Back From The Game - Leeds

[Snowball]

Which would be fine if you didn't also slag off CMONURZ for in the Long thread for criticising Long's scoring rate from open play over the last two seasons and slamming that as 'deliberately picking out a sample size to suit your agenda'

You mean a bizarre "28 matches" EXCLUDING the cup games where Long scored 3 goals against Premiership opposition wasn't "suiting an agenda"?

Please!

Cmonurz is NOT selecting the whole of the last two seasons. If he did he'd have Long down as 8, repeat EIGHT open-play goals last season and one this season, and a total of 13 goals (9 O-P plus 4 pens)...

16 Kebe
15 (including 1 pens) Church
13 (including 4 pens) Long
05 Hunt

On Kebe, I'm taking either all last season and all this so far, or "Since McDermott started". Neither are unreasonable

[Snowball]

So it's OUR fault now that Shane doesn't score-get real.
If they take notice of what a few fans on a website have to say they really ought to be doing another job.

If you had studied psychology, and sports psychology, and crowd psychology you might think differently.

It's hardly "a few fans" on a web-site. It's a lot of fans on a web-site, interminably, it's in newspapers, it's discussed on radio.

You think players don't pick this sort of stuff up? Why then have the manager and players defending Long in public?

Of COURSE it affects players. Confidence is a very precious commodity.

Kebe now has it. That's probably 75% of the change in him.

[Victor Meldrew]

So it's OUR fault now that Shane doesn't score-get real.
If they take notice of what a few fans on a website have to say they really ought to be doing another job.

If you had studied psychology, and sports psychology, and crowd psychology you might think differently.

It's hardly "a few fans" on a web-site. It's a lot of fans on a web-site, interminably, it's in newspapers, it's discussed on radio.

You think players don't pick this sort of stuff up? Why then have the manager and players defending Long in public?

Of COURSE it affects players. Confidence is a very precious commodity.

Kebe now has it. That's probably 75% of the change in him.

Yes the same Kebe who was absolutely slated on here and has become stronger the longer he has been at our club.
Your love child has Father McDermott to shield him and speak up for him-that's his job,to get the best out of his players.
Don't lecture me on psychology and have some respect for your elders and betters.

[Snowball]

So it's OUR fault now that Shane doesn't score-get real.
If they take notice of what a few fans on a website have to say they really ought to be doing another job.

If you had studied psychology, and sports psychology, and crowd psychology you might think differently.

It's hardly "a few fans" on a web-site. It's a lot of fans on a web-site, interminably, it's in newspapers, it's discussed on radio.

You think players don't pick this sort of stuff up? Why then have the manager and players defending Long in public?

Of COURSE it affects players. Confidence is a very precious commodity.

Kebe now has it. That's probably 75% of the change in him.

Yes the same Kebe who was absolutely slated on here and has become stronger the longer he has been at our club.
Your love child has Father McDermott to shield him and speak up for him-that's his job,to get the best out of his players.
Don't lecture me on psychology and have some respect for your elders and betters.

If you're older than me, how come you're not dead?

[Wycombe Royal]

It's hardly "a few fans" on a web-site. It's a lot of fans on a web-site,

If he is worried by the comments of 15 or 20 people on an internet forum then he is in the wrong career.

[Snowball]

It's hardly "a few fans" on a web-site. It's a lot of fans on a web-site,

If he is worried by the comments of 15 or 20 people on an internet forum then he is in the wrong career.

It's not "comments" it's BILE

It's not comments, it's vitriol

And it isn't just the (more than 15) on here. The same stuff has come up in newsprint, on BBC Radio Berkshire etc.

You need very little to change the confidence of even the best players

[Ian Royal]

Actually most of it is perfectly reasonable and intelligent criticism.

[Hoop Blah]

God leave Long alone, there's hardly anyone slagging off Church or Hunt ffs. As much as I don't think Long's the answer and I don't think Snowball should defend him quite as strongly as he does, he does have a point that the sniping is all a bit much and scapegoatish.
.

I think there are two differences between Long and Church/Hunt and their respective criticism on here.

1) Long's been our first choice centre forward and as such has played a much more prominent role this season, most of which has seen him missing some good and costly chances.

2) Snowball has thrown all sorts of contrived, inaccurate, misleading and still largely irrelevant stats to the forum to try and justify him. The majoriy of this thread (well the Long one anyway) is the disection and criticism of these stats not Long himself.

[SLAMMED]

Quite a lot of Leeds fans out in town last night.

A Leeds fan came up to me in Reflex last night. He was built like a brick shit house and was as bald as an egg. His son came and hid behind us and, after him spitting most of his pint on me as he tried to speak, explained that his son had pissed in the corner of the dance floor and the bouncers were looking for him.

Those northerners are classy folk.

[The Real Sandhurst Royal]

The first 30 - 40 minutes on Saturday were dire, cat and mouse so a new tactic (Brian) maybe to see Reading go at sides in the first 30 minutes of the game, not the last 30 with the introduction of Kebe who was superb.

Attacking in the first 30 may put a side on the back foot and possibly a goal or two down. That said a goal or two, we have no strike force the fans know it, please do something about it before it is too late.

[Kitson12]

The first 30 - 40 minutes on Saturday were dire, cat and mouse so a new tactic (Brian) maybe to see Reading go at sides in the first 30 minutes of the game, not the last 30 with the introduction of Kebe who was superb.

Attacking in the first 30 may put a side on the back foot and possibly a goal or two down. That said a goal or two, we have no strike force the fans know it, please do something about it before it is too late.

Someone did that at Reading previously. It didn't work then, it won't work now.

[Scylla]

What is worse, a player taking a shot and missing or a player not even getting as shot away when gloriously positioned?

Don't know. Stick it in the net and we'll talk about it later.

[Snowball]

Quite a lot of Leeds fans out in town last night. A Leeds fan came up to me in Reflex last night. He was built like a brick shit house and was as bald as an egg. His son came and hid behind us and, after him spitting most of his pint on me as he tried to speak, explained that his son had pissed in the corner of the dance floor and the bouncers were looking for him.

Those northerners are classy folk.

Of COURSE that's classy. He didn't piss in the MIDDLE, did he?

[Snowball]

The first 30 - 40 minutes on Saturday were dire, cat and mouse so a new tactic (Brian) maybe to see Reading go at sides in the first 30 minutes of the game, not the last 30 with the introduction of Kebe who was superb.

Attacking in the first 30 may put a side on the back foot and possibly a goal or two down. That said a goal or two, we have no strike force the fans know it, please do something about it before it is too late.

We tried the instant attack at Boro and conceded a goal in 20-something seconds

[Snowball]

The Times this morning says the Leeds defender (?) admitted handball to keep out a Shane shot.

I didn't see the HB. Anyone?

[Wycombe Royal]

The Times this morning says the Leeds defender (?) admitted handball to keep out a Shane shot.

I didn't see the HB. Anyone?

It's on the BBC highlights although at full speed you can't tell. It was a shot by Shane Long from a corner. The reaction of the players said it all at the time, so I'm not sure how you missed it if you were there.......

[Wycombe Royal]

It's not "comments" it's BILE

It's not comments, it's vitriol

And it isn't just the (more than 15) on here. The same stuff has come up in newsprint, on BBC Radio Berkshire etc.

You need very little to change the confidence of even the best players

It is comments and on the most part it all perfectly reasoned arguments (of course there are always the exceptions). A lot of it is also constructive - praising the good parts of his game and criticising those areas where he needs to improve. I'm sure even McD is pointing out and working on these weak areas in training.

Tell someone how great they are all the time and they will never improve.

I don't agree with slating a player and I never have but I will not shirk away from pointing out areas of their game that need improving. Hence my criticism of Shane Long's instinctiveness and positioning in the box.

He is a professional footballer who is going to recieve both praise and criticism in the media. If he can't handle the criticism then he needs to find a new career (and obviously I wouldn't want him to do that as he has a lot to offer our team).

[Mr Angry]

I suspect that no-one is more bothered by his lack of goals than Shane himself.

As for the game itself, I have to say that whilst the first half was truly dire, we played some good stuff second half, and there is no doubt that Leeds were hanging on by their finger-tips at times. VERY unimpressed by their much vaunted striker, Becchio; Khis and Pearce had him in their pocket all game. As for their number 7; all I can think is that the ref and lino didn't see him stamping on Griff cos if they had done he would have got a straight red.

As for us, Kebe has to start the next game (with Church dropping to the bench) and I for one was mightily unimpressed by our loanee; he looked as if he totally lacked any match fitness and at times was simply bypassed in the midfield - if we keep playing him instead of Tabb, all that will happen is that come the end of January, Colin will have another player to call on for their promotion push who has regained his match fitness at our expense.

[Snowball]

The Times this morning says the Leeds defender (?) admitted handball to keep out a Shane shot.

I didn't see the HB. Anyone?

It's on the BBC highlights although at full speed you can't tell. It was a shot by Shane Long from a corner. The reaction of the players said it all at the time, so I'm not sure how you missed it if you were there.......

All I saw was Shane's shot hit a player

[Wycombe Royal]

The Times this morning says the Leeds defender (?) admitted handball to keep out a Shane shot.

I didn't see the HB. Anyone?

It's on the BBC highlights although at full speed you can't tell. It was a shot by Shane Long from a corner. The reaction of the players said it all at the time, so I'm not sure how you missed it if you were there.......

All I saw was Shane's shot hit a player

I didn't say you could see the ACTUAL handball on the bbc highlights (hence why I said "at full speed you can't tell"). It was as clear as day to most in the East Stand on Saturday as we had a good line of sight to see it and as I said previously the players reactions said it all.....

If it hadn't hit the guys hand it would have been Shane's second open play goal for us this season..........some say you make your own luck, so Shane go and find the recipe........