Ratings vs Birmingham

Kenny 5 steady and competent
Lees 2 unsteady and incompetent (he's no RB)
Peltier 4 distinctly average
Pearce 5 satisfactory
Pugh 4 mediocre
Byram 6 lively
Norris 5 some nice touches
Austin 3 poor
Tonge 2 very poor
Diouf 7 very good
Becchio 2 no service, lethargic

Overall, no pace in the side (White and Hall should've been introduced a lot earlier than the 82nd min), no urgency, no ideas, no skill, no hope.

Warnock 2 poor team selection, players out of position, unable to change tactics midway through a game, and has seemingly lost the ability to inspire.

Crowd so quiet, no atmosphere.

All in all the worst performance I've ever witnessed from a Leeds United side.

Bates just **** off, this team needs money spent on it in January, just go ffs

 

You probably spent a few hundred pounds, with tickets, travelling and food, let alone the travelling time you wasted.

Fair play fella

 

Elland

Got the missus to pay for the petrol, her first time to ER, told her we're not normally this bad

Weirdly she seemed to enjoy the experience

Strange woman

 

COMPLETELY WARNOCKS FAULT

Peltier is our Right Back. Drury is our Left Back.
Lees and Pearce are Centre Backs.

Aiden White should be used on the left of midfield, Byram on the right of midfield (or at Right Back).

Pugh is a midfielder.

Austin needs to be told to stop travelling half way around the world and concentrate on getting us and himself on the Premiership.

Diouf needs a game on the bench to realise he has to keep delivering.

PS. Browns legs have gone but he should be used to see game out with 30 mins to go.

 

Exactly right sir

While bates isn't helping the cause, lacklustre performances and 0 motivation are issues for the manager to sort out

 

Actually I would say the lack of motivation to perform is down to the apathetic feeling surrounding the club at the moment. Nobody seems to care, the fight has gone from the club, fans, players and everything, its not helped by the return of bates as a voice, blaming everything except his own cheapness strategy, sucking life out of the club.

This is what happens when you dangle a new toy in front of a kids face without letting them have it. At first they'll be excited but eventually they'll get bored

 

Marko, stop blaming everything on Bates. If someone can't do there job, its there fault, there are outside things that can help them do a good job but this is ridiculous.

If the cleaner at Elland Road is doing a **** job, will you blame it on Bates?

 

I thought tonge byram n Pugh did decent yesterday everyone else was **** lees is a cb n peltier was **** at cb

 

I think the main difference in our recent ****e performances is that Austin is now struggling to be as dominant in midfield, whether that be injury or fatigue related or just a loss of form idk. Therefore we are having even less control of the midfield battle and possession than before

 

When the atmosphere around the club is caused by the chairman, its his fault if that then affects the players. It definitely affects the players, hence why they seem completely elsewhere and disjointed

 

These were the same things said when we got relegated twice in the last decade. The cause of both of those was that things behind the scenes were causing problems for the players and their minds were not in the right place to play football.

We seem to be in the same mindset at the moment

 

They don't understand. She probably thought we play in blue

 

I understand your point, I've heard it enough times but I just disagree with it.

It is possible for more than one person in an organisation to be doing a bad job

However I see this as a completely different scenario, players aren't worrying about whether they are going to be paid for example.

There is only anger towards Bates because of lack of funds given to the manager lets be completely honest here. If the manager was being given 5m or even 3m to spend on players each season then the high ticket prices, his overly aggressive personality and the fact we still don't own Thorp Arch or Elland Road wouldn't be considered an issue by the majority of fans because fans would be prepared to let that all slide or at least for now.

Although saying that we'd probably be in the prem by now anyway

 

If the players had had a couple of bad games, fair enough, but it's been our entire season so far. They seem completely unfocused. Not necessarily unmotivated, but definitely unfocused. Like they are concentrating on something else, not the game. Their minds are elsewhere.

It was like that for many games last season. I just don't think it's a coincidence that this has been happening for this particular period of 12-18 months. All focus seems to be off the pitch, on a takeover or stand development or whatever. The words "we're building a club first, and a team second" is probably one of the most psychologically damaging statements someone can make at a football club in the context in which it was made. Psychology plays a massive part in sport. Massive. If the atmosphere around the club is apathetic, the players will be apathetic. Oh look, we've got that one spot on. If the focus is away from the pitch, the players will be unfocused and away from the pitch. That one appears to be right on the money as well!

 

No, the reason its been happening for 12 months is because Grayson starting to not perform and then he was replaced with a man that has failed to perform since his appointment. Players focus on playing, if there minds are elsewhere its there problem bearing in mind it shouldn't be elsewhere. If they are unfocused then address that problem as the manager, Warnock is experienced enough for this not to affect him and still be able to motivate the players but I feel this is the reason he has never progressed his career to the next level

I think the issue that me and you are having with this discussion is I do not see the club in dire straits where as you do. I see the club as not progressing which I hate but you see it as worse than that I feel

 

Unfortunately the human mind doesn't work like that, which is why there's so many mental health problems. Of course, that's another extreme, but all sorts of things go on in our heads we're not even aware of. Unfortunately it's simply impossible to keep out all the bad stuff and just focus on what we're supposed to be doing.

I see the club as exactly what it is, devoid of all fight and even care. Nobody cares any more. Everybody has lost interest in what should be happening, which is football. The apathy is almost tangible. That gets in the players heads. The problem with something like this is that people aren't aware of the majority of what's going on in their heads. Whatever you think of "they are professionals, it shouldn't affect them" - it still does, mostly because it's literally impossible to stop your brain picking up on this kind of thing. It's a survival instinct and it's far more powerful than any amount of money per week or any sort of man management.

It doesn't matter who we get in at the moment, nobody will play well while there's so much going on off the pitch. The players minds will simply not be focused. With the best will in the world nothing will change that. I'm afraid it's just human nature.

 

and just as a bit of a bonus, I should refer you an incident where a fireman saved his entire squads life when he had "a hunch" that they should leave a burning building. The building exploded shortly after they left the building. Turns out he'd noticed something without even realising it, which then presented itself as a gut feeling to be somewhere else.

I should also point out that playing a physical sport in front of 20000 people is a highly emotional experience. Emotion increases our sensitivity to the world around us and makes us more likely to pick up on things instinctively rather than consciously. The crowd isn't just quiet, lately, it's completely flat and focused elsewhere. So are the players. I've done the maths so you don't have to.

 

Marko, I don't see this going anywhere. It would appear we are both just too stubborn of people, I still disagree with these comments though. Things aren't that bad at the club that it should affect the players this way.

I am not for once suggesting people do not get affected by things

 

They don't have to be "bad". If they can feel concerned and uncertain about their future when a club is in serious trouble then they can feel apathetic, unfocused and disjointed when the fans at a club feel that way. Basically, whatever we're feeling in the stands gets transferred to the players. Anything at all. That includes apathy.

 

While I do agree with much of what Marko has written throughout this thread, I think this is the biggest factor in what is happening on the pitch.