9emfire

his passion was sorely missed...with johnson, you'll just know 9 out of the crosses will get through

i still think suarez the prime reason we landed 2nd...he made BR looks good lol. Plenty of naive from BR like bigging up sterling when his finishing is crap..only to make the lad believe in his own hype so much now. when we had suarez and sturridge, we had 2 very good strikers and he plays 2 strikers....the funny thing is when we have strikers way down in quality, he plays with only 1 of them and expect miracles...it just doesn't add up...shocking too when we leave and let the guy who cannot finish be a striker... even when we has a shortie in Luis Garcia...oh my the fella can head and head well....darn sometimes I wonder why our central defenders even bother to come up for set pieces...3 central defenders and none of them can win the headers

we are here to win the league...simple as that... if shankly is still alive and see how we only think we only wish 4th spot, he would leave the place in disgust. we really have to believe we can do it and that is half the battle won. There is really no excuse for throwing the towel without giving a good go. his quote and still my firm thoughts too: 'If you are first you are first. If you are second you are nothing.'

pre-injury Allen moves the ball around intelligently from defenders to forwards. the amount of ground he covers during that time was tremendous

maybe you're trying to pass off as someone intelligent with such a bright answer. I was hoping at least it helpsanswer some if not of all 3 genuine questions I posed :S

we were rubbish against newcastle...we were slow to move the ball forward, the spaces between the central midfield and central defenders as well as forward lines too wide and favourable for their players to exploit and even against 10 men we sorta aided them defend by compressing the play towards the central instead of trying to stretch their defender apart. where has our 1-touch pass-move gone to? Are we still doing quick counter-attacking? we dumped the 'tiki-taka'? i shudder to think it only takes BR now to realise we sux at set-piece defending.

i sincerely believe everyone is getting a false hope based on the number of defenders we have and they may have given the perception that our defence problems sorted. I still think we are far from it. agger and skrtel just simply couldn't win aerial duels even if their lives depended on it. They'll jump, yes, but never to try to win the balls and alarmingly too, not even have a clue where those balls are coming in to...that alone will cause us to be susceptible to each and every set pieces thrown against us. another observation that I have is people think GloJo is the ultimate answer to our right wingback. When he was injured...we had a mundane right flank. However he is too preditable imho....for all the tons of space on the right flank, he will only look to 'cut-in' thus making our attack easier to defend against. Opposition defenders simply crowd the central spaces where our forwards needs the space to work in making it more compressed and harder. I really couldn't remember the last time someone works the right flank with touchline-hugging runs to stretch the defenders away.

maybe it's a good thing too they are not much into FM stuff...it could certainly end up worse like this

my opinion is they think it is all a fluke that we are up there on the table and I'll willingly accept their delusions of us as long at the end of the day we are still up there and grinding the results. I'm sure chelsea fans are in constant denial of how good sturridge is and are constantly hoping that he would fail. If Moses contributes more into ousting them, they would double that denial :S I still think officials hate us when we won in Istanbul...we were hugely under-rated and written off by most even before the ball was kicked off but i luv how opponents underestimate us ....I rather they take us for granted and only to pay later with their complacency so may that complacency from them continue for much longer

players like Dembele, Lucas, Makelele won't be the pin-up boys cos they seem less 'fanciful'...only educated fans understand they are important cogs that hold the wheel in place for those 'fancy' players to do their stuffs.

we all want Henderson to be as successful as he can..price tag irrespective as we want all our other players. Credit to the bloke..he rose to the challenge and shown improvements. Maybe he could take cues on how 'smaller' guys can be a pest to the opposing players with the ball and work on the under-rated standing tackles. much like Rossiter had shown in the recent u-21 game Vs spurs and the ven more successful Mascherano of previous years.. Central midfield is the make or break position for the whole game and we need those attributes to break down opposition having the possession. we can never 'recycle' if we do not win those balls in the first place.

I'll be clamouring for shneiderlin and Luke Shaw...especially the latter.....he's solid despite the tender age....

wait till stevie comes back from his beloved ingelund duties...after the last international duties...he seemed knackered and sluggish...even opponents 2 yards away from him with the ball and he's not even closing it down effectively. Just analyse the few goals we conceded and see how if he had closed them down better would have at least stopped those from getting through. Lucas did the closing down but as pointed too...no way he could do it alone without over-taxing himself. we needed the 2 midfielders to be more dynamic and based on that I could understand why the call for Allen and Henderson be placed there instead. However we did try the Allen and Henderson combo in the middle of the field before during last season. Hard to tell if they would work out without risking games we need to win

BR does sound naive...heck at this rate they do not need to scout us anymore..as BR is already laying out the team tactics and plans...lol no need for spies in the dressing room either.

seems we missed his thread so lemme start it off: best way to let him learn his trade would be to run as backup for lucas/gerrard when the game has been won so to say...reminds me of our legendary Carra and even Biscan the beast where they played there before eventually moved to centreback...with that kind of pace it hurts not too to place him as right back back ups....at least to give enuff worry to wisdom to pull his act together and work harder

hardly someone motivated by footballing reasons to move to a backwater club in anzhi despite possibilities of genuine big clubs across europe...that was Willian. reported 100k per week is no small sum either...ppl when hearing downing is on 80k seems ready to cut their wrists...too huge risk for an unproven player in this league. yeah we got disappointed when we're not his chosen destination..players who want us will dig in and insist we're their only destination and none other but he chose to go where the money was more (look at first line) we need the right players who wants to play and fight for the club not mercenaries. I doubt too it is a clean 30 mil quoted...there's always undisclosed agent 'tax' and all this will factor too into the players cost. So when it was mentioned that we're not even 'allowed' to talk to HMiki...i tend to believe it cos we'll know if we can't get past 'agent tax' we'll sure won't get to go thru his client. Yeah it all is disappointing 1 after another rejection but we will not ditch principles and risk it all the Leeds way. nothing wrong being sensible. I sincerely hope we'll no longer talk about these players who chose not to come to us. btw bluenose seems to be gearing up for a higher bid than the 28 mil scums offer for both afrodude and baines...if it was up to me I prolly offer higher and hijack those 2 players lol...maybe even get gerrard to call rooney out for massage to whisper and put in a cheeky bid for him

if losing this last friendly would make BR and bosses re-think abt the need to bring in that 3 players in urgently to strengthen what we have....I would rather that be it. Easier to write-off suarez than pinning any hope he will be there to champion for us again...

from what I've seen, Ibe makes better decision making than the former...goes at defenders well or pass if he doesn't have the opening rather than sterling who keeps running down the blind alley and making a lot of not too good decision/end-product. defensively, Ibe is more ept at defending from the front...often seen hustling the defenders when they have the ball. despite the lesser opportunities, Ibe had came out with more assist and better contribtuion as a whole. I do strongly agree, Spearing may not be a Gerrard but whenever we have him play, he never shirk his responsibilities and always gave his ultimate best. He had served the club the best that he could and that's a 10/10 for his efforts. Allen may not be playing too fanciful ala Coutinho but he does get up and about. We must acknowledge that he does offer something in the middle and I'm always reminded of how Makelele plays...always keeping the short passes going and being around and available to get the next pass. The friendlies we had so far also showed how an almost fit Allen, will also make that bursting late runs into the 6 yard box. More players coming in would sure give us options and alternatives if something unforseen should happen to any of the players we have atm but tbh I am inspired to see how everyone is trying in the few friendlies we had this time round. Aspas too had shown how intelligent he could be and is certainly not afraid to let that confidence show. I just cannot wait till the season kicks off proper...I am excited at how pretty we are playing as a team especially with coutinho weaving his magic.

to me jonjo is lazy...8 out of 10 times even when the ball is rolling 5 yards away...he never bothered to track back and 2 out of 10 if he did he would lounge on it carelessly with a bad tackle...he does not fulfill the team defensive aspect when even suarez would work his socks off chasing and harrying when we do not have the ball Henderson if compared would have at least try to be there and about

i forgot how many times either our central defenders win a header from a corner kick defence. if they can't do it, we could even get hammered from set pieces over and over again .....even from a conference league team gawd i miss hyppia's towering presence

Did we just play 4-5-1 at home against Wigan? Anyone solved the riddle of what Henderson really does or perhaps it is the general concensus that our right side attack is redundant?

If people question this, I will begin to feel sorry already. imho, this is exactly what we should have been doing...preparing the next batch of players to keep the ball rolling instead of selling, leaving a hole and scuppering and looking to plug that hole. We also know continuity breeds success. Reports suggest he is more 'stevie-like' and we all know SG is not exactly getting younger. I rather that amount now when he is not that well known yet than later. Certainly an ideal model to run a club

you sir are truly pis**** at the wrong pole. sorry to disappoint.

so this is what the summer transfer thread end up turning into? turn cynical to one another? i don't give a ratarse what happen to scum just i log in this thread hoping to catch more news of my own team i rather read and support about

bored me to pieces that banter. go on and i'll vomit