Sean called it an utter shambles. Stole my thunder there Sean. This was the
worse Leeds performance under Macca and whereas in some of the games we’ve lost
this season you could say we have had the lion’s share of the game but just
gave away silly goals, today from the off we looked like a team on the slide.
The confidence is going and we’re not even passing the ball well at the moment,
something that has definitely improved this season.
So what is going wrong? Well, today I think Macca got absolutely everything
wrong. Not just one decision, many wrong decisions. Let’s look at the team
selection. Colchester are a big side and have a giant up front, so we go with
a dwarf at the back and to make it worse this dwarf is the captain and to make
it ludicrous this dwarf is not even a centre back – not even close. Then we’ve
got a right back, who isn’t a right back and actually finds it hard to keep the
ball in play. How many passes into touch did Hughes do today ? Then we’ve got a
midfield 4 which pairs the creative (!!) Douglas and Prutton together in the
centre with those 2 well known left and right wingers Delph and Kilkenny. Up
front we’ve got a donkey and a young lad who hasn’t had much experience playing
as a central striker. When you put all these together it just adds up to one
big stonking mess. What is Mcallister playing at ? How can you create any
chances with Prutton
and Douglas centrally ? Neither can pass a ball and together they have no
understanding. Delph, our best midfielder is stuck out on the left unable to
influence the game – same for Kilkenny. It’s a desperate situation.
So to the game. Well we didn’t get out of our own half for the first 15 minutes
and when we finally did it was through some decent play from Delph who
unselfishly played in Becchio who dithered and got tackled. In fact Becchio was
put through 3 times and each time he never even managed to get a shot on
target. Lethargic and slow. Douglas was seeing too much of the ball as
everything came through him. Prutton was allowed to wander but Prutton doesn’t
do the simple things well. He can’t pass and he spends time chasing pointless
balls. He’s not a good player. The defence was all over the shop again. You
could see that we were nervous – like a team that had been spending hours and
hours on the training park trying to rectify things but now it’s too late and
we’re just not playing as a unit and getting worse every week. Telfer and Rui
were slicing balls out of play and when in possession just giving it away at
the back. If there was a game to
play Lubo it was today. The keeper doesn’t help. I lost count of the number
times where he threatened to come and then backtracked. The whole defence is a
lost cause and you have to blame the management. The appointment and selection
of Telfer in my opinion is as bad as Blackwell’s blind persistence with Butler.
It is these sorts of decisions that will get Macca the sack and this could be
sooner rather than later. The crowd sang “You’re not fit to wear the shirt at
the end” – it’s all becoming depressingly familiar.
Colchester were average to say the least but they had one or two lively
midfielders and a forward that was a real handful. Compare that to us and it
was no surprise we didn’t take any points from today’s game. Our goal was a
great individual effort from Snodgrass who again was our best player on the
day. He didn’t have a good game though ! Their goals – one from a corner
(familiar story) although Rui was off the pitch in the blood bin. Second was a
great freekick after brainless Prutton brought their man down with a cynical
challenge. He was already on a yellow after stupidly getting booked in the
first half for dissent. Please Macca, don’t pick this fuckwit again.
Not much more to say really. The 19,000 crowd booed them off – they deserved
that.
Scores:
Lucas – 3. No confidence in him at all. Ditherer.
Hughes – 2. How does this guy make a living through football ? All over the
shop and unable to pass a ball to a white shirt.
Sheehan – 6. Steady. He’s pretty solid and I think he’s the best option at left
back but he’s still a dodgy defender. Decent free kick second half that brought
a good save from their keeper.
Telfer – 4. Shite.
Rui – 4. We were talking about Rui maybe being able to cope with the
premiership at one point. What’s
happened to him ?
Douglas – 4. Saw more ball than he should have in the first half and when we
were chasing the game he just didn’t have the game to make a difference. His
passing at times is high comedy.
Prutton – 0. Shocking game. You could argue he lost us the game. He doesn’t do
anything well.
Delph – 5. Tried to make things happen but he was so obviously out of position.
What a waste.
Kilkenny – 3. Just not in the game. Out of position.
Snodgrass – 7. Scored a goal and made some great runs in a busy first half.
He’s got promise this lad.
Becchio – 1. For effort. Now, let’s get this straight. I said that Becchio was
shite when he was knocking in his tap ins week in week out. It might have
seemed a strange assessment to some but from the sounds of the comments around
us today and what some have written recently about him being found out I think
the jury has returned with it’s verdict and it’s not good news for Becchio.
Listen to your Uncle Richard. So, what do you all think now ? Without the
space that Beckford buys him he struggles. If there’s a player in this league
with a worse first touch I’ve yet to see him. Spends more time on his arse than
anything. He works hard but he’s toothless. Give him a header inside the 6 yard
box and yes he will probably score – but so did Kandol and so would I. That
does not make him a good player. I’d be looking to replace immediately.
Subs:
Enoch – 5. No impact.
Christie – I can’t judge him ‘cos he didn’t touch the bleeding ball.
Macca – 0. At the moment he’s making Blackwell look like a talented manager. A
bad christmas and it could be curtains.
_______________________________________________
the Leeds List is an unmoderated mailing list and the list administrators
accept no liability for the personal views and opinions of contributors.
Leedslist mailing list
[email protected]
http://list.zetnet.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist
is Michel Kitabdjian dead yet?
