I've only just calmed down enough to compose my thoughts on this game, As
others have said, what a gut-wrenchingly typical Leeds United supporter
experience that was. Anyway, here are a few thoughts:
- I said this after the Sheffield Utd game and I'll say it again: it is madness
to have Liam Cooper (or any first team player, but especially the team captain)
personally involved with Toby Nye in the lead-up to kick-off. The kid is
terribly ill, and it must create all sorts of emotions in a normal man to look
into the kid's eyes and interact with him. Just as happened in the Sheffield
Utd game, Cooper's mind seemed elsewhere in the opening minutes, and before you
know it he's sent off for a reckless lunge. Whoever thought it would be a good
idea to mess with Cooper's head this way should be fired. (I mean, the club's
already raised the money for the kid's operation - there was no need to have
him out there at all!)
- I thought TC should have sent Pennington on as soon as Cooper was sent off.
What was he waiting for? With two center-halves on the field we never would
have conceded that second goal.
- TC's game management at the end of the game has also rightly been called into
question. It's easy to say with hindsight, but clearly when we pulled off both
our forwards, we should have replaced at least one of them with an attacking
player (either Sacko or Cibicki - my vote would be Sacko, because of his pace).
We just invited Millwall onto us and it didn't work. I am also beginning to
doubt Shaughnessy - how many times has he come on and we've conceded? (Not to
mention that he could have equalized at the death but hit the ball straight at
the keeper to finish what was our best move of the game.)
- Having criticized TC, I will say that he deserves credit for the team's
attitude when they come out for the second half. That was phenomenal.
- We now have zero points from the first two games of Saiz's six-game ban. When
we look back, the decision to field such an under-strength side against
Newport, and then to stack the bench with kids plus Saiz, will likely appear as
the downward turning point of a season that had promised so much.
- In our next two games, the following first-team squad players will all be
unavailable: Saiz, Phillips (his booking yesterday was stupid and deserves a
fine), Cooper (a four-game ban for him now), and O'Kane, all suspended, plus
Ekuban and Ayling injured. We'd better hope that Forshaw's supposedly minor
ailment is just that, and he doesn't turn out to be another Ekuban. We ciould
really use that Japanese international midfielder we just signed and then sent
to ply his trade in the lower reaches of Spain's second ttier.
- I fear that avoidable mistakes have wasted our season. The club makes a big
deal about "fiive-year plans" but has anyone explained to Radz that other clubs
don't care about our five-year plan. They will raid our squad for it's best
players this summer and it'll be back to square one.
Cheers!
Sean
-----Original Message-----
From: {broken-address} Richard Walker
<[email protected]>
To: nattan <[email protected]>; Leeds List <[email protected]>
Sent: Sun, Jan 21, 2018 8:48 am
Subject: Re: [LU] Millwall
Yes I heard him say that. Sacko would have been ideal because they would not
have been able to settle at the back with the headless chicken on. and you're
right about Roofe, he obviously isn't fit enough ... or good enough. From:
"[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: Leeds List <[email protected]> Sent:
Sunday, 21 January 2018, 10:42 Subject: Re: [LU] Millwall I agree with the
comments about taking off the two strikers, having said that Lassogga was
clearly limping before roofe was subbed and I expected Lassogga to be the one
taken off. TC is quoted as saying that Roofe actually came to the bench and
asked to be substituted since he was 'running on empty' That makes his
decisions more defensible (although we can question why Roofe is not fit enough
to last 90minutes albeit when he had had to run around more due to Cooper's
red)Once he had to take off the two frontmen then he should have brought on
either Sacko who despite his obvious limitations has pace and would have ke
pt them occupied, or Cibicki who has played down the middleWhatever, when you
get 3 2 up from 2 0 down against a team who have not won away all season then
you should have got all 3 points. The fans, once the comeback started, did
their bit and the atmosphere at times was brilliantDave From: Richard
Walker <[email protected]> To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>; leeds
list <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, 21 January 2018, 8:01 Subject: Re:
[LU] Millwall a few hungover comments from me: Lasogga scored two good goals
and hopefully he will now push on but if he'd put the 2 easier chances away in
the first half I think we would have won this. Our defending before Cooper got
sent off was all over the shop. Their lad Cooper won everything in the air and
we should have had Jansson man marking him rather than letting De Bock mark
him. Terrible organisation at the back. We are going nowhere with Cooper as
captain and defender. Yes he's muddled through a few games on the ba
ck of Jansson but we all know that when it comes to the crunch he will fail.
Hopefully Pennington will come in and take his chance. The new lad De Bock
looks to have a nice left foot but for me he seems a little static and he could
be a liability.Steve Morrison - I always rated him but he was never fit at
Leeds so we never saw the best of him.and finally I believe TC lost us this
game. 3-2 up he decided to close down any attacking options we had and go with
3 centre backs. He invited Millwall on and guess what, they scored 2 goals.
We're not good enough at defending to do that Thomas. I think some of his
decisions and tactical nous are lacking.Season looks like fizziling out.
From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: leeds list <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, 20 January 2018, 21:26 Subject: [LU] Millwall Not a clue where
to start (or finish) with this one - in some ways one of the strangest games I
have ever seen in over 40 years of watching LeedsIt was the game tha
t literally had everything 7 goals and a red card, us getting hammered then
the best comeback ever and then nothing to show for it against a team who had
not won away all season, and, if that was not enough a performance by steve
morrison that is up there with the best performances of anyone ever at ER - and
yes I did say steve morison, you know steve morison that Warnock bought to
replace Becchio, steve morison that played lots of games for Leeds and scored
three (?) goals . steve morison that had the best individual performance at ER
since probably Thierry Henry or to quote Leeds fans today "F**K Morison, F
Morison " repeat over and over
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