Back From The Game - Leeds

[BR2]

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 expect you will add that to a new list of "Goals that Shane should have had but the naughty defender got in the way".

[handbags_harris]

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........

Absolutely clear as day to me and I was on the blind side of it. The way the ball reacted after it had struck the defender, ie backspinning and heading downward, made it plainly obvious that it had been handled. If it had struck any part of the chest, as the referee intimated shortly afterwards, there is no way it would have had it's spin and path altered in such a manner.

And in any case, as I was one of the last leaving the East Stand, out come referee and linesmen, get grief, referee calls out "naaaah, ball to hand!!" So if it was ball to hand why show that you felt it hit his chest? Yet you can bet your bottom dollar if that had happened on the halfway line he couldn't have gotten his whistle in his mouth quick enough.

[Scarface]

Although Snowball will defend Long with stats, that's now 8 points he's cost us in the last 4 games. The boy has to be dropped otherwise we'll continue to draw games as he wastes chance after chance after chance.

Other than that minor rant I thought we played ok, clearly we're a better side than Leeds which just highlighted we are one goal scorer away from easily making the play-offs this year.

[brendywendy]

church and nhunt missed opportunitys too- drop them?

[Snowball]

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.....

I was in the North, high up

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........

What, so it's SHANE's fault that the opponent hand-balled and the ref and linesman missed it?

[Wycombe Royal]

What, so it's SHANE's fault that the opponent hand-balled and the ref and linesman missed it?

Where did I say that? All I said was that "some say you make your own luck, so Shane go and find the recipe" - it is a tongue in cheek comment.

Stop taking everything so literally.

[Snowball]

Although Snowball will defend Long with stats, that's now 8 points he's cost us in the last 4 games. The boy has to be dropped otherwise we'll continue to draw games as he wastes chance after chance after chance.

IGNORE Long's assist for our goal at Watford.
IGNORE Karacan's missed open goal v Watford
IGNORE Hunt's too-late pass to Church at Watford
IGNORE Church's failure in HIS 1-on-1 at Watford

IGNORE Hunt's poor shooting v Leeds
IGNORE Zurab's poor header v Leeds

IGNORE Zurab's TERRIBLE game versus Norwich
IGNORE Hunt's failure to run with the FB v Norwich
IGNORE Howards stupid pass and then Mills diabolical pass-back and imperfect keeping by Feds v Norwich
IGNORE Howard giving away the free-kick, the pathetic wall, the break-away from the wall and poor keeping for Norwich's 3rd goal

You lot are truly DUMB. You isolate one player for this week's/month's scapegoating,
mostly ignore all their good stuff and pretend that they and they alone are the cause of lost points

[KC Royal]

Poor 1st half, can only remember a few chances for us and a couple for Leeds. The best chance fell to us though, with a shot being cleared off the line. I thought it was in and jumped up celebrating From watching the highlights i don't quite know how it stayed out. Both teams seemed to cancel each other out but we just shaded it. The 2nd half was great though, especially after Kebe came on. We created chance after chance, Schmeichel made a couple of standout saves and Antonio also hit the post. In amongst all this Leeds had a chance of their own which brought a good parry from Federici. Leeds almost then snatched in with a breakaway goal at the end which from the far end (the NE corner) i thought was heading in. The Leeds fans behind us (in Y19) thought their team was hanging on by the end, desperate for them to clear it away! The Leeds fan that came with me thought we should have won 3 or 4 nil, but wouldn't quite go that far, a 2 goal margin would have been about right. Enjoyable game overall, i think probably the best 0-0 i've been to.

Ratings

Fed 6.5 - Not much to do but produced 1 good save and 1 great save in the 2nd half where he did very well to tip it round the post.
Griffin 8 - Solid defensively and provided an attacking outlet once Kebe came on. One dangerous low cross was crying out for someone to get on the end of.
Zurab 7 - Didn't notice him much in the 1st half but was class in the 2nd half.
Pearce 7 - Hoofed the ball a lot, particularly 1st half, but won countless headers throughout.
Harte 6 - Not as impressed as i have been. His passing wasn't of the usual standard and was caught out on one occasion in the 2nd half which led to Federici's parry, but was unlucky not to score with free-kick, Schmeichel looked fortunate to save it.
McAnuff 6 - Thought he was generally quiet
Karacan 6 - His usual energetic self but was lucky not to be booked for a challenge on the touchline, i'm not sure it was even a free-kick!
Leigertwood 5 - Didn't really get into the game and looked slow and clumsy. Actually reminded me of Cisse's debut v Chelsea a few years ago.
Church 6 - Tried his best but isn't really a winger.
Long 7 - Held up the ball impressively well and although he should have done better with a chance in the 2nd half it was his initial goalbound shot (which may have been deflected) that was cleared off the line.
Hunt 6 - Wasn't as involved as much as i thought he would be tbh, but could have scored with a shot that produced a good save from Schmeichel.

Subs Kebe 9 MOTM - The best sub performance i think i've seen. Back to his best and when he's in this form he's simply unplayable. He was at the the heart of everything in his time on the pitch, Leeds just simply could not cope with him. Produced 2 golden chances for Hunt and Long and also played a perfect pass into the area for Griffin's dangerous low cross. Only gave the ball away once too.
Tabb 6.5 - Got stuck in but didn't quite have the impact i thought he might.
Antonio 7 - Did well to twist and turn past his marker and fire a powerful shot against the near post.

[brendywendy]

Leigertwood 5 - Didn't really get into the game and looked slow and clumsy. Actually reminded me of Cisse's debut v Chelsea a few years ago.

the game where cisse had sidwell in his pocket for the whole 1st half to the extent he was taken off?

[madmickb]

Poor 1st half, can only remember a few chances for us and a couple for Leeds. The best chance fell to us though, with a shot being cleared off the line. I thought it was in and jumped up celebrating From watching the highlights i don't quite know how it stayed out. Both teams seemed to cancel each other out but we just shaded it. The 2nd half was great though, especially after Kebe came on. We created chance after chance, Schmeichel made a couple of standout saves and Antonio also hit the post. In amongst all this Leeds had a chance of their own which brought a good parry from Federici. Leeds almost then snatched in with a breakaway goal at the end which from the far end (the NE corner) i thought was heading in. The Leeds fans behind us (in Y19) thought their team was hanging on by the end, desperate for them to clear it away! The Leeds fan that came with me thought we should have won 3 or 4 nil, but wouldn't quite go that far, a 2 goal margin would have been about right. Enjoyable game overall, i think probably the best 0-0 i've been to.

Ratings

Fed 6.5 - Not much to do but produced 1 good save and 1 great save in the 2nd half where he did very well to tip it round the post.
Griffin 8 - Solid defensively and provided an attacking outlet once Kebe came on. One dangerous low cross was crying out for someone to get on the end of.
Zurab 7 - Didn't notice him much in the 1st half but was class in the 2nd half.
Pearce 7 - Hoofed the ball a lot, particularly 1st half, but won countless headers throughout.
Harte 6 - Not as impressed as i have been. His passing wasn't of the usual standard and was caught out on one occasion in the 2nd half which led to Federici's parry, but was unlucky not to score with free-kick, Schmeichel looked fortunate to save it.
McAnuff 6 - Thought he was generally quiet
Karacan 6 - His usual energetic self but was lucky not to be booked for a challenge on the touchline, i'm not sure it was even a free-kick!
Leigertwood 5 - Didn't really get into the game and looked slow and clumsy. Actually reminded me of Cisse's debut v Chelsea a few years ago.
Church 6 - Tried his best but isn't really a winger.
Long 7 - Held up the ball impressively well and although he should have done better with a chance in the 2nd half it was his initial goalbound shot (which may have been deflected) that was cleared off the line.
Hunt 6 - Wasn't as involved as much as i thought he would be tbh, but could have scored with a shot that produced a good save from Schmeichel.

Subs Kebe 9 MOTM - The best sub performance i think i've seen. Back to his best and when he's in this form he's simply unplayable. He was at the the heart of everything in his time on the pitch, Leeds just simply could not cope with him. Produced 2 golden chances for Hunt and Long and also played a perfect pass into the area for Griffin's dangerous low cross. Only gave the ball away once too.
Tabb 6.5 - Got stuck in but didn't quite have the impact i thought he might.
Antonio 7 - Did well to twist and turn past his marker and fire a powerful shot against the near post.

Good report and judgement of the game i thought it was a good game, felt a bit sorry for
Leigertwood thrown in at the deep end he needs more footy under his belt before we should all pass judgement

[KC Royal]

Leigertwood 5 - Didn't really get into the game and looked slow and clumsy. Actually reminded me of Cisse's debut v Chelsea a few years ago.

the game where cisse had sidwell in his pocket for the whole 1st half to the extent he was taken off?

Yes that game, not sure i agree with that but we'll agree to differ! It was of course also the game where Cisse got sent off..

Even taking the comparison with that game aside I do think he's like Cisse as a player, think Dellor referred to that after the game. Cisse was a better centre-back imo, so it would be interesting to see what Leigertwood would be like in that position.

[KC Royal]

Good report and judgement of the game i thought it was a good game, felt a bit sorry for
Leigertwood thrown in at the deep end he needs more footy under his belt before we should all pass judgement

Thanks, yea he did look short of match practice so didn't want to be too hard on him, certainly less than the people i was with who were even less impressed than i was. They thought he was awful!

I was surprised he started ahead of Tabb, expected him to be eased in gently, but guessing we haven't brought him to sit on the bench. Otherwise he may have questioned the decision to join us.

[It Is What It Is]

Give 'Woody a few weeks playing for the reserves to boost his confidence, get him back into the stride of things after such a long time out of the game, and then slowly work him into the squad and i think his experience will start to hopefully show, and hopefully will improve Karacan as a player, both on and off the field, almost like how it could be said that Griffin has with Cummings

[Snowball]

TBF he's training every day with QPR has played a full game and 9 as sub (now +1) so he shouldn't be a million miles away from match-fit

Nice easy 70 minutes at Sheffield, goers off when we are 3-0 up... we win 4-0... simples.

[Mr Angry]

TBF he's training every day with QPR has played a full game and 9 as sub (now +1) so he shouldn't be a million miles away from match-fit
Nice easy 70 minutes at Sheffield, goers off when we are 3-0 up... we win 4-0... simples.

He looked a million miles away from match fitness at this level on Saturday Snowball; had Brian not needed to sub Jem (who was one more tackle away from a red card), then I think he would have been subbed as he was, at times, simply by-passed.

[Snowball]

I'm not arguing about whether he is or isn't fit, merely that he
shouldn't have been far away from fitness based on training and game time

[Ian Royal]

Just watched the first half, too tired to catch the second tonight. A few thoughts:

I used to really quite like Noel Hunt, and I do still think he may well be our best striker this season, but my god he's a mouthy little shit who needs stf leave the officials alone. And Ian Harte, whilst a good defender, really is a cynical git, completely taking out Gradel and then claiming he dived.

Leigterwood looked slow in body and mind. In fact I thought he largely looked like a total passenger or a pub player who'd somehow found himself in a championship match and didn't really know what to do. Not going to judge his usefullness to us on that performance, especially seeing as he apparently improved as the match went on. But I wasn't encouraged by it so far.

As usual, apart from the odd bit of luck created by chasing a lost cause all our best play came with tidy football rather than aimlessly hopefull punts into the channels or up to the strikers, which was, unfortunately the majority of our play. We really need to get the ball down and play it, with the occasional ball into the channels to mix it up, rather than the other way round.

Thought Karacan & McAnuff looked our best players.

[Millsy]

Have to give the new boy time.

I don't think he was bad.

Could try putting him up front. He'll definitely score more goals than Mr One Goal for sure.

[Ian Royal]

Have to give the new boy time.

I don't think he was bad.

Could try putting him up front. He'll definitely score more goals than Mr One Goal for sure.

Of course he needs time, he only had a short while to train with us and obviously wasn't up to speed. But I ain't got a good feeling. I want Howard in the team for his passing and creativity, but I think Karacan is actually making himself undroppable at the moment. So that spells tough to Tabb & Leigterwood IMO.

Brian will almost certainly have different ideas though.

[Ian Royal]

Second half watched.

How the oxf*rd did we not win that game? Kebe was fantastic, McAnuff, Karacan & Khiz all really really good as well. Hunt disappointing, but he can't score every game (despite the fact he should have got at least one) and did plenty good stuff. Thought that was one of Long's worse games. Worked hard but very little stuck or came off for him.

Don't think Leigterwood really improved much in the second half. Looked really leggy as has been said... the nickname "Legsofwood" makes me worry that's what he looks like normally.

Tabb in for Karacan & Kebe in for Church are the obvious changes for Sheff, assuming it happens.