1 at right back, 4 on the bench). Yet, for all of that, we're still a midfielder short.

We do seem to have a case of favourites, and players the manager isn't keen on, namely Weston, Bradley and Ishmel. Unfortuantely, those 3 could make a difference if given a run of games in the team.

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WFC_Rob
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Re: Leeds United (A) League 1 Saturday 25/10/08.

Sun Oct 26, 2008 6:23 pm

Stu wrote:We do seem to have a case of favourites, and players the manager isn't keen on, namely Weston, Bradley and Ishmel. Unfortuantely, those 3 could make a difference if given a run of games in the team.

I agree with that completely. Whilst I wouldn't have Bradley in the starting line up ahead of Hughes or Mattis, I've been disappointed at just how little football he's seen under Mullen when he's been available. There have been numerous occasions when he should have been brought on as sub.

As for the other 2, how neither of them were even in the squad yesterday baffles me. I'm starting to think we should just bite the bullet and play Ishmel on one of the flanks because neither of the guys playing wide at the moment are good enough.

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Sadders
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Re: Leeds United (A) League 1 Saturday 25/10/08.

Sun Oct 26, 2008 10:39 pm

Very good first half, jabo missed a sitter although it was a good save. A couple of corners, a couple of other chances, a ricketts free kick close and a rasper that heading for the top corner. Should have been 1 or 2-0 up at half time.

2nd half and tuandry gives the ball away, corner comes in nicholls i think clears it off our own player, squirms to becchio and he scrapes it in, somewhat lucky i thought. That set the tone for the 2nd half, the scoreline read 3-0 come 16.50, but i honestly thought that was very harsh, agreed we were absolutely diabolical in the second half, but they scored a squirym goal & 2 goals that one another day would have hit row Z. Other than that they only created a couple of half chance to be honest.

The midfield was absolutely crud, mattis can't play next to taundry, taundry loses position going of like a headless 14 year old all around the park, which means mattis has to cover, leaving NO support for jabo or ricketts. Taundry has his worst game in yonks, he was absolutely awful, palmer awful, deeney in the first half was decent but in the second half he literally attempted to play a simple 15 yard ball down the right flank and he put it out of play, embarassing. Nicholls isn't consistent enough, lots of crosses,but didnt create much really. Boertien looked like he could fall over the ball at any point, improved in the second half. Roberts lacks in pace, but does his job decently, however we will get shown up by decent strikers in this league when he is at centre back.

Plus points? - Jabo and ricketts were very good, neither did anything wrong all game, neither were supported, neither huffed of puffed, specially ricketts, who was coming for the ball, collecting it, looked very mobile for once, missed a free kick, had a rasper blocked and pulled a volley slightly wide in the second half, jabo was exactly jabo, hard working-bustling,tough,powerful and all action. Mattis did ok, but gets over ran playing next to taundry. Gerrard was excellent and roberts deccent. Clayton could have done nothing about any of the goals and when required commanded his bosk superbly. We played very well in the first half and should have been winning, it probably would have been a different game.

What needs to happen? - Cover at the back, breen maybe, even if its just for numbers, we need more options, deeney,taundry,palmer need to be dropped, with boertien and nicholls given another couple of games to find form. Ishy needs to be given another chance, hughes composure was truly missed on saturday and he is missed quite considerable, weston needs to be brought back in. Defensively he is so superior to palmer its almost frightening,you cant play a player because of his set pieces when he plays centre back, he has no sens of position,gets skinned constantly and cant header a ball for toffee, a squad player at best.

I have to mention also, the away support on saturday was awful, 350-400 at best for the best ,most advertising looking away game of the season, wha happens when we go to carlisle in february?!. Embarassing,thoroughly embarrasing.

My team for tuesday

Ince

Weston
Gerrard
Roberts
Boertien

Nicholls
Ishy
Hughes
Mattis

Ricketts
Jabo

I hope everyone is expecting a sub 3,800 attendnace,because that's what were gonna get.

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WFC_Rob
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Re: Leeds United (A) League 1 Saturday 25/10/08.

Sun Oct 26, 2008 11:36 pm

Sadders wrote:I have to mention also, the away support on saturday was awful, 350-400 at best for the best ,most advertising looking away game of the season, wha happens when we go to carlisle in february?!. Embarassing,thoroughly embarrasing.

When you play both of the two 'glamour' away games in the space of 5 days, you're not likely to take a load of fans to either. I missed Leicester as going to both was too expensive - I imagine some missed Leeds for the same reason, coupled with the fact that it was a pretty grim weekend anyway.

Or maybe these stayaways who keep pledging their allegiance to the away matches have fallen by the wayside. :D

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Re: Leeds United (A) League 1 Saturday 25/10/08.

Mon Oct 27, 2008 8:41 am

Jockey wrote:I didnt go but it was expected. However like Neil said above, his decisions are baffling and proves he is well out of his depth.

Hughes, Weston and Ishy should start IF fit because we clearly have oh blow! all else to offer. Bradley should start if Hughes/Mattis cant play. Boertein has been so dodgy this season so give Netan another chance. Gerrard and Roberts is clearly not working so unless he has ideas of movg Weston to centre half, we need a central defender on loan or maybe Breen??

The midfield yesterday was far too iexperienced and two big games in the space of 5 days was too much for them.

I am beginning to think Mullens start was a lucky break and Id hate to imagine where we wouldve been without it. This team is good enough, I just wish the manager was


And haven't you noticed how his form has dipped since getting a pubilc slagging off in the Press from the Manager for giving away a penalty, when the build up to the incident was yet another example of the TEAM defending poorly? I still think we have the best pair of full backs in the Division and Mullen seems to have alienated both. Well done, Jimmy.

We were raving in the Summer about the quality of his signings, yet we have no right winger and are playing two young strikers out there, he's bought TWO left wingers, plus one we had already and none of them can get a game and a centre back who just hasn't cut it on a regular basis and is prone to catestrophic errors. On top of that, we have two experienced central midfielders and two kids and he can't find a balance.

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Jolly Johnny
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Re: Leeds United (A) League 1 Saturday 25/10/08.

Mon Oct 27, 2008 11:12 am

Neil Ravenscroft wrote:
Jockey wrote:I didnt go but it was expected. However like Neil said above, his decisions are baffling and proves he is well out of his depth.

Hughes, Weston and Ishy should start IF fit because we clearly have oh blow! all else to offer. Bradley should start if Hughes/Mattis cant play. Boertein has been so dodgy this season so give Netan another chance. Gerrard and Roberts is clearly not working so unless he has ideas of movg Weston to centre half, we need a central defender on loan or maybe Breen??

The midfield yesterday was far too iexperienced and two big games in the space of 5 days was too much for them.

I am beginning to think Mullens start was a lucky break and Id hate to imagine where we wouldve been without it. This team is good enough, I just wish the manager was


And haven't you noticed how his form has dipped since getting a pubilc slagging off in the Press from the Manager for giving away a penalty, when the build up to the incident was yet another example of the TEAM defending poorly? I still think we have the best pair of full backs in the Division and Mullen seems to have alienated both. Well done, Jimmy.

We were raving in the Summer about the quality of his signings, yet we have no right winger and are playing two young strikers out there, he's bought TWO left wingers, plus one we had already and none of them can get a game and a centre back who just hasn't cut it on a regular basis and is prone to catestrophic errors. On top of that, we have two experienced central midfielders and two kids and he can't find a balance.


I think this paragraph sums up the stark realisation of it all to be honest. No point bringing in some good players if you don't end up with a good functioning team. Spurs, and Harry Redknapp, seem to have finally realised that, I wonder if we will.

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Re: Leeds United (A) League 1 Saturday 25/10/08.

Mon Oct 27, 2008 11:20 am

Graydon48 wrote:By the way did anyone else see Ishy sitting in the crowd with us and at halftime at the kiost waiting for his tea.
Was I seeing things ? if not surely his days with us are numbered.
Might be wrong not sure if he was on the bench (Leeds didnt anounce our subs) but was sure it was him.

Ishy and Manny both sat in the stand for the second half.

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Wyrley_saddler
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Re: Leeds United (A) League 1 Saturday 25/10/08.

Mon Oct 27, 2008 12:26 pm

wccc sadler wrote:
Graydon48 wrote:By the way did anyone else see Ishy sitting in the crowd with us and at halftime at the kiost waiting for his tea.
Was I seeing things ? if not surely his days with us are numbered.
Might be wrong not sure if he was on the bench (Leeds didnt anounce our subs) but was sure it was him.

Ishy and Manny both sat in the stand for the second half.


they were in the stand for the first half aswell. In the first half, Ishy, Manny and Netan were sitting near the front of the Upper section on our right.


Saturday - first half, we were superb. Should have scored through Jabo, and we kept leeds away from our penalty area.

Second half - within a minute all our hard work in the first half went to pot. We simply fell apart and stopped playing as a team. For Delph's first goal, someone should have been marking him, or atleast marking the 'zone' of the edge of the area to stop any such shot occuring.

Overall, dissapointing. Poor turn out from our fans, but who can blam the people who didn't go. Most would have gone to Leicester meaning they couldn't afford it and well the way we keep falling apart in the second halves of games isn't exactly an encouragement to make people go.

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Plastic Hawk
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Re: Leeds United (A) League 1 Saturday 25/10/08.

Mon Oct 27, 2008 12:35 pm

Wyrley_saddler wrote:
wccc sadler wrote:
Graydon48 wrote:By the way did anyone else see Ishy sitting in the crowd with us and at halftime at the kiost waiting for his tea.
Was I seeing things ? if not surely his days with us are numbered.
Might be wrong not sure if he was on the bench (Leeds didnt anounce our subs) but was sure it was him.

Ishy and Manny both sat in the stand for the second half.


they were in the stand for the first half aswell. In the first half, Ishy, Manny and Netan were sitting near the front of the Upper section on our right.


Saturday - first half, we were superb. Should have scored through Jabo, and we kept leeds away from our penalty area.

Second half - within a minute all our hard work in the first half went to pot. We simply fell apart and stopped playing as a team. For Delph's first goal, someone should have been marking him, or atleast marking the 'zone' of the edge of the area to stop any such shot occuring.

Overall, dissapointing. Poor turn out from our fans, but who can blam the people who didn't go. Most would have gone to Leicester meaning they couldn't afford it and well the way we keep falling apart in the second halves of games isn't exactly an encouragement to make people go.


Exactly the same way we conceded goals at the start of the season with no Hughes in central midfield. It's goals like that which raise more questions in my mind about Taundry than ones when someone kicks the ball straight at him and he can't get out of the way. It's more important for a defensive midfielder to have good positioning and anticipation than it is for him to run around like a headless chicken for 90 minutes, trying to chase down every ball - even those that he has no chance of reaching.

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Flemish Saddler
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Re: Leeds United (A) League 1 Saturday 25/10/08.

Mon Oct 27, 2008 9:41 pm

had a good feeling after first half but when i was climbing teh stairs for the 2nd I heard the crowd and i knwew it was wrong. If you can't score the few chances you get, you can't beat this Leeds, that's clear!!

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tinned
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Re: Leeds United (A) League 1 Saturday 25/10/08.

Mon Oct 27, 2008 10:40 pm

People are surprised at the lack of Walsall fans? Of course you've gotta factor in the cost of two expensive away trips in a few days, the bad weather, long journey blah, blah, blah, but let's not kidourselves what's going on here. Walsall FC is quickly becoming a non-event. We've got a bland and clueless manager bumbling along and he is "backed" by a clueless board who treat paying fans like pieces of cack. The togetherness and interest is draining away at an alarming rate. More and more people are coming to the conclusion that it just ain't worth it, not while the powers that be at the club apparently don't give a damn.

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