Marching On Together

In all honesty did anyone really think we would be top 3 going into March?

I certainly didn't possibly the players and staff didn't, expectations starting to way heavily on the players.

I know you will say they should have expected to win the league but we all know its not like that in reality. Hoping for top 2, still achievable if not the play offs are still respectable after years of tripe surely!

Absolutely not, I thought 5th to 10th would be a good season in what is a REBUILD! I knew we had the players (Still do) but injuries have been brutal and at the wrong time ..It takes time to adjust coming in to Bielsa's system and it looks like it's also not easy when re-integrating into the team after injury..

Even though Wembley is not our friend. I'm getting excited for a playoff final their.

In my own personal opinion, anyone in our fanbase who claims they thought we would be top 3 at this stage of the season is a liar. Particularly given the abject way we finished last season. I thought we'd be somewhere 6-10, with glimpses of what Bielsa was trying to do, and an eye on second season of the MB project. That we are top 3 given the horrendous luck we've had with injuries is nothing short of miraculous. It's been a great season, no need for so much doom and gloom.

lufc1304 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 01, 2019 9:22 am In my own personal opinion, anyone in our fanbase who claims they thought we would be top 3 at this stage of the season is a liar. Particularly given the abject way we finished last season. I thought we'd be somewhere 6-10, with glimpses of what Bielsa was trying to do, and an eye on second season of the MB project. That we are top 3 given the horrendous luck we've had with injuries is nothing short of miraculous. It's been a great season, no need for so much doom and gloom.

On Cat's 'Predict The Championship 2018/19 Table (Finishing Positions)' on the Prediction Forum I did actually predict Leeds to finish 3rd, more blind optimism than judgement I hasten to add Nick.

For once I thought we'd employed a decent coach also suspected we'd made some decent signings in Douglas, Baker, Blackman & Harrison as you say our lofty position has been nothing short of a miracle this season. We are still in the mix but we need to improve our performances & require a bit of luck too !

Don't think we could ask a great deal more 64, and luck has a massive role in football
Let's hope we get some starting tonight.

Before we’d kicked a ball I thought we’d go up after winning the league, but then I’ve hoped for that every season since we first got relegated

Usually after the first couple of games I’m down to we’ll definitely make the play offs this year

Usually by now I’m resigned to either we are fighting to avoid relegation or mid table obscurity

So to be 3rd even after our poor run and hopefully ready to smash the Albion tonight I’m still pretty optimistic for the rest of the season, I’d take the play offs as I’m sure our Master Coach will negotiate through it

1964white wrote: ↑Fri Mar 01, 2019 10:47 am On Cat's 'Predict The Championship 2018/19 Table (Finishing Positions)' on the Prediction Forum I did actually predict Leeds to finish 3rd, more blind optimism than judgement I hasten to add Nick.

For once I thought we'd employed a decent coach also suspected we'd made some decent signings in Douglas, Baker, Blackman & Harrison as you say our lofty position has been nothing short of a miracle this season. We are still in the mix but we need to improve our performances & require a bit of luck too !

Fair enough, Leon, and your blind optimism has been justified so far! I personally thought it would be a season of bedding in Bielsa's ideas, flashes of what was possible, improvement but certainly not in the mix with 12 games to go. The guy has worked wonders, can only hope that he's here next season, whatever league we are in

Would have to agree. Time for Bielsa's tactics to bed in as we didn't really do much in the transfer market and no signs that youth players were ready. Throw in the pre-season friendlies being far from inspiring and it was little surprise everyone predicted doom and gloom against Stoke in our first match.

I predicted we would finish 5th in our competition so we're still exceeding that and will be very disappointed if we haven't exceeded that at the end of the season.
I predicted Stoke would win so have got that horribly wrong.

Chilli D wrote: ↑Fri Mar 01, 2019 3:11 pm I predicted Stoke would win so have got that horribly wrong.

Me too Chilli

A wonderful season so far, far exceeding anything I’d hoped for. I think with a bit of luck we’ll still be in the mix come late April as I believe Sheff U or Norwich or both will have a wobble as the pressure mounts

rich_leeds64 wrote: ↑Fri Mar 01, 2019 6:42 pm I think with a bit of luck we’ll still be in the mix come late April as I believe Sheff U or Norwich or both will have a wobble as the pressure mounts

Sometimes a bit of luck is all it takes. Obviously the harder you work the luckier you get but take last night and Hernandez scores with a shot that has probably a 10% to 20% chance of being a goal. Against QPR, at 0-0, I'm sure Bamford's chance had a higher chance of going in and we probably had other chances that had more chance of going in than Hernandez's goal. Then throw in the WBA freekick that hit the wall and deflected wide (at 1-0), I bet a lot of you had already forgotten it as it didn't go in and didn't go near the goal, but against Norwich the same freekick hits the wall and deflects into the net.

As Cjay pointed out in his City thread sometimes though better players can increase your chances of 'being lucky.' A quality striker of the ball, like Hernandez, has a far better chance of scoring than a player who isn't a good striker of the ball. As such increase the quality of the players and increase the quality of the 'luck.'