The Official Leeds United Thread

[Jungleland]

JNW1 said:

jamckeown said:

We have to finish in the top two to go up. The playoffs will be brutal. Personally I think we can win the the league but I feel for any of the teams in the top four (including ourselves) finding themselves in the play offs. A complete lottery!!

I understand the commercial reasons why the play-offs exist but personally I hate them (and quite genuinely that's not just because we always do badly in them!).

This season the team that finishes 6th in the Championship could quite easily be 20 points adrift of the team in 3rd yet under the play-off system that counts for nothing and the team that's finished 6th could actually be the third team to go up. You can talk until you're blue in the face but you'll never convince me that's right or fair; after a punishing 46 game season I think the top three in the division should go up, not a team that's finished way behind but then got lucky over the equivalent of 3 cup-ties in the play-offs. A ludicrous system that potentially allows this to happen IMO....

I'd agree more if the league wasn't so big. But you simply can't have a 24 team league with just top 3 up - majority of the teams would have nothing to play for for maybe a third of the season. Would just be dreadful.

[JNW1]

Jungleland said:

JNW1 said:

jamckeown said:

We have to finish in the top two to go up. The playoffs will be brutal. Personally I think we can win the the league but I feel for any of the teams in the top four (including ourselves) finding themselves in the play offs. A complete lottery!!

I understand the commercial reasons why the play-offs exist but personally I hate them (and quite genuinely that's not just because we always do badly in them!).

This season the team that finishes 6th in the Championship could quite easily be 20 points adrift of the team in 3rd yet under the play-off system that counts for nothing and the team that's finished 6th could actually be the third team to go up. You can talk until you're blue in the face but you'll never convince me that's right or fair; after a punishing 46 game season I think the top three in the division should go up, not a team that's finished way behind but then got lucky over the equivalent of 3 cup-ties in the play-offs. A ludicrous system that potentially allows this to happen IMO....

I'd agree more if the league wasn't so big. But you simply can't have a 24 team league with just top 3 up - majority of the teams would have nothing to play for for maybe a third of the season. Would just be dreadful.

I see what you're saying and that's probably the rationale for the existence of the play-off system; however, to me the end of a 46 game season should see the best 3 teams in the league promoted and that doesn't necessarily happen with the play-offs. I accept this season in the Championship is exceptional - and potentially exacerbates the issue - but to me the idea a team could finish sixth and then get promoted over a team that had (say) 20 points more and finished third is just wrong in my view. IMO just because that sixth placed team gets lucky over three cup tie games in the play-offs it doesn't make them the third best team in the division for that season!

But I know the system won't change because there's a commercial benefit from having more clubs retaining an interest for more of the season. However, a consequence of that is the best teams don't always get promoted - some (most?) obviously think that's a price worth paying but personally I don't...

[Leicester Loyal]

Jungleland said:

JNW1 said:

jamckeown said:

We have to finish in the top two to go up. The playoffs will be brutal. Personally I think we can win the the league but I feel for any of the teams in the top four (including ourselves) finding themselves in the play offs. A complete lottery!!

I understand the commercial reasons why the play-offs exist but personally I hate them (and quite genuinely that's not just because we always do badly in them!).

This season the team that finishes 6th in the Championship could quite easily be 20 points adrift of the team in 3rd yet under the play-off system that counts for nothing and the team that's finished 6th could actually be the third team to go up. You can talk until you're blue in the face but you'll never convince me that's right or fair; after a punishing 46 game season I think the top three in the division should go up, not a team that's finished way behind but then got lucky over the equivalent of 3 cup-ties in the play-offs. A ludicrous system that potentially allows this to happen IMO....

I'd agree more if the league wasn't so big. But you simply can't have a 24 team league with just top 3 up - majority of the teams would have nothing to play for for maybe a third of the season. Would just be dreadful.

This is the reason I believe, season would be over in March after 38/40 games most years.

[JNW1]

Leicester Loyal said:

Jungleland said:

JNW1 said:

jamckeown said:

We have to finish in the top two to go up. The playoffs will be brutal. Personally I think we can win the the league but I feel for any of the teams in the top four (including ourselves) finding themselves in the play offs. A complete lottery!!

I understand the commercial reasons why the play-offs exist but personally I hate them (and quite genuinely that's not just because we always do badly in them!).

This season the team that finishes 6th in the Championship could quite easily be 20 points adrift of the team in 3rd yet under the play-off system that counts for nothing and the team that's finished 6th could actually be the third team to go up. You can talk until you're blue in the face but you'll never convince me that's right or fair; after a punishing 46 game season I think the top three in the division should go up, not a team that's finished way behind but then got lucky over the equivalent of 3 cup-ties in the play-offs. A ludicrous system that potentially allows this to happen IMO....

I'd agree more if the league wasn't so big. But you simply can't have a 24 team league with just top 3 up - majority of the teams would have nothing to play for for maybe a third of the season. Would just be dreadful.

This is the reason I believe, season would be over in March after 38/40 games most years.

There have certainly been seasons where the automatic promotion places in the Championship have been pretty much determined after 38 or 40 games but I think it's rare the top three is as good as decided as soon as that? But I'm sure you're right, the reason for the play-offs is to retain the interest of as many teams - and their fans and the media - for as long as possible.

[Leicester Loyal]

JNW1 said:

There have certainly been seasons where the automatic promotion places in the Championship have been pretty much determined after 38 or 40 games but I think it's rare the top three is as good as decided as soon as that? But I'm sure you're right, the reason for the play-offs is to retain the interest of as many teams - and their fans and the media - for as long as possible.

Yeah I meant for like teams 6th to 16th, if the top 3 were going up, teams would be on the beach early doors, as a team in 16th would be about 20 points off 3rd, rather than 8 points off 6th and a potential play off place.

[JNW1]

Leicester Loyal said:

JNW1 said:

There have certainly been seasons where the automatic promotion places in the Championship have been pretty much determined after 38 or 40 games but I think it's rare the top three is as good as decided as soon as that? But I'm sure you're right, the reason for the play-offs is to retain the interest of as many teams - and their fans and the media - for as long as possible.

Yeah I meant for like teams 6th to 16th, if the top 3 were going up, teams would be on the beach early doors, as a team in 16th would be about 20 points off 3rd, rather than 8 points off 6th and a potential play off place.

Ah fair comment - I'll try to keep up in future!

[Voldemort]

Woo, and indeed, hoo.

[Killer2005]

Top of the league. Probably temporarily but an achievement given how far behind we were at the start of the year.

[Du1point8]

Little Yeboah's wonderous shot was awesome.

[JNW1]

Killer2005 said:

Top of the league. Probably temporarily but an achievement given how far behind we were at the start of the year.

Agreed. Given how close it is I'm not getting carried away about being top with 8 games still to go but, as you say, it's a tremendous achievement to get there given how far behind we were at the turn of the year.

[Zad]

Phew. From 17 points behind, and goodness knows what goal difference, to Championship leaders going into an international break, and 1 GD in front. Millwall are always a bit tricky, and after 9 days off, we could easily have been rusty.

[DaveyBoyWonder]

Killer2005 said:

Top of the league. Probably temporarily but an achievement given how far behind we were at the start of the year.

January 1st:
Leicester +36GD 65pts
Ipswich +15GD 55pts
Southampton +15GD 52pts
Leeds +20GD 48pts

March 18th:
Leeds +42GD 82pts
Leicester +41GD 82pts (played 1 game less than Leeds and Ipswich)
Ipswich +31GD 81pts
Southampton +26GD 73pts (played 2 games less than Leeds and Ipswich)

In 10 weeks we've overturned a 17 point and 16 goal deficit...

[DaveyBoyWonder]

Credit to Millwall and their 12 (13 if you include the linesman as well as the ref) men. The definition of anti-football.

[jamckeown]

With Everton, Nottingham Forest and now Leicester City being charged over FFP does this not beg the question why these charges were not brought earlier. Although Leeds were masters of their own demise last season and are a far more together team this season did we miss out on a further lucrative stay in the Premiership? Bearing in mind we probably sold Raphina and Phillips to stay within FFP rules. Just a thought!

[Killer2005]

With some of the deductions given out, it pays to break the rules.

[resolve10]

I think the whole premise of 'financial fair play' in football is laughable, in an era where a replica shirt is £60-upwards and an average match ticket probably well into the £30-£40 bracket.

Even if you're committed enough to spend money that and see your team win, there's no guarantee those three points will count for anything because your club may be hit with a random points deduction at a random point in time due to 'FFP'.

I'm not in favour of a Leicester points deduction, even if it was justified based on the rules. If a points deduction has to be issued, it has to be at the start of the season so the club, players & fans know what they're dealing with and can manage expecations. If we start seeing regular points deductions in the middle of promotion & relegation battles it'll become a farce..

[JNW1]

Disappointing performance and result tonight. A point was better than nothing but we were nowhere near our best; the changes forced on us by injuries probably didn't help but whatever the reason we lacked the fluency we've shown in most of our games since the turn of the year. Hopefully we'll be back on it against Blackburn on Easter Monday....

ETA: Just watched Farke's post-match interview and in the circumstances (injuries, the disruption caused by the international break) he was obviously pleased with the point - who am I to argue so fair enough!

Edited by JNW1 on Friday 29th March 22:39

[Jungleland]

Yeh I was worried we'd look less than fresh and think they definitely overpowered us 1st half and their pressing completely nullified us. Thankfully it seemed it took it out of them a bit and allowed us to dominate 2nd half - we nearly won the bloody thing which I think would have been a tad unfair. Good point, on to Monday!

[Killer2005]

Average tonight with Hull looking the better through most of the game but we got the win which is the important bit.

Let's not mention Paddys miss....

[Ajax Treesdown]

Killer2005 said:

Average tonight with Hull looking the better through most of the game but we got the win which is the important bit.

Let's not mention Paddys miss....

It's all about wins! 6 games left and probably need to win all 6, or at least 5.
I don't really care if we don't have the ball for 89 minutes but score in the 1 minute we do and win 1.0