LeedsInDurham
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- Jan 14, 2012
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Introduction
Hi guys, I'm new here. I've read stories and threads but haven't posted until now. I decided to start a new save with the mighty whites and document the story as it unfolds. Hopefully I'll be able to guide them back to the heights of Europe and beyond.
This first post is a little long as I'd reached the end of September when I decided to start this story. I'll try and keep them a little shorter and easier to keep track of in future!
----------------------------------
Taking over in July 2011, a couple of satisfactory loan deals were already in place, and a January transfer already agreed for utility LB / LW / CM Danny Pugh from Stoke. I'm confident in the current playing staff, and so only a few changes were made in the summer transfer window to strengthen some key areas:
View attachment 216384
In
Lichaj has been brought in on an installments based deal to provide much needed strength at RB, with Paul Connolly offering a rotation option.
Grant Hanley is an exciting prospect at Blackburn and his need for regular football matches well with the weakness at CB current in the Leeds squad. He will feature regularly, with young Tom Lees and Andy O'Brien rotating as his partner, and Patrick Kisnorbo providing backup.
Andy Keogh was on a loan until January when I joined the club, with a clause in his contract to allow a 500k purchase at any time throughout this period. His form through preseason and the early season games convinced me that I should buy him, and I felt he was more likely to accept a contract to lure him away from Wolves while enjoying his football at Elland Road.
Out
Struggling forward Billy Paynter has found himself out of favour over the last year at Leeds, with other strong striking options keeping him on the bench or reserve squad. The arrival of Andy Keogh did nothing to help his plight. A loan out to Peterborough, with the option to sign him at any point through the season seemed a good option.
Alex Bruce enjoyed a reasonable start to the 10/11 season at Leeds, but quickly struggled to maintain a first team place. Young Tom Lees pushing through from the reserves to the first team, and the arrival of Grant Hanley meant that there were a number of center backs not getting a place. Alex Bruce was therefore allowed to leave to Birmingham.
Similarly Leigh Bromby, while a leading CB throughout Leeds' time in League 1, he struggled to establish himself at Championship level. The aging center back is out on loan at Chesterfield, and they may purchase him for an agreed fee throughout the loan.
--
The movements in the transfer window have been reasonably limited due to my belief that the squad is already reasonably strong. Potential targets include a loan move for Rangers' left winger Gregg Wylde, though as I am keen to develop Aidan White and Ramon Nunez I have held off. He may be brought in in the event of injuries in this area.
--
The playing staff have easily adapted to a fluid attacking 442 system designed to take the game to the opposition. Even with the additions in the summer window, defending is not the strong suit of this team, with many of the CMs more comfortable when attacking. Therefore a total football approach is applied with the intent of outscoring any opposition team. A counter attacking 4-5-1 is also trained to allow for results to be ground out in high pressure games against much stronger opposition.
Pre Season
The team endured a mixed preseason while new tactics and starting line ups were experimented with. A intersquad friendly resulted in a comprehensive 6-0 victory, which sadly said more about the quality of the reserve squad than the seniors.
Rotherham - 4-1 away defeat.
This was a particularly hard result to take in the first real game in charge. The team didn't respond well to control tactics and were punished when pushing up in the second half.
Arsenal Reserves 0-0 home draw
A much more settled game, which we never looked like loosing. Unfortunately Ross McCormack and Mikael Forsell couldn't find much form in front of goal.
Liverpool Reserves 4-1 home win
A thoroughly enjoyable game, and a demonstration of the attacking approach being practiced by the squad. NO question of the result, a comfortable game throughout.
Guiseley 3-0 away win
Even though many of my decided starting 11 were rested for this ahead of the season beginning, the team were still able to overcome a much weaker opponent with ease.
August
After an encouraging pre season campaign the team headed into the new season in high spirits:
View attachment 216395
A good run, unbeaten for the first month, with comprehensive victories in the first two rounds of the League Cup.
The first league game saw a 2-2 draw with Portsmouth, a hard result to swallow due to the last gasp equaliser from Luke Varney in the 94th minute, which came against the run of play. Leeds were made to rue a number of missed chances after hitting the woodwork 3 times in the game.
In the League Cup First Round at home to Morecambe, the 5-2 scoreline was perhaps harsh on the visitors who put up a spirited fight before a demolition job from 60-90 minutes saw Leeds bag 3 goals to secure the victory. The second round saw an easy victory away at Palace, before making the same trip 3 days later in the league to round out August with a well fought 2-1 victory.
Drawing with Cardiff can be seen as a reasonable result, although I did want to take all 3 points from fellow promotion contenders. A dubious penalty decision allowed Robert Earnshaw to grab the equaliser here and got me a warning from the FA for comments in the post match press conference.
September
How quickly fortunes can change in football. An unbeaten run through August turned to a winless streak in September:
View attachment 216398
A shock defeat at the hands of Coventry stunned Elland Road, and set the tone for a disappointing month. Taking a point away at Blackpool would usually be a great result in terms of the promotion push, however the results that followed have taken the edge off that.
The League Cup 4th Round saw a difficult trip away to Bolton. Though a spirited defensive performance meant we were unlucky to concede, the sheer lack of chances created meant a replay would have been the best outcome. Leeds reached the 3rd round as expected, and I'm not too disappointed as my focus is on promotion this year.
The following two results, a 3-2 and 1-0 defeat at home to Peterborough and Doncaster topped off a disappointing month. While striker Lucciano Becchio enjoyed the pick of the goals against Peterborough on his return from long term injury, the statistics highlight a worrying trend in Leeds' recent games. The Peterborough game saw 23 shots, of which only 6 were on target. There is clearly no issue in creating chances, but putting them away is a different matter, and some tweaks are obviously needed. The total football attacking approach relies squarely on outscoring your opponent, and this won't happen if this trend continues.
This disappointing run sees Leeds finish September languishing in 15th place in the Championship, and things need to be turned around quickly if we are to mount a successful promotion push. Though in 15th, we are only 3 points adrift of the playoffs, and 5 points off the automatic promotion places, so hopefully this poor run of form hasn't had too much impact on the season objectives. Ross McCormack and Mikael Forssell lead the clubs goal scoring table with 5 goals each in all competitions, though Forssell has been out for September after an injury picked up on international duty.
----
Well that's the end of a rather lengthy first post. The next one will probably cover the run up to the January transfer window and should appear either today or tomorrow.
As I said at the start, this is my first story, so give me some hints if you think other things can be improved.
Hi guys, I'm new here. I've read stories and threads but haven't posted until now. I decided to start a new save with the mighty whites and document the story as it unfolds. Hopefully I'll be able to guide them back to the heights of Europe and beyond.
This first post is a little long as I'd reached the end of September when I decided to start this story. I'll try and keep them a little shorter and easier to keep track of in future!
----------------------------------
Taking over in July 2011, a couple of satisfactory loan deals were already in place, and a January transfer already agreed for utility LB / LW / CM Danny Pugh from Stoke. I'm confident in the current playing staff, and so only a few changes were made in the summer transfer window to strengthen some key areas:
View attachment 216384
In
Lichaj has been brought in on an installments based deal to provide much needed strength at RB, with Paul Connolly offering a rotation option.
Grant Hanley is an exciting prospect at Blackburn and his need for regular football matches well with the weakness at CB current in the Leeds squad. He will feature regularly, with young Tom Lees and Andy O'Brien rotating as his partner, and Patrick Kisnorbo providing backup.
Andy Keogh was on a loan until January when I joined the club, with a clause in his contract to allow a 500k purchase at any time throughout this period. His form through preseason and the early season games convinced me that I should buy him, and I felt he was more likely to accept a contract to lure him away from Wolves while enjoying his football at Elland Road.
Out
Struggling forward Billy Paynter has found himself out of favour over the last year at Leeds, with other strong striking options keeping him on the bench or reserve squad. The arrival of Andy Keogh did nothing to help his plight. A loan out to Peterborough, with the option to sign him at any point through the season seemed a good option.
Alex Bruce enjoyed a reasonable start to the 10/11 season at Leeds, but quickly struggled to maintain a first team place. Young Tom Lees pushing through from the reserves to the first team, and the arrival of Grant Hanley meant that there were a number of center backs not getting a place. Alex Bruce was therefore allowed to leave to Birmingham.
Similarly Leigh Bromby, while a leading CB throughout Leeds' time in League 1, he struggled to establish himself at Championship level. The aging center back is out on loan at Chesterfield, and they may purchase him for an agreed fee throughout the loan.
--
The movements in the transfer window have been reasonably limited due to my belief that the squad is already reasonably strong. Potential targets include a loan move for Rangers' left winger Gregg Wylde, though as I am keen to develop Aidan White and Ramon Nunez I have held off. He may be brought in in the event of injuries in this area.
--
The playing staff have easily adapted to a fluid attacking 442 system designed to take the game to the opposition. Even with the additions in the summer window, defending is not the strong suit of this team, with many of the CMs more comfortable when attacking. Therefore a total football approach is applied with the intent of outscoring any opposition team. A counter attacking 4-5-1 is also trained to allow for results to be ground out in high pressure games against much stronger opposition.
Pre Season
The team endured a mixed preseason while new tactics and starting line ups were experimented with. A intersquad friendly resulted in a comprehensive 6-0 victory, which sadly said more about the quality of the reserve squad than the seniors.
Rotherham - 4-1 away defeat.
This was a particularly hard result to take in the first real game in charge. The team didn't respond well to control tactics and were punished when pushing up in the second half.
Arsenal Reserves 0-0 home draw
A much more settled game, which we never looked like loosing. Unfortunately Ross McCormack and Mikael Forsell couldn't find much form in front of goal.
Liverpool Reserves 4-1 home win
A thoroughly enjoyable game, and a demonstration of the attacking approach being practiced by the squad. NO question of the result, a comfortable game throughout.
Guiseley 3-0 away win
Even though many of my decided starting 11 were rested for this ahead of the season beginning, the team were still able to overcome a much weaker opponent with ease.
August
After an encouraging pre season campaign the team headed into the new season in high spirits:
View attachment 216395
A good run, unbeaten for the first month, with comprehensive victories in the first two rounds of the League Cup.
The first league game saw a 2-2 draw with Portsmouth, a hard result to swallow due to the last gasp equaliser from Luke Varney in the 94th minute, which came against the run of play. Leeds were made to rue a number of missed chances after hitting the woodwork 3 times in the game.
In the League Cup First Round at home to Morecambe, the 5-2 scoreline was perhaps harsh on the visitors who put up a spirited fight before a demolition job from 60-90 minutes saw Leeds bag 3 goals to secure the victory. The second round saw an easy victory away at Palace, before making the same trip 3 days later in the league to round out August with a well fought 2-1 victory.
Drawing with Cardiff can be seen as a reasonable result, although I did want to take all 3 points from fellow promotion contenders. A dubious penalty decision allowed Robert Earnshaw to grab the equaliser here and got me a warning from the FA for comments in the post match press conference.
September
How quickly fortunes can change in football. An unbeaten run through August turned to a winless streak in September:
View attachment 216398
A shock defeat at the hands of Coventry stunned Elland Road, and set the tone for a disappointing month. Taking a point away at Blackpool would usually be a great result in terms of the promotion push, however the results that followed have taken the edge off that.
The League Cup 4th Round saw a difficult trip away to Bolton. Though a spirited defensive performance meant we were unlucky to concede, the sheer lack of chances created meant a replay would have been the best outcome. Leeds reached the 3rd round as expected, and I'm not too disappointed as my focus is on promotion this year.
The following two results, a 3-2 and 1-0 defeat at home to Peterborough and Doncaster topped off a disappointing month. While striker Lucciano Becchio enjoyed the pick of the goals against Peterborough on his return from long term injury, the statistics highlight a worrying trend in Leeds' recent games. The Peterborough game saw 23 shots, of which only 6 were on target. There is clearly no issue in creating chances, but putting them away is a different matter, and some tweaks are obviously needed. The total football attacking approach relies squarely on outscoring your opponent, and this won't happen if this trend continues.
This disappointing run sees Leeds finish September languishing in 15th place in the Championship, and things need to be turned around quickly if we are to mount a successful promotion push. Though in 15th, we are only 3 points adrift of the playoffs, and 5 points off the automatic promotion places, so hopefully this poor run of form hasn't had too much impact on the season objectives. Ross McCormack and Mikael Forssell lead the clubs goal scoring table with 5 goals each in all competitions, though Forssell has been out for September after an injury picked up on international duty.
----
Well that's the end of a rather lengthy first post. The next one will probably cover the run up to the January transfer window and should appear either today or tomorrow.
As I said at the start, this is my first story, so give me some hints if you think other things can be improved.
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