"It's all going wrong since New Year. No wins in five and only 9 points from 21 in 2010. I've got to get a result from somewhere or we are going to miss the play-offs and the footballing world will start laughing at us again. I'll be out of work and the best players in the side will be sold off. Richard Murray is blanking me again. The Valley could be hostile on Saturday, so 'll need to ensure the fans don't have anything to boo about at the start, so I've got to make changes. The fans will expect to see a large number of changes anyway to reflect my managerial strength and shared disappointment with the crap we served up at Bristol.
Having lost and conceded two poor goals, someone has to be dropped from the defence. We'll get some sympathy for having to start with Chris Solly, so I'll drop Sam Sodje as he was all over the shop and gave them their second goal which put the game out-of-reach. That'll stop Llera sulking for a few weeks too. I didn't think putting Bailey out on the wing was a good move and should have followed my instincts instead of listening to Therry Racon's moaning about not being given a chance. Unless Bails is back in the middle on Saturday, we will start to loud booing and I can't afford that. Anyway, it will justify putting Kyel Reid or Jonjo back on the left. Who to play with Bailey? Matt Spring never complains and maybe another try in the middle might change things? Let's face it, nothing else appears to be working. I could go with Semedo again but if I drop him and Racon, then they won't feel like I am singling either of them out.
Lloyd Sam deserves to go back to the bench but I better show some perseverance. Maybe he'll have one of his good games?
What to do upfront? We simply haven't had the personnel all season and Deon's lucky streak has dried-up. He was hopeless the other night but Akpo was just as bad. Mooney doesn't look like shaking that egg off his head, so Leon McKenzie will have to start. I'll decide between Deon and Akpo before the match, although Akpo has at least scored from the bench in living memory."
Dear-oh-dear, it's all so predictable.
This evening the knife could well and truly be turned. Leeds should increase the gap in second to an unassailable 8 points. We will also need strong home performances from Carlisle and Yeovil to halt the advances of Huddersfield and Colchester respectively. We can't keep relying on other sides to pick points off our rivals to keep us in the hunt.
I'm afraid this will only encourage further tinkering by Parkinson.
ReplyDeleteSurely all he needs to do is work out what he thinks his best side is and stick to it, to the maximum extent possible (remember what happened at the start of the season when we did this for the first time in years). At present the team just looks throughly confused.
A bit of practice at taking and defending set pieces wouldn't go amiss either.