Popular Post Mickyblueeyes Posted 19 February Popular Post Share Posted 19 February It will be a tough game but boy do we downplay our ability. As if we’ve fluked top spot while these super teams were having dodgy starts. The season we went up under Nige. We got a point against Forest in two games, 0 points against Brighton. Lost to Charlton and the mighty Doncaster and dropped points against teams like Watford and Reading. How is anything that we are doing now different to that super season ? This will be a tough game but a foregone conclusion that we will be hammered and collapse/bottle promotion as a result is ridiculous. I think we’ll get a high scoring draw. I also think both teams will be celebrating come May. 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
izzymuzzet Posted 19 February Share Posted 19 February 13 minutes ago, Mickyblueeyes said: It will be a tough game but boy do we downplay our ability. As if we’ve fluked top spot while these super teams were having dodgy starts. The season we went up under Nige. We got a point against Forest in two games, 0 points against Brighton. Lost to Charlton and the mighty Doncaster and dropped points against teams like Watford and Reading. How is anything that we are doing now different to that super season ? This will be a tough game but a foregone conclusion that we will be hammered and collapse/bottle promotion as a result is ridiculous. I think we’ll get a high scoring draw. I also think both teams will be celebrating come May. We also drew at home to Yeovil (who finished bottom and are now playing in the National League South) thanks only to a last minute Kasper Schmeichel goal (it definitely crossed the line). I recall plenty of our fans thinking we were going to bottle it after that game as well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suffolk fox Posted 19 February Share Posted 19 February 3 minutes ago, izzymuzzet said: We also drew at home to Yeovil (who finished bottom and are now playing in the National League South) thanks only to a last minute Kasper Schmeichel goal (it definitely crossed the line). I recall plenty of our fans thinking we were going to bottle it after that game as well. I agree it did cross the line but it wasn't given. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
volpeazzurro Posted 19 February Share Posted 19 February 30 minutes ago, smudger63 said: Blowing a double digit points advantage when we were in the top 4 of the prem, and finishing 5th two seasons running, from a similar amount of game that were left, probably leaves us a little twitchy! True with us but thankfully only a couple of those players are left in the team for such memories. However, the main protagonist for such twichiness has also gone and is now weaving his magic dropping to second place in the Scottish Premiership 🤣 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommy Fresh Posted 19 February Share Posted 19 February 38 minutes ago, smudger63 said: Blowing a double digit points advantage when we were in the top 4 of the prem, and finishing 5th two seasons running, from a similar amount of game that were left, probably leaves us a little twitchy! We will pick up wins regardless of form, solely because of the ability of the squad compared to the rest of the league, outside of Southampton and Leeds (same will apply to them though). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AKCJ Posted 19 February Share Posted 19 February Worried about the lack of physicality in midfield. Leeds will do all they can to make this a battle as opposed to a football match. They'll want the game to be played at a million miles an hour. Tempted to play Ricardo in the 8 and Hamza as the inverted fullback. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Weller 2 Posted 19 February Share Posted 19 February It’s perfectly possible Leeds will win this one but even if they do it’s hardly the end of the world for promotion. We’d still be a long way clear of 3rd. Of course we’d rather win and might well do so but if the team adopted the mindset of some of the panic merchants on here they’d approach the game in a state of high anxiety. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pliskin Posted 19 February Share Posted 19 February I think the fear is the head to head with Leeds and Southampton. We’ve got to get out of this “we will be fine” mentality, because we’re all in as good as form as each other, and one blip in form and they could take advantage. I think it’s a simple case of we beat Leeds and Southampton, we will comfortably win the league, lose, and there’s still a chance we could be caught by them. It depends how we approach the game, no one can deny we’re still a bit soft, and this is easily taken advantage of by the better teams. I just fear that Friday will be an intense atmosphere and Leeds will likely approach the game with an aggressive press from the off, and we will end up shitting ourselves and cave in. All ifs and buts, but it was worrying to see how the heads dropped after Boro’s second goal, and we’re supposed to be top. I’ve concerns about the teams mentality and this game will really test it. I want us to go there and beat them so badly! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuchsntf Posted 19 February Share Posted 19 February 1 hour ago, smudger63 said: Blowing a double digit points advantage when we were in the top 4 of the prem, and finishing 5th two seasons running, from a similar amount of game that were left, probably leaves us a little twitchy! I don’t like twitchy, prefer Twiggy,leaves us winning by paper thin margins,with high skirting.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fuchsntf Posted 19 February Share Posted 19 February 22 minutes ago, Pliskin said: I think the fear is the head to head with Leeds and Southampton. We’ve got to get out of this “we will be fine” mentality, because we’re all in as good as form as each other, and one blip in form and they could take advantage. I think it’s a simple case of we beat Leeds and Southampton, we will comfortably win the league, lose, and there’s still a chance we could be caught by them. It depends how we approach the game, no one can deny we’re still a bit soft, and this is easily taken advantage of by the better teams. I just fear that Friday will be an intense atmosphere and Leeds will likely approach the game with an aggressive press from the off, and we will end up shitting ourselves and cave in. All ifs and buts, but it was worrying to see how the heads dropped after Boro’s second goal, and we’re supposed to be top. I’ve concerns about the teams mentality and this game will really test it. I want us to go there and beat them so badly! But our fans only know extasy or.. Paaaaaannnnnic… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CosbehFox Posted 19 February Share Posted 19 February I have questioned our lack of steel all season - but I really didn't think Saturday was that bad. Like or not, Enzo's blueprint is Man City - so people can snigger at the comparison but that sort of first half happens every so often for them too. Caught out on the counter, 2-0 down and most of the time they catch it back up. My gut is that we will actually show up on Friday night. But I really hope we go to win the game rather than fall into Enzo's pragmatic approach that he can do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filbertway Posted 19 February Share Posted 19 February Based on how we wilted at Cov, I don't hold out much hope at a fired up Elland road against a team that must be in supreme confidence. Not to say I don't think we can pick up a win or draw (in fact we really should be capable of it). Next season we'll be looking at this as one of our most winnable games if we both go up. So far though, most of the evidence we have is that the team doesn't respond well to genuine pressure from decent teams. Either from the stands or on the pitch. That being said, I don't think it alters the fact we're going to win the league. Unless we lose about 4/5 players to long term injury, we're just literally too good for most teams in this league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filbertway Posted 19 February Share Posted 19 February 1 minute ago, CosbehFox said: I have questioned our lack of steel all season - but I really didn't think Saturday was that bad. Like or not, Enzo's blueprint is Man City - so people can snigger at the comparison but that sort of first half happens every so often for them too. Caught out on the counter, 2-0 down and most of the time they catch it back up. My gut is that we will actually show up on Friday night. But I really hope we go to win the game rather than fall into Enzo's pragmatic approach that he can do. I think most other days, we go onto win that game if we create the same chances but the finishing is different. The main downside of losing is that there's a very real chance we could now record back to back losses. Based on some of the mad reaction to a good performance that resulted in a loss, I can't imagine the amount of pant wetting that will go on if we look less impressive and lose again We need to be fired up on Friday. However, like you say, we have one style and it's not the type of style that lends itself to benefitting all that much being fired up. Mentally we're kind of on the back foot in that regard as we're being kept in check tactically. If the other team is more up for it, regardless of how up for it we are, they'll have more freedom to take advantage of that extra adrenaline and boost they'll get from the crowd. Whereas it'll probably just increase our anxiety as we robotically try to stick to our method, especially if something goes wrong in the first 10-15 minutes. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClaphamFox Posted 19 February Share Posted 19 February (edited) 13 minutes ago, filbertway said: Based on how we wilted at Cov, I don't hold out much hope at a fired up Elland road against a team that must be in supreme confidence. Not to say I don't think we can pick up a win or draw (in fact we really should be capable of it). Next season we'll be looking at this as one of our most winnable games if we both go up. So far though, most of the evidence we have is that the team doesn't respond well to genuine pressure from decent teams. Either from the stands or on the pitch. That being said, I don't think it alters the fact we're going to win the league. Unless we lose about 4/5 players to long term injury, we're just literally too good for most teams in this league. At Coventry, we looked very comfortable with 10v11 for most of the second half until we started to get tired and they eventually scored on 80mins or whatever it was. The collapse after that was poor, but I think it owed as much to exhaustion as to us 'wilting'. Edited 19 February by ClaphamFox 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CheeseHead Posted 19 February Share Posted 19 February 1 hour ago, Mr Weller 2 said: It’s perfectly possible Leeds will win this one but even if they do it’s hardly the end of the world for promotion. We’d still be a long way clear of 3rd. Of course we’d rather win and might well do so but if the team adopted the mindset of some of the panic merchants on here they’d approach the game in a state of high anxiety. Don't know, could be 6pts, is that classed as comfortable? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
filbertway Posted 19 February Share Posted 19 February 20 minutes ago, ClaphamFox said: At Coventry, we looked very comfortable with 10v11 for most of the second half until we started to get tired and they eventually scored on 80mins or whatever it was. The collapse after that was poor, but I think it owed as much to exhaustion as to us 'wilting'. First half I thought we made a team we are far superior to look at least our equals if not better. Had it not been for a crazy challenge we'd have struggled to register a shot on goal in that first half. I'm more talking about how we look in the game as opposed to them dominating at the end with us having 10 men. We've not really been tested too much in this regard so it's a really small sample size to work from. I'm just yet to see us look commanding when the pressure it on and the opposition are fired up. Even at our gaff Cov we're much the superior team for 75 minutes of that game. The Southampton away is probably our most impressive, but this is at a time where they were absolutely honking and taking a fair few beatings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1884andforever Posted 19 February Share Posted 19 February On 18/02/2024 at 00:45, Dan LCFC said: I just don't trust us in these sorts of games sadly. I hope I'm wrong. Leeds fans will probably be surprised at our lack of confidence being top of the league, but have to say I agree with this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1884andforever Posted 19 February Share Posted 19 February In terms of a complete performance, I felt at the time Leeds were the best side we’ve played at home and still maintain that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheStig Posted 19 February Share Posted 19 February Won´t watch this on stream. Nerves won´t take it - but don´t think we have the balls for this so its either a collapse under the pressure (typical Leicester) or a totally surprise win (typical Leicester)...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RonnieTodger Posted 19 February Share Posted 19 February Really tough game and we need our big players to turn up. They didn’t on Saturday and apart from KDH and Hermansen, they didn’t at Coventry. We are being overly negative, but I think fans are scarred from blowing 10+ point leads and dropping out of the top four twice in as many years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OntarioFox Posted 19 February Share Posted 19 February Why are we panicking exactly? We had an off day on Saturday, and still managed to make chances galore. As I recall, we could have won it 5 or 6-2 but managed to sky it over the bar more times than Jonny Wilkinson in his prime. At the risk of sounding a bit James Maddison, we'll be fine if we create anywhere like as many chances as we did. More concerning was KDH and Winks both having poor games and losing the midfield battle. Hopefully it's a blip rather than a trend. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClaphamFox Posted 19 February Share Posted 19 February 46 minutes ago, OntarioFox said: Why are we panicking exactly? We had an off day on Saturday, and still managed to make chances galore. As I recall, we could have won it 5 or 6-2 but managed to sky it over the bar more times than Jonny Wilkinson in his prime. At the risk of sounding a bit James Maddison, we'll be fine if we create anywhere like as many chances as we did. More concerning was KDH and Winks both having poor games and losing the midfield battle. Hopefully it's a blip rather than a trend. In his post-match interview Maresca admitted that Middlesbrough had surprised us with their formation and the players struggled to adapt. Other teams will surely look at what they did and try to replicate it. Hopefully Enzo has a solution in mind for the next time it happens... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foxin_Mad Posted 19 February Share Posted 19 February 1 minute ago, ClaphamFox said: In his post-match interview Maresca admitted that Middlesbrough had surprised us with their formation and the players struggled to adapt. Other teams will surely look at what they did and try to replicate it. Hopefully Enzo has a solution in mind for the next time it happens... Boro was a masterclass in parking the bus, counter attack and timewasting. I suppose Leeds at home, the onus is on them to attack us, the problem is they are quite good at attacking. Im struggling to see how we win this one if I am honest, a draw would be a decent result against a team unbeaten this year. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nobbyburton Posted 19 February Share Posted 19 February (edited) I can see why people are nervy about this, but I'm definitely surprised at how many don't believe we could beat these. I think bottling top 4 twice the way we did has really had an impact on the fanbase, any other set of fans would have had the champagne open in December. As for Leeds, their best performance of the season was against us and let's not forget how tight that game was. It could have gone either way and probably should have been a draw, but it was a perfect away performance from them. Now they're at home, they will have to play differently which in my opinion will suit us. I can't wait for this game, rather than spending time worrying about losing we should be thinking, if we can avoid defeat here they absolutely won't be overtaking us. We've been above them all season for a reason, time to show we can do it in a big game. Edited 19 February by Nobbyburton 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rossiter Posted 19 February Share Posted 19 February 2 hours ago, filbertway said: Based on how we wilted at Cov, I don't hold out much hope at a fired up Elland road against a team that must be in supreme confidence. Not to say I don't think we can pick up a win or draw (in fact we really should be capable of it). Next season we'll be looking at this as one of our most winnable games if we both go up. So far though, most of the evidence we have is that the team doesn't respond well to genuine pressure from decent teams. Either from the stands or on the pitch. That being said, I don't think it alters the fact we're going to win the league. Unless we lose about 4/5 players to long term injury, we're just literally too good for most teams in this league. 'Wilted' a bit harsh maybe. Ten men. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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