Leeds Utd v Southampton Match Thread

[White Riot]

The match is now meaningless. Ipswich won’t falter against Huddersfield at home.

We’ll bottle the playoffs.

Next season it is….

I can see us beating Southampton on Saturday, as there's no pressure on our players. But Ipswich will batter Udders, no problem.

But when we go into the play-offs the pressure is back on and our players will freeze like a rabbit in the headlights, just like they did at QPR.

So yeah, already resigned myself to next season in the Championship, and that will be preceded by a summer of turmoil as the EPL teams and debtors pick our carcass clean

It is what it is, we blew it in the Prem and have blown it again in the Championship.

[DDB220]

I can see us beating Southampton on Saturday, as there's no pressure on our players. But Ipswich will batter Udders, no problem.

But when we go into the play-offs the pressure is back on and our players will freeze like a rabbit in the headlights, just like they did at QPR.

So yeah, already resigned myself to next season in the Championship, and that will be preceded by a summer of turmoil as the EPL teams and debtors pick our carcass clean

It is what it is, we blew it in the Prem and have blown it again in the Championship.

But other than that you are positive about the future ?

[White Riot]

But other than that you are positive about the future ?

Realistic

If we can miraculously progress through the play-offs then we have a get out of jail card and much more hope for the future.

[CUSSIE01]

Barring a miracle on Saturday we’re heading to the play-offs so…………….
Choose - Option A. Squeaking through to the Premiership via 2nd place in the league and everyone slipping off for the summer having won nothing and a feeling of an anticlimax and dread for the season ahead or
Option B. Winning the Play Off final at Wembley in front of 10’s of thousands of Leeds fans and millions watching across the world. The clamour for tickets, trains, buses, hotels & the excitement in the pubs, clubs, restaurants, work places and on the streets and a victory parade holding the trophy aloft through the streets of Leeds. The increased merchandise, ticket sales and investment in the club, the transformation of ER into a modern 60,000 seat stadium which still can’t hold all the new generation of fans. The players lining up to sign new contracts and players tripping over themselves to sign for us instead of crawling out the back door to sign for Everton or Bournemouth or
Option C. Not offering an option of the Doomsday Scenario of defeat in the play offs because it’s not happening.
We’re LEEDS and we don’t do thing the easy way so it’s time to raise the flags, shirts & scarves and get fully behind the team for the final push. MARCHING ON TOGETHER
Note to self - must stop drinking before 10am.

[Morpheus]

I can see us beating Southampton on Saturday, as there's no pressure on our players. But Ipswich will batter Udders, no problem.

But when we go into the play-offs the pressure is back on and our players will freeze like a rabbit in the headlights, just like they did at QPR.

So yeah, already resigned myself to next season in the Championship, and that will be preceded by a summer of turmoil as the EPL teams and debtors pick our carcass clean

It is what it is, we blew it in the Prem and have blown it again in the Championship.

I agree with everything you’ve just said.

But cynical as it sounds. I doubt we’ll beat Southampton.

I think we’ve absolutely lost the dressing room and the team mentality.

[Orange Box]

I think we’ll romp home against Soton (maybe 1-0 ), as I cant see them bringing a full team, saving themselves for the playoffs. We, on the other hand, need to put our foot back on the gas just in case …. Then, should we both reach Wembley, you can fully ignore this w/ends score, because it’s a cup final. For me, I don’t think promotion will be good for us this year. That said, I’ll be cheering my little socks off.

[WhiteRose]

think we’ve absolutely lost the dressing room and the team mentality.

There has been some frustration on show in the last couple of games but that’s bound to happen when things are not working - the dressing room hasn’t been lost. We will put the team back in the composition that’s worked, regroup and hopefully look like winners again.

[Morpheus]

There has been some frustration on show in the last couple of games but that’s bound to happen when things are not working - the dressing room hasn’t been lost. We will put the team back in the composition that’s worked, regroup and hopefully look like winners again.

Sorry. A 4-0 loss in a must win game. Is indicative of a dressing room that has gone to sh!te

[malcolmw]

Barring a miracle on Saturday we’re heading to the play-offs so…………….
Choose - Option A. Squeaking through to the Premiership via 2nd place in the league and everyone slipping off for the summer having won nothing and a feeling of an anticlimax and dread for the season ahead or
Option B. Winning the Play Off final at Wembley in front of 10’s of thousands of Leeds fans and millions watching across the world. The clamour for tickets, trains, buses, hotels & the excitement in the pubs, clubs, restaurants, work places and on the streets and a victory parade holding the trophy aloft through the streets of Leeds. The increased merchandise, ticket sales and investment in the club, the transformation of ER into a modern 60,000 seat stadium which still can’t hold all the new generation of fans. The players lining up to sign new contracts and players tripping over themselves to sign for us instead of crawling out the back door to sign for Everton or Bournemouth or
Option C. Not offering an option of the Doomsday Scenario of defeat in the play offs because it’s not happening.
We’re LEEDS and we don’t do thing the easy way so it’s time to raise the flags, shirts & scarves and get fully behind the team for the final push. MARCHING ON TOGETHER
Note to self - must stop drinking before 10am.

I'm with you on this Cussie. After all we have enough pessimists on this site Forget who said it, but I love the quote about pessimists that says "a pessimist is someone who thinks everyone is as nasty as he is, and hates them for it"

On balance, karma would say we don't quite deserve to go up automatically. We had just too many brain-farts at certain times during the season. We can rationalize as to why, but that's now irrelevant. Overall, grand scheme of things, Leicester and Ipswich have been the 2 best teams in the league - over the last 45 games. We can take some solace in the fact we whipped both of them - twice

But ..... glass half-full approach .... Given last season - a moron of a manager and discombobulated owners sending us crashing down - and therefore how we started the season - I am not an unhappy Leeds fan right now.
Many of those pessimists on here were saying back in the autumn were going to be playing League 1 football next year. Instead we're fighting for promotion - so they can all F*** off.

Now is the time for this squad and manager to grow a giant pair each, get us to Wembley at end May and thrash whoever we play against. That would make this summer the sweetest ever.

[malcolmw]

Sorry. A 4-0 loss in a must win game. Is indicative of a dressing room that has gone to sh!te

You're right - That happened in a heartbeat .... it can equally go back to pre-international break attitude in a heartbeat.
Try not to fall over your bottom lip just yet.

[malcolmw]

I think we’ll romp home against Soton (maybe 1-0 ), as I cant see them bringing a full team, saving themselves for the playoffs. We, on the other hand, need to put our foot back on the gas just in case …. Then, should we both reach Wembley, you can fully ignore this w/ends score, because it’s a cup final. For me, I don’t think promotion will be good for us this year. That said, I’ll be cheering my little socks off.

Agree on all points Orange - including the "little socks" bit

[weasel]

Sorry. A 4-0 loss in a must win game. Is indicative of a dressing room that has gone to sh!te

All itis indicative of is that football is, as Mr Greaves would say, a funny ol' game.

A few seasons back my Sunday side played in the Cup Semi (played in midweek), we were 2nd in the league at the time and were playing the team top of the league. Thrashed them 5-0 with yours truly opening the scoring. A few days later and back in league and desperate to close on the league leaders we went and lost 5-1 to a mid table team with nothing to play for. No dressing room lost, in a turnover time similar to the time between the Boro and QPR games. It is just football and my side played sh*te after playing brilliant the game before. And for those interested we went on to win the cup and got promoted, as runners up.

[Jaydog]

All itis indicative of is that football is, as Mr Greaves would say, a funny ol' game.

A few seasons back my Sunday side played in the Cup Semi (played in midweek), we were 2nd in the league at the time and were playing the team top of the league. Thrashed them 5-0 with yours truly opening the scoring. A few days later and back in league and desperate to close on the league leaders we went and lost 5-1 to a mid table team with nothing to play for. No dressing room lost, in a turnover time similar to the time between the Boro and QPR games. It is just football and my side played sh*te after playing brilliant the game before. And for those interested we went on to win the cup and got promoted, as runners up.

We’ve been crap for 5 games in a row.
3 poor defeats.
A crap draw.
A win where we were hanging on.
We limped to the finish as I suspected we would.
Hopefully we will turn it round in the play offs.
But if we don’t I’m sure you’ll spin in it to something positive

[Supersaint3]

Barring a miracle on Saturday we’re heading to the play-offs so…………….
Choose - Option A. Squeaking through to the Premiership via 2nd place in the league and everyone slipping off for the summer having won nothing and a feeling of an anticlimax and dread for the season ahead or
Option B. Winning the Play Off final at Wembley in front of 10’s of thousands of Leeds fans and millions watching across the world. The clamour for tickets, trains, buses, hotels & the excitement in the pubs, clubs, restaurants, work places and on the streets and a victory parade holding the trophy aloft through the streets of Leeds. The increased merchandise, ticket sales and investment in the club, the transformation of ER into a modern 60,000 seat stadium which still can’t hold all the new generation of fans. The players lining up to sign new contracts and players tripping over themselves to sign for us instead of crawling out the back door to sign for Everton or Bournemouth or
Option C. Not offering an option of the Doomsday Scenario of defeat in the play offs because it’s not happening.
We’re LEEDS and we don’t do thing the easy way so it’s time to raise the flags, shirts & scarves and get fully behind the team for the final push. MARCHING ON TOGETHER
Note to self - must stop drinking before 10am.

Optimism five!!!

[weasel]

We’ve been crap for 5 games in a row.
3 poor defeats.
A crap draw.
A win where we were hanging on.
We limped to the finish as I suspected we would.
Hopefully we will turn it round in the play offs.
But if we don’t I’m sure you’ll spin in it to something positive

We don't beat Boro after going behind if the 'changing room' is gone.

We have had a bad run of form at the worst time but it happens, Ipswich Leicester and Southampton all did too. Leicester got an undeserved win v WBA that got them back on track, combined with us all losing. Ipswich had their fade then bounced back and seemed to have done so again.

In terms of dealing with the pressure we have done that for a long time as we seemingly have been playing 'must win' matches since early on in the season and won most of them.

If we don't go up then a lot depends on how well we spend what money we have to replace the outgoing players. I have made the point previously that supposedly 'lesser' players could be better fits. The warning is what happened after the Blackwell managed play-off final loss but the positive is what happened after the Bielsa play-off loss.

[Jaydog]

We don't beat Boro after going behind if the 'changing room' is gone.

We have had a bad run of form at the worst time but it happens, Ipswich Leicester and Southampton all did too. Leicester got an undeserved win v WBA that got them back on track, combined with us all losing. Ipswich had their fade then bounced back and seemed to have done so again.

In terms of dealing with the pressure we have done that for a long time as we seemingly have been playing 'must win' matches since early on in the season and won most of them.

If we don't go up then a lot depends on how well we spend what money we have to replace the outgoing players. I have made the point previously that supposedly 'lesser' players could be better fits. The warning is what happened after the Blackwell managed play-off final loss but the positive is what happened after the Bielsa play-off loss.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not suggesting the changing room has gone. It’s in response to your post that football is a funny old game. A good result followed by a bad one. Our dip is worse than that.
And I’m not anti Farke. The international break has a lot to answer for imo.
So much is made of squad quality which I suppose is backed up by the position of Leicester, us & Soton but little old Ipswich had to f**k it up with their not so expensive squad.
On Sky last night they said something like “McKenna always knows what his team will look like at the end of a game”.
Interesting quote. So his philosophy is less about the other team and more about who he wants on the pitch depending on the score.
He seems far more organised on that front than Farke.

[Cjay]

We don't beat Boro after going behind if the 'changing room' is gone.

We have had a bad run of form at the worst time but it happens, Ipswich Leicester and Southampton all did too. Leicester got an undeserved win v WBA that got them back on track, combined with us all losing. Ipswich had their fade then bounced back and seemed to have done so again.

In terms of dealing with the pressure we have done that for a long time as we seemingly have been playing 'must win' matches since early on in the season and won most of them.

If we don't go up then a lot depends on how well we spend what money we have to replace the outgoing players. I have made the point previously that supposedly 'lesser' players could be better fits. The warning is what happened after the Blackwell managed play-off final loss but the positive is what happened after the Bielsa play-off loss.

We don't beat Boro at all if the linesman gives the offside call

Isn't this the part of the season where DF is meant to be the expert? He's waffled on about not looking at the table till matchday 40, he's ballsed that up since.

Also a big fan of making excuses? Blaming refs, international break, quoting xG, talking about what he's done before and how he knows this and that.

Same things previous managers have been criticised for?

Don't remember him ever taking responsibility for a defeat either

His first response is always what the players didn't do.

Not once can I remember him taking sole responsibility.

He deflects.

Just once I wish someone would ask him "why he has been unable to get the impact from the bench others have".

And why his away setup has seen us concede 18 goals in the first 50 minutes this season? Compared to Ipswich 15 and Leicester 7 Southampton 12 West Brom 17.

Only Norwich concede more, so why does DF think that is? Is that something he does wrong?

Best comparison I've heard is he is the German Southgate.

[Jaydog]

The German Southgate.
Wow that’s a low blow.

[The Subhuman]

The German Southgate.
Wow that’s a low blow.

It's a good comparison tbf .... just depends on how you rate Southgate I guess as to whether it's an insult or not. Some would say Southgate has taken us consistently deeper into tournaments than most managers before him, some would say with the quality he has to hand he should have done better ... Exactly the same thing you can say of Fake and Leeds

[Jaydog]

It's a good comparison tbf .... just depends on how you rate Southgate I guess as to whether it's an insult or not. Some would say Southgate has taken us consistently deeper into tournaments than most managers before him, some would say with the quality he has to hand he should have done better ... Exactly the same thing you can say of Fake and Leeds

I don’t rate Southgate at all so it’s definitely an insult.
Is that a Freudian slip or have you just coined a new name for Farke. Fake & Bamfraud I suppose some people will say.