I bloody enjoyed myself at Elland Road yesterday. I wanted the team to win more than I¡¦ve done for a few years. I was on the edge of my seat for most of the second half when we were put under serious pressure from a Southend team who in my opinion pass the ball as good as any team in this league. Was this the ¡¥new manager performance¡¦ ? Possibly, but I think it¡¦s worth noting the specific team changes and tactic changes that Wise + Poyet employed before completely writing this off as an effect of the new manager. 1. Ok, first of all Wise gave the captaincy to Derry. Massive positive effect on the team ¡V you could see it throughout the team and Derry was constantly in touch with Wise on the touchline, taking orders and ensuring they were carried out. We looked like a team with leadership and direction and more importantly a team that were responding to the threat of Southend. 2. Eddie Lewis at left back. Crainey hopefully will never play for Leeds again. Well spotted Wise but after his performance on Tuesday night even Blackwell (well maybe not cos he did pay quarter of a million for Crainey) would have dropped him for this one. One of my mates who sits in the NE has been saying for ages to put Lewis at left back. He isn¡¦t a winger ¡V he can¡¦t beat his man but he has enough pace to cope at left back. Well, I have to agree 100% with Terry in that Lewis at LB reminded me of Tony Dorigo. Ok, he made one or two elementary mistakes but his pace and general composure on the ball made him look like a natural left back and it should be noted that Southend did most of their attacking down our right which is a compliment to Lewis¡¦s performance. It should be noted that this helped Killa immensely cos he played as a centre back for once and not a centre back / left back. Excellent. Well done Wise. 3. The back four ¡V Wise has obviously been working on the back four after seeing us self destruct on Tuesday night. I think he realised that there¡¦s too many gaps at the back and too much work for Killa and Butler to do. So what he did is bring pace in at left back and then ask Kelly and Lewis to move in centrally when Southend attacked. This meant that Butler and Killa played very tight to each other and very centrally. Kelly at times was playing as an additional centre back and was the main reason that Butler had his best game for Leeds since his arrival. This was one of the main reasons why we kept a clean sheet today ¡V well done Denis, HOWEVER this tactic does come with his downside. In employing this tactic Wise is asking Moore and Johnson to do overtime and effectively becomes right and left backs as well as asking them to push on when we¡¦re attacking. To be fair Moore did a pretty good job although he looked f*cked by the second half (and so he should have been !) whereas Johnson got it relatively easy cos Southend pushed down our right. The other negative of this tactic is that it gave Southend, at times, the freedom of the wings. Their number 7, who was a good player, ran us ragged in a torrid second half spell. They just kept feeding him the ball and he had acres of space to do what he wanted. In a normal 4-4-2 Kelly would have been close to him and would have made him less effective. As a result we ended up defending cross after cross, corner after corner. We couldn¡¦t get out of our own half and we¡¦re being completely outplayed in the second half. I don¡¦t think I¡¦ve ever seen a more one sided half at Leeds. So it¡¦s swings and roundabouts. Yes we defended with extra men in the middle and it worked today but this tactic will help better teams punish us. What we are really doing is compensating for our central defence being all at sea recently. Can we afford to do that ? 4. Runs from midfield. Moore seemed to be asked to run centrally more often rather than get down the wing. On a few occassions he ran through the middle unmarked. With better midfielders he would have been through on goal more times. The goal was a delight. It was the type of goal that we rarely (actually never !) saw under Blackwell. A midfielder running from deep and then played through by a superb ball (Johnson). The midfielder then takes the ball in his stride and puts it into the net , Jimmy Floyd Hasslebaink style. We went crazy. A goal from open play ¡V Denis Wise is God. The crowd sang ¡§Denis Wise¡¦s barmy army. We hate Chelsea¡¨ which amused me. Also plenty of calls for ¡§Wisey , Wisey give us a wave¡¨. Were these the same folk that were chanting ¡§Denise Wise is a w*nker¡¨ at the Sunderland match. Shame on them º 5. Goalkeeper ¡V now I actually think Warner is a good keeper but he¡¦s made a few howlers and he looks like one of those keepers that when confidence is not high he¡¦s likely to f¡¦ck up week in week out. As for Sullivan, he¡¦s never been my favourite and his kicking has been attrocious. It¡¦s only when you see another young keeper come in who looks supremely confident that you realise how much difference this can make to a team. Stack looked the business yesterday making 2 or 3 top class saves but the main thing that I noticed was his kicking. Every kick was made with accuracy and length. Not one miskick. On this performance Wise has really come up with the goods with this keeper and I think his kicking will be the main assett to this team. Well done Denis. 6. Set pieces ¡V quite a few different ideas including both Killa and Butler going up into the box and standing very close to each other then suddenly peeling off causing all sorts of confusion in the Southend defence.
So, as you can see he did much more than Carver so I think there¡¦s definitely enough in there to credit Wise + Poyet for this victory. You¡¦ll notice that I keep mentioning Poyet cos I get the feeling he¡¦s a big part of this partnership. Not like Carver was to Blackie. Poyet did all the pointing, all the shouting (well most of it, Wisey got out a few times to have a go at the ref) and all the tactic changes. He looked in control. Few other points. The atmosphere was the best this season and they responded to the commitment of the team. The negatives ¡V I think Wise will have realised that his central two as a pairing aren¡¦t up to it. Douglas for me is just not good enough. Effort, yes, but there has to be more. He runs around after the ball like a 10 year old with no regard to the opposition midfield runners. Derry is a holding midfielder, nothing more. With Douglas on his walkabouts Derry is left to be the creative player. He isn¡¦t good enough for that job. Just keep it simple for Shaun and he¡¦ll do ok. Ask him to set up attacks and he is exposed. Southend completely dominated the midfield and as a result completely dominated the match , especially the second half. I heard their manager say that the best team lost. I¡¦m not sure I totally agree with that cos I thought we defended better than them , we had a better keeper than them , we wanted it more than them and we had the players to put the ball in the back of the net. You felt that we could have still been playing now and they wouldn¡¦t have scored. This might explain why such a good footballing team are now below us in the league. Scores on the doors :- Stack ¡V 9. Top class , high confidence performance. Kelly ¡V 7. Not his usual game but did what he was asked to do and made life so much easier for Butler. I did feel at times that Kelly was twitching to get out right to sort their number 7 out. Lewis ¡V 8. Tony Dorigo mark II. There is a future for Lewis at this club and I didn¡¦t think that on Tuesday night. Butler ¡V 7. Didn¡¦t have to do any running, and didn¡¦t get caught out positionally. He just played centrally close to Killa , anything slightly right was Kelly¡¦s anything slightly left was Killas. He just won all his headers and also a number of good tackles. His best performance in a Leeds shirt BUT I would ask the question is it worth changing the tactics to accommodate his lack of mobility ? Listening to his post match press conference , Adam Pope singled out Butler but Wise although he said he ¡¥done well¡¦ he wouldn¡¦t sing his praises cos I think he knows that Butler is causing him more problems than solutions at the moment. Killa ¡V 7. I thought he started of nervously and there was a couple of mistimed clearances and on one occasion he let the man get passed him when he should have got a tackle in. The old Killa would have sliced him in half, but as the game progressed you could see the confidence return and woth Lewis doing all the left back work Killa , like Butler, was left to dohis job and that he did very well. Douglas ¡V 2. Just not good enough. No quality. Derry ¡V 6. Did well as a captain and you could see him leading the team. He also put himself around a lot but as a midfielder today he was second best to Southend. Distribution poor. Moore ¡V 8. What can you say ? He was everywhere in an action packed first half. Right back, right wing, attacker, midfielder. A great performance from a limited player but as with Lewis maybe Moore does have a future. He one thing he has got which this team lacks is pace. Johnson ¡V 7. I like this lad. A little bit lightweight at times but he can pass, cross and more importantly beat his man. Hope we can keep him. Great ball for the goal. Cresswell ¡V 4. Looks overweight, looks unfit , doesn¡¦t win anything in the air. Lots of effort though. Healy ¡V 6. Worked hard for the team. Had a busy first half but hardly had a kick second half (not his fault). Subs :- Blake ¡V 8. Made the difference. If only he could run. Wise is going to get him fit apparently after saying that Blake had put on a few piunds recently. F¡¦cking hell , HOW ??? We heard that he¡¦d done a busy pre-season and was ready for the challenge. Has he been visiting McDonalds due to the depression of not getting in the team ? Bloody hell, these professional footballers. Great freekick, we¡¦ve seen that trick before. He¡¦s got more ability than most of our players. Let¡¦s hope Wise can get him fit. Not many mangers have achieved that so far in his career. Richardson ¡V 6. Worked hard as an extra defender but to me he doesn¡¦t look like the old Fraser. Needs games maybe. Westlake - ? Didn¡¦t have time to do owt. Wise + Poyet ¡V 10. When Blake¡¦s goal went in they went ballastic on the bench with Poyet and Wise hugging and giving high fives. At full time Poyet gave Wise a full husband and wife hug together with a kiss on each cheek. They¡¦ve got the passion alright !! and the fans responded. Denis Wise could be a hero at Leeds. Let¡¦s hope we can do ourselves justice at Preston. One other point . When Wise was going to put Westlake on for Johnson he shouted to Johnson to swap wings to the right. I thought, clever move , bring Westlake on to play on the left and put johnson on the right. WRONG !! All Wisey was doing was asking Johnson to get as far away from the bench as possible cos he was about to be subbed and so waste time in coming back to the bench. Shocking tactics and I can¡¦t say I¡¦ve ever seen it doen so blatantly before. Send instant messages to your online friends http://uk.messenger.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ the Leeds List is an unmoderated mailing list and the list administrators accept no liability for the personal views and opinions of contributors. 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