Middlesbrough v Leeds Utd Match Thread

[Cjay]

Monday 22nd April 8:00pm | Riverside Stadium


Leeds travel to the Riverside Stadium on Monday evening knowing that only a win will do, if they want to keep their automatic promotion hopes alive. The Whites have not been firing on all cylinders since returning from International Duty a month ago, but neither have their competition. Even so, after two loses, two draws and a win, Leeds have slipped to third place, two points from the summit. Michael Carrick's side are unbeaten in nine games, including credible draws at St Mary's and Portman Road. Just like Leeds, Boro have completed the double over Championship favourites Leicester City.

Leeds will be without the services of Connor Roberts, due to the reassurance of the thigh injury he picked up during Wales' loss to Poland. Best case scenario, he may return for the season finale against Southampton. Sam Byram or Archie Gray are the oprions at right back, the latter would mean a shuffle of midfield with the probable return of Glen Kamara.Pascal Struijk will not play again this season following surgery but Jamie Shackleton will be back in training, though not in time to feature on Monday night.





The hosts will be without the services of Luke Ayling and Sam Greenwood who are restricted from playing against their parent club, though Captain Jonny Howson, who spent fifteen years at Elland Road, would like nothing more than to put one over on his boyhood club! Marcus Forss (foot), Tommy Smith (achilles), Riley McGree, (foot) and Darragh Lenihan (ankle) are also sidelined, whilst Josh Coburn (groin and Hayden Hackney (knee) face late fitness tests.

Reflecting on the significance of each match as the season approaches its climax, Farke stressed the team's need to maintain focus and concentrate on their own performance rather than worrying about other fixtures. Despite potential pressure from owners to secure promotion, Farke emphasized a commitment to sustainable growth and development, echoing the importance of building a club for long-term success rather than seeking short-term gains. With a young and evolving squad, Farke acknowledged the ongoing journey of improvement, reaffirming his dedication to shaping Leeds United into a perennial force in English football.




Spring Offer! Get NordVPN with up to 66% off + 3 months free...

[Scoobychief]

Probably get our arses kicked there.

[The Subhuman]

Meslier
Roberts
Firpo
Gruev
Rodon
Ampadu
Gnonto
Kamara
Joseph
Georginio
Summerville

[Irish Ian]

A rest will be helpful.

Boro try an play football, so that is probably are best hope after facing a packed MF and defence for the last three matches.

We will not know if it is a good thing to be the last playing until we go there next monday.

Changes?

Having Gruev and a fit and well Kamara is very important. Id like to see them back in the middle.

Gnonto likes an evening away day so start him on the right and Joseph surely has earned a start, although apparently he had a spat with Bamford pre game yesterday during warm ups which wont impress the bossman.

Id also use Gray as a sub and start with Roberts, think we are looking at Gray through the lenses of age and heritage instead of peformance and for me he makes too many nothing passes when we could be moving it upfield. But I know that will not be a popular opinion.

[Jaydog]

A rest will be helpful.

Boro try an play football, so that is probably are best hope after facing a packed MF and defence for the last three matches.

We will not know if it is a good thing to be the last playing until we go there next monday.

Changes?

Having Gruev and a fit and well Kamara is very important. Id like to see them back in the middle.

Gnonto likes an evening away day so start him on the right and Joseph surely has earned a start, although apparently he had a spat with Bamford pre game yesterday during warm ups which wont impress the bossman.

Id also use Gray as a sub and start with Roberts, think we are looking at Gray through the lenses of age and heritage instead of peformance and for me he makes too many nothing passes when we could be moving it upfield. But I know that will not be a popular opinion.

Interesting. Care to enlarge on that?

[Madron]

A long rest which is good before our next game.

What's not so good is by the time we next play Ipswich could be 5 clear, Leicester 4 clear with a game in hand and Southampton level on points with both us and Leicester to play.

And for extra pressure Boro are one of the form teams.

19 points last 10 games and 3rd in the form table.

Drawn with Ipswich, Hull and Southampton in that time and beaten Leicester.

A team on the rise whereas we are the opposite.

All be it our away record has been our issue at times, Boro aren't as good at home.

So changes?

Not true, Ipswich don't play for 2 weeks.
So ,by the time they play again we could be 4 points ahead of them, and Saints could be an irrelevance.

One positive (?) is that Boro will probably be out of the play-off picture.

[mentalcase]

Evreyone wants to beat us as usual, their cup final.
It's still in our hands but where's the next goal coming from never mind the next win !!

[Cjay]

Not true, Ipswich don't play for 2 weeks.
So ,by the time they play again we could be 4 points ahead of them, and Saints could be an irrelevance.

One positive (?) is that Boro will probably be out of the play-off picture.

You are right

My mistake
.

[Kennyb41]

A rest will be helpful.

Boro try an play football, so that is probably are best hope after facing a packed MF and defence for the last three matches.

We will not know if it is a good thing to be the last playing until we go there next monday.

Changes?

Having Gruev and a fit and well Kamara is very important. Id like to see them back in the middle.

Gnonto likes an evening away day so start him on the right and Joseph surely has earned a start, although apparently he had a spat with Bamford pre game yesterday during warm ups which wont impress the bossman.

Id also use Gray as a sub and start with Roberts, think we are looking at Gray through the lenses of age and heritage instead of peformance and for me he makes too many nothing passes when we could be moving it upfield. But I know that will not be a popular opinion.

I agree re Gray, I'd also like to see LC come back in to guide us home, it's his last year and he could be inspirational on the pitch, I feel our best mid pairing during the season has been Ampadu/Kamara when we go on the attack, which i feel he just has to, Roberts will provide good support to Gnonto, and i'd prefer him to favour that side of the pitch rather the the left, because most clubs seem to know now we favour the left and are nullifying Jimmy, so :

Mes
Roberts - Rodon - Cooper - Byram
Ampadu - Kamara
Gnonto - Rutter - Summerville
Bamford

Tell them all to bust a gut for 60 mins coz they're gonna get replaced no matter what with 5 of these 6 :

And get : James, Anthony, Firpo, Gray, Piroe and Joseph ready planned throughout these 9 days for a lung bursting 30 mins

[Irish Ian]

Interesting. Care to enlarge on that?

There was something on Leeds live.

When they were warming up Bamfird was speaking to Joseph who was pushing him away from him.

Cooper and another player ended up stepping in.

Search for it.

Prob Joseph stropy about not starting.

[Kennyb41]

A normal childs reaction these days : Warm-ups are not always the most interesting thing to watch, but there was a Leeds United flashpoint which caught the eye yesterday. During the rondo exercise the players go through before every game, there are generally two players in the middle of a circle of team-mates.

The circle pass the ball around the players in the middle, who have to win the ball back. Minor squabbles about who got the last touch or who should go in the middle are common, but Mateo Joseph didn’t take too kindly to one disagreement on Saturday.

Patrick Bamford was seen trying to explain a decision to Joseph, but the Spaniard wasn’t interested and pushed the senior striker’s arms away from him. Bamford would try to explain to Joseph on a couple more occasions, but the youngster was not interested, dismissing the 30-year-old each time.

Joseph’s mood was so affected by this incident, Daniel James, Glen Kamara and Liam Cooper all had a go at smoothing things out with him. None of them seemed to get the smile they wanted out of him.

[Kennyb41]

Aye, there's plenty of movement in our resident statue :

Roberts doesn’t hold back
Connor Roberts may have only been at Leeds for five minutes, but he was the chief organiser yesterday. At 28, he was the oldest player on the field for Leeds and it showed in his status and experience.

Throughout the match, Roberts could be seen gesturing to where his team-mates should be positioning themselves. In the case of Wilfried Gnonto, he would be told whether to come inside on the underlap or stay out wide to stretch the defence.

There was frustration too when team-mates were not as alert or proactive as Roberts wanted them to be. In the 15th minute, Gnonto was told he should have been on his bike down the wing far sooner to encourage a pass, while Joel Piroe was given a rollicking for standing still as Roberts waited to take a throw-in.

That's all we need players spitting dummies out, and folk complain "you can't add a guy just coz he runs about"

Well let's have one that doesn't huh, jeez Leeds fans and their knowledge abart the game

[1964white]

Aye, there's plenty of movement in our resident statue :

Roberts doesn’t hold back
Connor Roberts may have only been at Leeds for five minutes, but he was the chief organiser yesterday. At 28, he was the oldest player on the field for Leeds and it showed in his status and experience.

Throughout the match, Roberts could be seen gesturing to where his team-mates should be positioning themselves. In the case of Wilfried Gnonto, he would be told whether to come inside on the underlap or stay out wide to stretch the defence.

There was frustration too when team-mates were not as alert or proactive as Roberts wanted them to be. In the 15th minute, Gnonto was told he should have been on his bike down the wing far sooner to encourage a pass, while Joel Piroe was given a rollicking for standing still as Roberts waited to take a throw-in.

That's all we need players spitting dummies out, and folk complain "you can't add a guy just coz he runs about"

Well let's have one that doesn't huh, jeez Leeds fans and their knowledge abart the game

Connor Roberts was banging out the orders in the pre-match huddle, too. He must despair how several players stand about & make no movement, especially when our back four have the ball at their feet & also at throw-ins. Why do we wait for players to get marked-up? Why don't we take them quickly to catch the oppositions defence unaware with our speed of thought?

[1964white]

---------------------Meslier-----------------------

Roberts --- Rodon --- Ampadu --- Firpo

------------- Kamara ------ Gruev-------------

Summerville ----- Gnonto -------- James

---------------------- Bamford ------------------

[The Subhuman]

There was something on Leeds live.

When they were warming up Bamfird was speaking to Joseph who was pushing him away from him.

Cooper and another player ended up stepping in.

Search for it.

Prob Joseph stropy about not starting.

Or Paddy winding up one of our own ....

[Cjay]

It's Joseph or Piroe up front.

Don't know why anyone would pick Paddy now, he was worse than JP and missed a free header from 6 yards out.

He's been here long enough for us to know he's in one of his slumps, he has 5-10 good games then 5-10 bad, he's always been the same.

4 goals 1 assist in 5, then 0 in 10, 6 goals 2 assist next 10, then 2 in 10.

That was promotion season.

He's now in one of his slumps.

Has to be Piroe or Joseph imo

[1964white]

It's Joseph or Piroe up front

Because there isn't much difference between all three of them.

At least Paddy got into the box for the Gnonto & Summerville crosses even though he didn't anticipate the opportunities, Piroe seems to be adversed to the six-yard box.

We definitely need an experienced No.9 whether we're in the PL or the Championship next season.

[Irish Ian]

Time for DF to unleash Joffy in the run in

I know it is not likely but Joffy has a track record as a big game player, someone who can keep his in those critical moments. Norwich, Wolves, Brighton are the three stand outs where his grit and determination and game awareness, coulpled with his skill set created those magic moments.

Cmon Daniel, if you are going to play chaos theory at least pick the right man for the job

In fact looking at our currrent front line I would only put him and Gnonto into that bracket.

[Cjay]

Because there isn't much difference between all three of them.

At least Paddy got into the box for the Gnonto & Summerville crosses even though he didn't anticipate the opportunities, Piroe seems to be adversed to the six-yard box.

We definitely need an experienced No.9 whether we're in the PL or Championship next season.

As I said on another thread, perception and reality aren't the same thing.

Bamford and Piroe took up the same positions (heat maps are basically identical) and not forgetting Piroe was in midfield for 30 minutes.

https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/17319 ... -Blackburn

But by the time Bamford was on we had basically abandoned all structure and midfield and so had no choice but to get it forward faster.

[1964white]

As I said on another thread, perception and reality aren't the same thing.

Bamford and Piroe took up the same positions (heat maps are basically identical) and not forgetting Piroe was in midfield for 30 minutes.

https://www.whoscored.com/Matches/17319 ... -Blackburn

But by the time Bamford was on we had basically abandoned all structure and midfield and so had no choice but to get it forward faster.

As I implied, I have little confidence in all three producing the goods from here on.