Hard to summarise - in a way it summed up our season, a great start and then just totally fell apart. Think about how we were feeling 8 games ago and how we feel now. My lad was more animated and angry after this game than I have ever seen him - he was furious and let everyone know it. He has always had a thing about Vieira - laughing / moaning about the 'he never gives the ball away' bit in the song, pointing out that he often gives it away, too often. Tonight him giving it away cost us the second goal and any chance of a point and that infuriated my son. Pre game we all agreed that our plan should be simple - get the ball to Saiz in and around their box and let him feed Lassogga who will score if given the chances. We were a bit nonplussed with TC's comment about needing to score first, we got it , but at the same time it was almost a ready made excuse for players to roll over and give up if we conceeded first. Anyway with Dallas at left back (TC seems to want to convert him to this position) we started well, winning the ball, moving it around and getting stuck into them. It worked, Vieira harried their player in possesion, took the ball off him, fed it to Saiz who shimmied and swayed and played it through to Lassogga at the edge of the box and he hammered home. See TC it is easy ! We continued to play well and should probably have had a penalty when a cross by Roofe was about to land on the head of Alioski a yard out and he was pulled to the ground. So at half time we went in at one nil and everyone was happy(ish) a slight concern that we had not made our superiority count for more but things were looking good. The Saiz / Lassogga link up nearly worked again when an absolutely sublime cross with the outside of his boot by Saiz found Lassogga at full stretch and he could not quite convert it (flag was up so it would not have counted anyway but this is what we wanted) So the hour mark approached and things were fine and the crowd were enjoying it and then we suddenly lost our way. Roofe, who I am afraid is just not good enough, went from being a thorn in their side and doing well to suddenly looking like he had lead in his boots and was walking through treacle. I have never claimed to be 'an expert' in terms of tactics etc but if it is so obvious to me that Roofe was struggling and needed replacing, why could the manager not see it ?
Unfortunately my expertise was better than the managers and their winger went down their left hand side leaving Roofe trailing in his wake, then a good cross managed to evade 3 or 4 of our defenders and went straight to their forward who slotted home. >From 3 points in the bag , even one point began to look at risk. We brought on >Grot, someone who should be nowhere near the first team at this stage of his >career, and Pablo and Sacko but to no great effect. Then Vieira lost the ball / gave it away and they came forward, Sacko then made a stupid decision to make a tackle that was impossible and the ref pointed to the spot - inside or outside the box, who knows, and now who cares, the ref decided it was and , bang 1 2 and we were crashing to 3 home defeats on the bounce and 6 defeats in 7, or whatever it is. So where now ? We agreed pre match that the club as a whole is in a better state than it has been for years off the pitch. On it we are still ahead of where we were this time last season BUT last time we were about to go on a great run, this year we are somewhere (hopefully at the end) of a terrible run and slump in form. The first hour shows that we can be decent , the last 30mins shows we can also be awful. This consistent collapse / falling apart is very worrying Do we keep faith with TC and, if so, for how long ?IF I were him I would be a bit worried, even more so, now that Simon Grayson is available (whenever someone wants the manager sacking the question is 'who do we get'- generally the answer is 'anyone, they cannot be worse' but now we have a genuine 'contender' For what its worth I would keep faith with TC and give him till at least this time next season (this would change if relegation becomes a real possibility) At least I do not have to watch them live in November, I am away on a birthday trip to Germany for Boro game, so my next one is Villa on 1st December. Lets hope TC can get something at Brentford (which will not be easy) and then use the international week to get on the training pitch and get things sorted out Dave _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: https://mailman.gn.apc.org/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected] FLAME WARS 'R US
