Bradford City v Leeds - Team/Reports/Ratings

HarryofOz · Post by **HarryofOz** » Thu Aug 28, 2014 9:25 am

1964white wrote:
I know but we still have a section of moronic supporters who can't hold their drink or restrain their emotions & are prepared to put their own fans in dangerous compromising situations with their foolhardy reckless behaviour. Sorry Harry those actions are not acceptable & part of supporting your team !

I totally agree with you on that point Leon

LevLeeds · Post by **LevLeeds** » Thu Aug 28, 2014 9:32 am

becchio bear wrote:

I disagree.

Was never a pen was already on the deck before the keeper tocuhed him. NO PEN.

becchio bear · Post by **becchio bear** » Thu Aug 28, 2014 9:45 am

LevLeeds wrote:
Was never a pen was already on the deck before the keeper tocuhed him. NO PEN.

I wasn't referring to the pen.

leedsmad · Post by **leedsmad** » Thu Aug 28, 2014 10:00 am

O.K i had my whinge this morning , feel better . I tell you what they gave it to me at work , you can imagine i work in a Hospital with hundreds of staff and when i saw a couple of guys who follow it , they let me have it , "Leeds who are they? they were saying " ? "my 9 year Son who follows the Toffees wouldn't even know who Leeds United is if i asked him ", I was seeing Red and i think he quickly realised cause he said give me a hug mate .
Why does it have to be so painful following your side .

Gandalf · Post by **Gandalf** » Thu Aug 28, 2014 10:18 am

The less said about Murphy the better. He should be taught to stop diving in, as he can't time his tackles. Otherwise there is a decent footballer in there.

In a backs to the wall performance, my only gripe was the amount of space that we allowed on their left hand side after the dismissal. The signs were there at the end of the first half, as several dangerous crosses came in, luckily without an end result.

I thought that Hockaday had solved it at half time, getting Sharp and Bianchi to rotate and give more protection to Wootton. As a result, the first twenty minutes of the second half were reasonably comfortable. After that, tiredness began to set in, and Wootton began to be more and more exposed.

This was the time to bring on some fresh legs, and balance the midfield. I think that Hockaday was conscious of the reaction to taking off Sharp at Waford, but he should have removed Sharp or Smith and brought on Cook.

He should certainly have taken one of the strikers off straight after we had scored and brought Cook on (our only midfield option on the bench), but we were finished off from crosses coming in from their left hand side.

mav · Post by **mav** » Thu Aug 28, 2014 10:45 am

Thing that I didnt understand was, after playing so long with a man down, why did we not put new players on for fresh legs?

Apart from that I dont think putting the blame for this at Hockadays feet is right.

Martyn · Post by **Martyn** » Thu Aug 28, 2014 11:25 am

becchio bear wrote:
I wasn't referring to the pen.

So what did he get wrong?

Norm · Post by **Norm** » Thu Aug 28, 2014 11:52 am

weasel wrote:

Redknapp is a teflon manager, nothing sticks. He has taken Southampton and QPR down, left Portsmouth in a mess and at best did an average to good job at Spurs. The blame always lies elsewhere, the chairman, the players etc - never good ol' Harry.

The side, barring Murphy deserve a lot of credit. When you look around and see that 6 Premiership sides have crashed out it tells you something about how lower teams raise their games, MK Dons beating MU, Villa and QPR losing etc. Our players worked their socks off after the dismissal and in my opinion only dropped their levels after thinking we'd won. Compare that to tame defeats v Histon, Rochdale and many other poor cup performaces of recent years.

Yes I was disappointed that the team picked contained 7 of last year's squad. I want to see the new boys, especially Benandicic but I guess Hockaday was wary of doing a MU and he wanted to pick players who knew that the opposition would be up for it and players that wouldn't see it as a glorified friendly.

Am I disappointed by the result, of course I am. Were all the teams that Bradford beat on their route to the final disappointed? This is a funny competition and I am more concerned about performance and ultimately that was hard to judge due to the Murphy sending off. Before that I thought we were the better side and looked comfortable.

Is there any need for the over the top wailing? Were MU derailed when York beat them 3-0 many moons ago? I see signs in this team of character, maybe too much desire at times and I am behind them 100%. WIll they win every game, no, will they lose stupidly, yes, but hey ho this is the start of something, not the finished article.

Absolutely outstanding post weasel. The emphasis you place on the things that really matter is a breath of fresh air. As ever, you prove to be our most perceptive harbinger.

Post by **1964white** » Thu Aug 28, 2014 11:57 am

LevLeeds wrote:
Was never a pen was already on the deck before the keeper tocuhed him. NO PEN.

That's Poleon all over.....League One player at best !

Norm · Post by **Norm** » Thu Aug 28, 2014 12:11 pm

1964white wrote:

I know but we still have a section of moronic supporters who can't hold their drink or restrain their emotions & are prepared to put their own fans in dangerous compromising situations with their foolhardy reckless behaviour. Sorry Harry those actions are not acceptable & part of supporting your team !

I haven't been to Elland Road for a match for over 20 years now Leon, but some things never change. As much as we have the best fans on earth, we've also got a section who are the worst fans too. I could never jeer or boo my team and I always preferred to keep any disappointment to myself, but there was always a section who were entirely without common sense or decency. I'm sure every club has them but ours always seemed worse to me - maybe it was me being ashamed by association.

theleedsmango · Post by **theleedsmango** » Thu Aug 28, 2014 12:42 pm

Most managers should give every player a clean slate and a chance to prove themselves, so can't complain about playing Norris. I would have liked to have seen players like Mowatt and Dawson, and obviously some of the new signings instead of Tonge and Murphy.

I suspect Hockaday knows as much about the new signings as the fans do (diddly squat) and he's most likely went with the players he thinks will be most up for a cup game against a lower league team (Murphy, Norris, Tonge, Sharp, Smith, etc all certainly fit this bill). Make no mistake, we went out to try and win that game with a strong team to do so.

It's tough, but like I've done with Warnock, Brian and Grayson, you have to try and ignore outside influences and think - would the manager have performed better without outside controls? (lack of finance, takeovers etc.) In this case, would he have done better in this game if Murphy hadn't have been so stupid, and certainly Murphy hasn't had a history here at Leeds at being reckless. If the 4 sending-offs hadn't happened, would we be four/five places higher in the league and still in the cup?!

That said, the team is a mess, the crowds are at their patience limit and the media have us portrayed as a laughing stock. If we were teetering along at an average pace, we could wait with patience and gamble on it all coming together, but we are, once again in turmoil. Both Cellino and Hockaday are at blame, but one put in a bit of money and is happy to play to the crowd, the other is Hockaday - you can see where the fans are going to lay blame. Said it before, time to get someone in who can stand up to Cellino (did I really see we were linked with another central midfielder and another striker?), reunite and inspire the players and still the raging crowd.

Wolfetoneleeds · Post by **Wolfetoneleeds** » Thu Aug 28, 2014 12:49 pm

Late night last night!!! Was something or nothing in the end Leon.. A lot on both sides were up for it

Post by **1964white** » Thu Aug 28, 2014 1:02 pm

Wolfetoneleeds wrote:Late night last night!!! Was something or nothing in the end Leon.. A lot on both sides were up for it

Diappointed Wolfie but we go again v Bolton on Saturday

Genghers · Post by **Genghers** » Thu Aug 28, 2014 1:08 pm

theleedsmango wrote:Most managers should give every player a clean slate and a chance to prove themselves, so can't complain about playing Norris. I would have liked to have seen players like Mowatt and Dawson, and obviously some of the new signings instead of Tonge and Murphy.

And to be fair to him, Norris really took his chance last night - I thought he was excellent for the most part, with a lovely assist for Smith.

Post by **1964white** » Thu Aug 28, 2014 1:11 pm

Genghers wrote: And to be fair to him, Norris really took his chance last night - I thought he was excellent for the most part, with a lovely assist for Smith.

Norris was a definite contender for MOTM......much better than Austin who will probably return v Bolton

Wolfetoneleeds · Post by **Wolfetoneleeds** » Thu Aug 28, 2014 1:13 pm

1964white wrote:

Diappointed Wolfie but we go again v Bolton on Saturday

Still hopefull for this season :D

Genghers · Post by **Genghers** » Thu Aug 28, 2014 1:14 pm

Losses can't all be pinned on one person. Yes, Murphy was stupid and deserved to be sent off - part of the blame lies with him. The team really pulled together and, although we gave their left back a lot of space, we dealt with the pressure well and kicked on after half time.

Second part of the blame lies with Hockaday, who really should have taken off one of the strikers (Sharp, for me) and brought on Cook to shore up the midfield and inject a bit more energy, with there being a lot of tired legs out there. Showing his tactical naivety and rightly taking the brunt of the blame.

Finally there is Warnock, who was caught napping by their striker and came nowhere near challenging for that ball.

Genghers · Post by **Genghers** » Thu Aug 28, 2014 1:19 pm

1964white wrote:Norris was a definite contender for MOTM......much better than Austin who will probably return v Bolton

Depends on his injury I suppose. There is another space in midfield with Murphy out, though. Maybe Sloth will get a run out?

Hopefully Berardi will have recovered from his concussion, as I don't think Wooton looked comfortable at RB...

eastyorkshirewhite · Post by **eastyorkshirewhite** » Thu Aug 28, 2014 6:21 pm

Once again Hockaday showed how far out of touch he is with Championship football the man is a clown and as for his after match comments well cant think of words to describe them.The man is a clown and in some ways it shows Cellinos lack of knowledge of the English game to bring him in more signings coming in we will have the biggest squad of any team the only trouble that I can see is THAT NOT ANYONE OF THEM IS ANY BLOODY GOOD.

The Subhuman · Post by **The Subhuman** » Thu Aug 28, 2014 6:45 pm

Guildford White wrote:
The ref was fine.

He was right about Murphy, although he could have given him a straight red for the first reckless lunge and he was right about the Poleon "penalty".

May as well send Benedicic back to Milan, if he is below Norris in the pecking order then we don't want him.

I know right..I mean who ever heard of a young player arriving (18?) at a club and not being able to perform to a high level at once...it's not like we have got him here with the future in mind...he's 18 for god sake if he's not top quality now than he never will be....