Leeds v Chesterfield....Team/Reports/Ratings

[Twiggster]

We all dream of a team of Michael Browns:



(nicked from Sq.Ball)

[Gino 1959]

And your MOTM EY

Brown or Pearce

Elitist AND dictatorial :mrgreen:

[1964white]

We all dream of a team of Michael Browns:



(nicked from Sq.Ball)

Sung it last season......last night's MB song "Michael Brown is not for sale" immediately after the McCormack rendition

[YorkshireSquare]

Sung it last season......last night's MB song "Michael Brown is not for sale" immediately after the McCormack rendition

Oh Michael Brown scored a flipping great goal, at Elland Road, at Elland Road.

[Drs.Dad]

And your Man of the Match DD ?

I honestly do not think that any particular player covered themselves in glory, but Poleon seemed to give them more problems than anyone until McCormack and Murphy came on, so it would be him. You could see Chesterfield were a more settled unit than us, perhaps BMD should hire their coach to teach our boys to pass to a member of the same team, I find it helps if you aren't constantly giving the ball away! I was surprised to read some game reports which more or less stated that we eased past our opposition, whereas I thought the best team lost last night! If Chesterfield play like that for the rest of the season, they must be a shoe-in for promotion.

[Dr.Leeds]

Pretty poor match. I thought we were going to absolutely murder them in the first 15 minutes but once they settled they played the better football. We did pass it around a bit but only in our own half and up front our passes went astray. Chesterfield really showed us how it was done with crisp passing and movement up front particularly up the right flank.

Kenny 7 Called on to make a few decent saves though his Brighton heroics were not ultimately necessary. No fault for the goal.

Thompson 6 Must be hard to be a young right back at Leeds as the bar has been set pretty high. Looked very unsure after his booking. Got forward reasonably well but, with the players around him having such a poor game, he rarely got to make anything of it.

Lees 4 Nowhere near the attacker for the goal.

Pearce 6 Superb goal line clearance papered over the cracks in this game but, as I said to Leon last night, Jason Crowe did that at Old Trafford and he was still s**t.

Drury 4 Constantly second best up against their marauding right back. Any attempt by others to pass it out of our half generally ended with Drury lumping it upfield.

Brown 7.5 and MOTM. Controlled aggression and passed the ball well. Beautiful hit for what could already be goal of the season.

Green 4 Poor game after (what I hear) was a good performance against Brighton. Lost the ball repeatedly.

Norris 3 Dreadful game. Not a good deal else to say.

White 3 Also very poor. Aidy could find a blind alley in a desert and for all his running has no end product. This must be his last season at Leeds unless McDermott finds his position.

Smith 3 I like Smith. I think he will be an important option for us this season but he had a shocker last night. Could have had a hat trick in the last half an hour and the headers he won with ease against class defenders in the Nuremburg game were pretty difficult against L2 opposition. Hope this game doesn't affect him much.

Poleon 7.5 Promising last season but is on another level now. Looks dangerous every time he picks the ball up on the left and is adding game awareness and team mentality to his raw talent. Beautifully waited for the keeper and defender to commit to covering the expected pass to Smith before unleashing a cracking shot. Exciting player. Awful goal celebration.

Subs:

McCormack 7 I'm liking Ross in his new role. I immediately felt better once he was on the pitch.

Murphy 8 Not on the pitch long enough to take MOTM but I believe Riot used the word "class" for Murphy in his match report and that was the exact word that I was thinking watching him play last night. This lad is going to be special.

[Crude]

Could Poleon be the man to really make a break through this season and net 15-20 goals in the league? I will admit that I havent had the chance to watch any of our preseason games or the brighton game (one of downsides of living down under!) but all commentary and analysis seems to suggest that he has been a key player and developed a lot compared to last season.

Last season in his six appearances for Leeds, he seemed lost on the pitch at times, yet scored two goals in the league. Seems much more confident and assured so far. Hoping McD can get him to the next level, as it appears he is doing.

[andywatson]

Interesting reports- and I disagree with quite a few of the comments.

Firstly Kenny wasn't to blame for the goal!

Interestingly I thought Lees looked pretty good in the heart of the defence. I accept I appear to be in a minority of 1 for this statement, but here's the thing- I was sat in L34. This means I was looking pretty much right across the 18 yard box at our defence in the first half. Lees was solid- a lot of strong tackles and clearing headers.

Green- I thought he started very brightly, and looked to be our most creative midfielder in the first 30 minutes or so. He was trying to make things happen, although not much actually did happen as a result.

Brown- disciplined solid performance, with a great goal.

I certainly agree with the comments re. Aidy White. It's time to step up or move on.

Smith. I am really disappointed by the reaction of quite a few posters to his performance. He is relatively inexperienced and has stepped up a level. He was always a buy for the future, and a good run out in the cup will help him develop- so give the guy a break for not performing especially well. To give the guy his due he did get on the end of a number of crosses- and on another day could easily have a couple of goals to his credit.

Poleon. Looked lively- very good movement and runs with the ball nicely. I think he partners Smith quite well from what I saw.

McCormack- just a footnote. Came on as a sub and seemed to have a real appetite for the game. His runs were crisp but also had a sense of purpose to them. Definately added some tempo to the play.

The first half performance was patchy- we were definately up against it and they deserved their goal. Not sure if we deserved 2 back, but certainly we started to apply some pressure and did well to get back into it. The second half was dire- barely anything happened for 45 minutes. Seemed to be the old problem of not knowing what to do if we are in front- defend or go for another.

[weasel]

Murphy is gonna be a star !

I see you learnt your lesson over Neil Warnock and have now taken the sensible option of agreeing with me from the start

Last night was probably a great night for B McD. I say this because as a player manager myself I know what it is like to have players that I don't see as being in my preferred starting line-up and sometimes it is only by playing them that it justifies my opinion. This seems to have happened last night and the players that came in look to have shown why they weren't in B McD's starting line up for the important game (v Brighton). It shows he got his team selection right (v Brighton) and picked the best out of what was available to him.

I hope people don't get on Smith's back. I think he has a lot to offer but I also worry about the football intelligence of those around him to read his flick ons. Murhpy, who appears to have a great footballing brain, read the flick superbly on Saturday, timed his run to perfection (albeit maybe a touch on the arm in the control), and met the flcik down in his stride to create the goalscoring opportunity. A lesser player would not be making the run, and the header would have been then described as a 50p header that went nowhere near the stationary player.

My worry over Murphy, and possibly Smith, is the lack of decent players around them. It is very easy for a player to stagnate when time after time the stuff they try doesn't come off because of other player's inability to read the game, make the runs etc. A good way of seeing this is in the lack of success by players leaving MU (Ronaldo the obvious exception but he went to a decent club). The player leaves and goes to a lesser club where they struggle as they have been used to playing a certain way but no one else is on the same page.

[Martyn]

Good post weasel.

I think Hunt will have a big role to play, with his work rate he can create gaps for a midfield runner like Murphy to get into.