Nine

If Allardyce comes in for Leeds there is every chance they could skank a win at home to Spurs on the final day or grab a a point away at West Ham, end of season results are inconsistent enough without the new manager factor. They really rolled the dice with him but who knows, it could as easily pay off as fail at this point in this season.. it was worth the shot imo. And don’t get me wrong, Allardyces style has always been depressing (if not effective). But Leeds have been so shit for the last 2 months there really is nothing to lose at this point.

This is far from over lol, it’s a complete shit off. Hopefully Leicester can sneak it at the end.

There’s more goals in this yet, really could go either way as both sides are shit

The unflushable turd just started circling the bowl again

Sadly a lot of people had made up their minds before he even stepped on the pitch for us

Mr right place right time strikes again

As I’ve said before, how people can offer judgement on this kid already after seeing the vast improvement of players under this management as time has gone on is mental to me. He’s had such limited minutes, and he was lively for the first 20 mins today. Linked up well with Isak a couple of times by making good runs that he got on the end of, had that have gone in off the post no one would question him this afternoon. Fine margins between emotions swinging one way or the other for some. For me it’s a mental thing, when he’s had minutes he’s lacked composure because he seems so desperate to impress and get a goal/assist for himself.. looks like he’s feeling the pressure a bit to me. He probably reads what the fans are saying and wants to prove himself. Outside of that, if you can’t see the natural ability and potential here then you don’t know what you are looking at. I have massive faith he will come good, probably next season when he will get more game time due to the European fixtures.

There we go

An adjustment and we look dangerous as fuck again, we’ll win this comfortably now

They have afforded Bruno so much space (besides when he got robbed for the goal). We looked dangerous early on with Isak and Gordon clicking nicely, Gordon needs some time in the team to adapt mentally.. he’s lacking composure and looks to keen to impress. Tried to beat his man 1 or 2 times more than necessary on left before he and Murphy switched. There’s a good chance we win this in the second, they will tire and get punished for not being tight enough on Bruno.

That was pretty tidy from them, Armstrongs movement lost Trippier

Gordon needs to compose himself a bit more, a goal or assist would do him a lot of good right now

The missing context is though that our first choice back 4 have been very fortunate with injuries so far. Next season we might not get so lucky, Botman/Schar to Lascelles or Trips to Manquillo is a massive step down in quality. Where as on the left you have pretty solid quality and consistency in who comes in should Burn or Targett go down for any lengthy period. You have a point on tactical flexibility, an attack minded LB would be covered well by Joe on that left side. Having said that I just can’t see Burn being replaced as first choice LB this summer, he’s consistently performing well enough that replacing him at the moment just isn’t Howes modus operandi. I agree the position is an issue in the mid term, but short term (1 more season) I think we are okay there. Having said that, if a long term LB target becomes available for the right price there’s every chance we pull the trigger this summer. I just feel the priorities are elsewhere first and foremost.

I personally don’t see him having the physical attributes to play in one of the two forward CM positions in our 4/3/3. As a #10 in a 4/2/3/1? Hell yeah.. but who knows if we plan to deploy that formation consistently going forward. On the surface it makes little sense right now.

That makes sense then, I’d not heard before that they originally had huge demands.

Lampard has aged so badly since he became a manager, the stress clearly gets to him. Doesn’t come across like he’s cut out mentally for it.

Great point

The fact he’s awkward makes it even better imo, proper comedic edge to it wether he intends it or not

I’d love to know which other clubs had taken interest in him and for whatever reason not pulled the trigger. They must be kicking themselves now.

If his muscle injuries weren’t so consistent he’d be staying imo, questions over his mental ability to adjust his game and make the right decisions remain but I think over time he’d get better at that. Sadly for him his fitness just isn’t going to improve, it only gets worse from here with the accumulation of injuries and age. Players with his fitness record simply arnt cut out for long periods in a side like ours.

IF we get the right offer he’ll go imo, the issue is if of course though. He just doesn’t suit the intense high press style that most of the ambitious clubs are using now, and those are generally the clubs that would be willing to spend 40m on a winger. Is ASM worth that? I could see him going for closer to 30m, fitness issues considered.

I’m not convinced personally, we have far less depth in quality at CB/RB. Obviously Targett may not be happy playing second fiddle and want to move, in that case we will.

He needs more time back in the side before he’s fairly judged, we know how consistent he can be from last season. No need to upgrade the LB position this summer, it’s far from a priority imo. Although we lack the attacking quality there it’s still one of positions with the strongest depth between Burn/Targett. CB and RB are more in need.

People who claim it’s all down to investment or ‘blood money’ have emotionally deluded themselves and are crying salty, salty tears. The recent success is 80% down to the management/coaching, how many examples can we give of teams spunking money only to flop badly?