Leeds United v Chelsea - FA Cup Semi Final Match Thread

[Madron]

It would be better for us if rearranged Chelsea v Spurs was played before Spurs play us. Less likely to rest players.

[CUSSIE01]

Don't.....

Too soon ?

[White Riot]

Oh, if only.

Classic OB

I take it you're not a fan.

[White Riot]

Dark arts spoiling football. I wouldn't be proud of my club if we adopted those tactics. Chelsea are a horrible club.

They'll go back to being s**t again now Leon.

They should have been beaten 10-0 by Brighton and were obviously looking to get him sacked.

City will wallop then in the Final, today was just to placate their fans.

[Jammy 07]

Disappointed but not dismayed.

Definitely fun whilst it lasted but now back the bread and butter for tea this Friday night against Burnley.

[Jammy 07]

Oh and learn't something today as well.

If you book an Advance LNER ticket from Leeds to Kings Cross you can cancel it for free in the first 2 hours after booking. Booked mine at 2-59pm this afternoon and well think you know the rest.

[CHAPELALLMAN]

We weren't at the races in the first half - sat too deep, and no control whatsoever of the midfield until Stach came on. Stach proving again why he is our most important player.

If we are to avoid another relegation fight next season then we will need far more cutting edge up front. I have no idea what DF sees in Aaronson or Okafor, and DCL hasn't scored a goal in open play now since 6th February.

And I got a lot of flak from the thought police on here a while back for mentioning our weakness down our left which Chelsea fully exploited in the first half. I also pointed out that Struijk is prone to expensive errors down that side, which was also roundly mocked by some....Oh well.

[CUSSIE01]

Oh and learn't something today as well.

If you book an Advance LNER ticket from Leeds to Kings Cross you can cancel it for free in the first 2 hours after booking. Booked mine at 2-59pm this afternoon and well think you know the rest.

I booked two hotel rooms in London this morning, fully refundable of course.

[CHAPELALLMAN]

Just glad stach is back for the prem run in ,showed this lot too much respect we set up as against Bournemouth and expect to win ffs.

Stach is what makes this team tick. We completely lack midfield control without him.

[weasel]

I shouldn't laugh at this....but I'm going to. Because this idea that if you are not from Leeds somehow you are a lessor supporter is absolute SHITE!!!

I've been a supporter of DC United in MLS for 30 years. But I've never lived there. I lived in Michigan until I retired. And Michigan is about 700 miles from the Nation's Capitol. But the local DC Supporters welcomed me with open arms. In fact, when I would travel to DC for matches, I was always invited to stay in the home of one of the Supporters Group Leaders. THAT'S how you treat out of town supporters. You don't tell them they are lessor because they don't live there.

Well said. Think Chapel needs to set up an offshoot, an FC Leeds for just the local people to support. Probably married his own cousin, not the pretty one cos she lived over t'hill.

[Cjay]

Stach only back in training Friday

We won the stats trophy today

Gudmundsson hammy injury

From the Farke press conference

[weasel]

Farke showing today that making early subs doesn't just magically win you a match. Arguably we were better 2nd half after the chancges but didn't change the scoreline

[Cjay]

Farke showing today that making early subs doesn't just magically win you a match. Arguably we were better 2nd half after the chancges but didn't change the scoreline

We were better though, maybe even earlier changes and we'd have been even better

We played forward and stepped up the pitch more 2nd half (briefly) which we hadn't a choice really since we were behind.

Chucking on Longstaff was weird, presumably just because he scored vs Bournemouth? Chase a goal but send on Longstaff because it worked once?

Surprised it wasn't Piroe or James

[SG90]

Hopefully fans of the 90 other clubs boycott the cup final and give it its lowest ever viewing figures

[The Subhuman]

Just glad stach is back for the prem run in ,showed this lot too much respect we set up as against Bournemouth and expect to win ffs.

But we may have lost Gudds

[Carrick Dave]

Also I don't think Ally McCoist is even at games.

He's just in a box in Glasgow.

Only way to explain his motm choices

Neto was motm imo

With a blindfold on.

[STLWhite]

Could be worse, we could be the Blunts. They haven't won at Wembley in over 100 years.

We are half way there

[weasel]

If you care to read again what I wrote ( rather than Weasel's take on it ) I was merely pointing out the hypocrisy of those people who accuse those born and bred in Leeds - and who have supported the club since childhood - of " not getting behind the club " or " being negative " when in fact all their target wants is for the club to do well, and therefore naturally does what football fans have done for the last 70 odd years, which is to debate managers, players, tactics starting line ups etc.

It used to be debate in pubs, now it's more online. Except in a pub you couldn't try to railroad others into following a party line which you wanted to impose. It's easier to be the control freakish bully when it's all done online, and you don't risk a black eye....

For those who can't work out where the hypocrisy part comes in - it's directed purely at the people who make accusations of " negativity " " not getting behind the club " etc, and yet who probably for whatever reason decided not to put their full support behind whichever club they grew up close to. You're not one of those who bangs on in a sanctimonious way about loyalty etc, so clearly my comments don't apply to you or most others - only the rank hypocrites. Clearly it was beyond Weasel's intellect to understand the point I was making.

I did also say that I like the fact that the club has such a big international following. Shame you didn't bother to read that bit.

In terms of this cup tie - it brings back memories of FA cup day in the early 70s when lots of the neighbours would come round to our house to watch the game. The FA Cup was one of the footballing highlights of the year back then.

Oh I see. So because someone has supported the club all their life they cannot express a different opinion to the local boy. They cannot accuse a negative person of being negative simply because they live near Elland Road.

A beautiful point about the pub and there being no possbility of railroading someone's opinion. I have never witnessed a fracas at one of these public houses due to a differenc of opinion, that thing has never happened to the best of my, albeit limited, knowledge. And am sure that at these pubs (maybe saloons or inns for our unwelcome followers from afar) there has never been an occasion where someone goes along with the opinion of the masses rather than voicing their true opinion.

I see I have failed to understand the word hypocrisy. The Oxford English dictionary must presumably only be for people within a certain radius of Oxford and their definitions do not apply elsewhere. I am allowed no opnion for not travelling from ireland in my youth to watch every Leeds game, or similarly when I was living in Spain. I should have grown up as lifelong Whitby Town Fan (boing boing boing, Seasiders etc) and then made the commute their every 2 weeks after leaving. Or maybe at that point am I supposed to change club? Could you produce a full set of rules to cover all eventualities - cos am curious if your opinion of the club would have become invalid if we'd moved ground a few years back when Ridsdale was trying to build a new ground elsewhere, outside of the City (by which I mean the city of Leeds as many of our fans may not be aware that Leeds is actually the name of a city in the UK).

I am glad you like the fact that the club has a big international following - just anoying isn't it when those fans start voicing their opinions. We should all simply keep our thoughts to ourselves. We're getting too much like them uppity n*gg*rs!

[White Riot]

Hopefully fans of the 90 other clubs boycott the cup final and give it its lowest ever viewing figures

Exactly, I won't be watching another greedy 6 bore festival.

[weasel]

We were better though, maybe even earlier changes and we'd have been even better

We played forward and stepped up the pitch more 2nd half (briefly) which we hadn't a choice really since we were behind.

Chucking on Longstaff was weird, presumably just because he scored vs Bournemouth? Chase a goal but send on Longstaff because it worked once?

Surprised it wasn't Piroe or James

We were but ultimately didn't change the result. Who knows without the changes we may have won.

I was surprised to not see Dan James come on. Like you say proabbly because Longstaff scored on Wednesday and hoping it could work again.

I think it may have been also because of it being a cup tie and extra time that you have to also be a bit more careful cos if you equalise but then it goes to extra time and you have a completely unbalanced team. So less of the hail mary, all the strikers on approach which I don't think either of us is particularly keen on.