Leeds Utd v Arsenal Match Thread

[CHAPELALLMAN]

Some fans support whoever wears the shirt, acknowledge their weaknesses and also their strengths. If we were to sell Struyjk we maybe get £15m to £20m. To improve on him how much does it cost unless we are to find some unknwon superstar playing in the Bolivian 3rd Division?

I've said before that as Bornauw can play as the left or right sided CB, I think that he's a better option than Struijk. For a start, he has much more pace. If need be, keep Struijk for the last 15 to 20 mins when he can come on fresh, so that tiredness doesn't exacerbate his lack of pace. His reactions are far too slow when he gets tired - as we saw for those last goals.

[CHAPELALLMAN]

Indeed, that's why I'm not totally blaming Darlow for the goal, there wasn't much he could do with it, tbh.

A case of too many cooks....

[weasel]

I support the club and the team - not necessarily some individual players if I don't think they are good enough. Are you an Okafor fan then ? These guys earn several million quid a year, so I don't care if their feelings get hurt from time to time. Pay me that kind of money and I will take any kind criticism that can be thrown at me. The football world exists in a molly coddled ivory tower sometimes - totally out of touch with the realities of life. What would a Ukrainian civilian shivering to death and being bombed every night make of a footballer earning millions a year getting upset about a bit of criticism regarding his last performance ?

How good is the Ukranian civillian at playing football? Sadly that is just society where people get paid a fortune for kicking a ball about. Football is just one of the ways to control society, give the working class hope that they can become millionaires, same as the lottery. As a youngster you might not have been good but maybe your kid will be good, they will earn the millions and you will get the benefit. Anyone can be a footballer they just need a ball, or a bundle of rags, to kick around. Working class British, kids in the slums of Brazil etc.

And then we watch these overpaid 'heroes.' It gives us escapism from our meaningless lives. We can rant at the indignation of a player being paid millions being a lazy sod, not being quick enough etc and it makes us feel better. Is a bad performance/result better for the soul as we can rant and rave and vent out our frustrations. A good performance and yeah for a while we feel better but we still have our humdrum existence so we still try to find fault, find reason to vent so we feel better.

Hopefully Okafor will get better.

[Irish Ian]

In all honesty we ferked up big time during the summer recruitment period. It all got a bit desperate towards the end. I didn't expect us to beat Arsenal, but I did expect us to give a better account of ourselves. The likes of Gruev and Darlow are always going to exposed at this level. I would agree the bulk of our players are not good enough for the Premiership.

Farke to his credit has got them grafting hard, but it's going to take a toll and he was desperate for reinforcements. In fairness, we haven't laid out that much money for a newly promoted side. Such players should have been replaced during the summer as we had plenty of time to recruit and assess. Essentially, it's not a case of at this point, that just feels very reactive. The club have hyper-fixated on one player for far too long as per usual. They know best and I am sure there's a cunning contingency plan somewhere.

Thing is replace those players cost money we just don't have.

Where does the money come from?

We spent the tv money and have had to service the largest wage bill in the Championship two years running.

[weasel]

A case of too many cooks....

Autocorrect got you there!

[1964white]

And no Arsenal players near them Leon.

Suicidal defending from the three of them.

If we're saying Arsenal are a better football team, with better quality players and we're just looking to contain them. Then the fundamental requirement is that we at least get the basics of defending correct.

Handing them two goals for starters just gave them free rein to take their time and pull us apart at a nice relaxed pace.

I don't think they exerted themselves all afternoon. Really disappointing Leon.

Our two worst performances have come against them, and their two easiest matches this season have come against us.

We gave them it twice on a plate.

At Forest and Sunderland they had to work their nuts off just to get a draw, and that's what I was expecting yesterday.

I think you have to acknowledge that Arsenal team is full of quality.

Watching the game live, they were much more efficient, quicker & classier than Liverpool & Manure, a level above those two top six teams I would say.

The quality of three of their passes from Rice, Gabriel & Zubimendi were immense, way above our passing skills & Madueke's crosses were sublime.

Forest will be a totally different proposition under the lights next Friday,

[CHAPELALLMAN]

How good is the Ukranian civillian at playing football? Sadly that is just society where people get paid a fortune for kicking a ball about. Football is just one of the ways to control society, give the working class hope that they can become millionaires, same as the lottery. As a youngster you might not have been good but maybe your kid will be good, they will earn the millions and you will get the benefit. Anyone can be a footballer they just need a ball, or a bundle of rags, to kick around. Working class British, kids in the slums of Brazil etc.

And then we watch these overpaid 'heroes.' It gives us escapism from our meaningless lives. We can rant at the indignation of a player being paid millions being a lazy sod, not being quick enough etc and it makes us feel better. Is a bad performance/result better for the soul as we can rant and rave and vent out our frustrations. A good performance and yeah for a while we feel better but we still have our humdrum existence so we still try to find fault, find reason to vent so we feel better.

Hopefully Okafor will get better.

At one time when footballers retired, they had to carry on doing ordinary " normal " jobs until they properly retired. Look at how many 70s footballers became pub owners or suchlike. Or they had a shot at management or coaching. None of them would have swanned off into the sunset to put their feet up at the age of 35.

And football for fans is just a bit of a release from everyday life, though with football it's a lot more likely that many of those who follow it will have either played it, or will still be playing it. Contrast that with something like F1.

I follow both sports - but used to play football, and raced karts for many years too.

[Sean_Nile]

truth be told Darlow has made many magnificent saves just like Meslier, but punching the ball into his own net was also a mistake of Meslier proportions.

should we expect a similar outcry as when Meslier made his howlers against Sunderland, and for the sake of his confidence give him a rest, as we did Meslier.

Sauce for the goose is good for the gander

[CHAPELALLMAN]

truth be told Darlow has made many magnificent saves just like Meslier, but punching the ball into his own net was also a mistake of Meslier proportions.

should we expect a similar outcry as when Meslier made his howlers against Sunderland, and for the sake of his confidence give him a rest, as we did Meslier.

Sauce for the goose is good for the gander

With Meslier it was multiple howlers - take your pick. Ditto Coco the clown, and Wiedwald....

[1964white]

I have complete sympathy for Darlow. Not sure whether he didn't call or DCL didn't hear it or DCL decided to jump anyway but DCL really did make it virtually impossible for Darlow to get to the ball properly. In that situation once you hear your keeper shout you need to get out of the way and trust him.

Just a shambles really but I wouldn't be dropping Darlow. The only positive is perhaps that it happened in this match where the result was probably not affected by it.

I noticed last night when I eventually managed to read the match thread that our fans were calling for Darlow's head. I was right behind the calamity stood in the kop, and I was confused how we conceded the second goal, watching the match again, I can clearly see Justin & Calvert-Lewin missed the header & impeded Darlow's attempted punch.

In Darlow's defence, he did make two good point-blank saves.

I have to say, it was another terrific whipped in cross!

[Sean_Nile]

With Meslier it was multiple howlers - take your pick. Ditto Coco the clown, and Wiedwald....

just goes to prove that every goalkeeper has a mistake in him... and we are harsh to judge when those mistakes happen, no matter how little or how often.

[1964white]

truth be told Darlow has made many magnificent saves just like Meslier, but punching the ball into his own net was also a mistake of Meslier proportions.

should we expect a similar outcry as when Meslier made his howlers against Sunderland, and for the sake of his confidence give him a rest, as we did Meslier.

Sauce for the goose is good for the gander

Deflected into his own net off Justin's back.

[CHAPELALLMAN]

just goes to prove that every goalkeeper has a mistake in him... and we are harsh to judge when those mistakes happen, no matter how little or how often.

I don't blame Darlow - we just congested the near post. DCL was almost backing into Darlow when Darlow tried to punch it. DCL was watching the flight of the ball, and was most likely unaware that he was backing into his keeper and impeding him. If Darlow shouted then DCL needed to get out of his way quick.

[1964white]

I said it was a Justin OG during the game.
Had it not hit his back it it’s not as bad as it looked, DCL was impending Darlow and he punched the ball out, possibly for another corner
As it turned out, it made no difference apart from from the hope that a 0-1 HT score is potentially salvageable.

You are correct, Finn.

[whiteinfrance]

I have complete sympathy for Darlow. Not sure whether he didn't call or DCL didn't hear it or DCL decided to jump anyway but DCL really did make it virtually impossible for Darlow to get to the ball properly. In that situation once you hear your keeper shout you need to get out of the way and trust him.

Just a shambles really but I wouldn't be dropping Darlow. The only positive is perhaps that it happened in this match where the result was probably not affected by it.

[whiteinfrance]

Indeed, that's why I'm not totally blaming Darlow for the goal, there wasn't much he could do with it, tbh.

[DDB220]

I'd agree with that. But if that's the case then, other than the bottom three teams, why are we conceding more goals from our left than every team in the division?

And what is Farke doing to stop it?

Cos it seems like whatever he's trying isn't working all season long.

The stats you provided are pretty conclusive, in terms of the fact a lot of goals come down our left side. But without in-depth analysis of the stats, which I CBA to do putting a finger on the problem to determine the why. But my inclination is that the majority of the teams in this league have most of their threat down the right side rather than the left.

There are of course exceptions, Gordon at Newcastle, Doku at City. Brighton had Mitoma red hot down the left for a few seasons, although Brighton tend to create more threat from central positions these days.

You look at the teams we have played without elite wingers and we tend to get a decent result, but we struggle against top wide players, as do most of the bottom teams - they are very in vogue currently, particularly inverted.

I also think what you have highlighted has not gone unnoticed within the team when we are defending, there was a lot of arm waving out there by our defenders when Arsenal were coming down our left side. Madueke caused us a lot of problems. Now that is depth when you can play him in the absence of Saka.

[Overman]

Thing is replace those players cost money we just don't have.

Where does the money come from?

We spent the tv money and have had to service the largest wage bill in the Championship two years running.

Didn't we sell Archie, Rapha, Rutter, Jimmy, Phillips, Luis, Adams, Kamara, Kritsensen, Cresswell, Roca, Llorente, over the past few years.

With these sales we've managed to bring in a fair amount of revenue. Let's be honest, the 49ers are not short off a few bob or two. We were looking to bring in a striker for around 35mil, so it's clear the money is there.

[Overman]

Didn't we sell Archie, Rapha, Rutter, Jimmy, Phillips, Luis, Adams, Kamara, Kritsensen, Cresswell, Roca, Llorente, over the past few years.

We these sales we've managed to bring in a fair amount of revenue. Let's be honest, the 49ers are not short off a few bob or two. We were looking to bring in a striker for around 35mil, so it's clear the money is there.

We rank 18th now in the PL in terms of wages.

[The Subhuman]

49ers are not short of a bob or two but we're not owned by the Niners.