Completely agree Dave about the occassion and the day out. Very proud of the team and the support
Having sat and watched most of it again this morning in the cold light of day I'd make the following points: 1) If this isn't the definitive answer on who our best central defensive partnership is then Grayson will never get it. Was it ever in doubt though ? Apart from one or two mistakes Bruce has played well this season. Can you imagine what the score would have been with Collins in the team yesterday ? 2) I thought we matched them all over the park for effort and determination. 3) As we were playing a counter attacking game I think we needed a player up front with pace and intelligence to make runs. A fit Somma would have been ideal. 4) I thought we invited them on in the last 15 minutes with our substitutions. We essentially turned the game into attack and defence. Somma should have come on earlier and we should have kept our attacking outlet. We could have actually got them on the break again and won this game. 5) From the start I thought all Wenger had to do to win this game was to put Walcott on against Parker. Why did he wait so long especially with Parker on a yellow. I think we were lucky to get away with it in the end because Walcott had the freedom of the park for the last part of the game. Good job that his general play at times doesn't match his lightning pace. Scores: Schmeicel - 10. The last save was world class and he dealt with everything that was thrown at him. Connolly - 8. I thought he did well but occassionally looked a bit lost in defence. Parker - 6. He had a difficult afternoon. Considering it was his second game back I thought he did ok against lively opposition. Surprised they didn't target him more - tut tut Wenger. Ultimately though I stick to my assessment of Parker in that he can't defend. Bruce - 10. He was brilliant. How good was it to see a Leeds central defender snapping at heels and getting in where it hurts. Hopefully that'll put and end to Collin's Leeds career - why did it take this to convince so many people though ? O'Brien - 9. Confident and commanding. Perfect partner for Bruce. Johnson - 9. Got to hand it to him I thought he was terrific and held the whole midfield together. Got caught dribbling once but generally competed, won and got rid. Howson - 7. I thought he tried his best to play the Kilkenny role but so many of his passes went astray and he does seem to struggle at times in this role. His energy, covering and effort though yesterday was immense. Gradel - 7. Provided a good outlet second half. First half he just looked out of his depth but he never gave up, Snodgrass - 8. It took us a long time to get him into the game but when we did he looked very dangerous. I think if we'd have had others up front darting around he would have had a better chance. Watt - 8. I thought he looked lively throughout. Once or twice he should have done better but his energy was fantastic. Becchio - 6. Can fault his effort. He never stopped running and hassling but I thought he wasn't effective at all today. He did get the one header in but in general he spent more of his time offside and on his arse (standard Becchio really). His effort in the first half was laughable and in general when the ball comes to Becchio you know the move has ended. Also he hardly won a header all day. Out of all our players he looked the one who was definitely playing above his level. We needed to make runs beyond their defence - that will never happen with Becchio. We have to look at other options if we want to really progress. Subs - not on for long. ----- Original Message ---- From: DAVID NATTAN <[email protected]> To: list leedslist <[email protected]> Sent: Sat, 8 January, 2011 22:45:49 Subject: [LU] Arsenal report Not long back from my trip to the big city and what a trip ! I missed the scum game last season with being in Australia so was desperate to watch the lads in action today, but like most Leeds fans we did not expect a repeat. How wrong we (nearly)were. I knew it was going to be a special day when I arrived at Manchester Piccadilly and saw around 10 other Leeds fans waiting for the train.I met my mates in the Angel pub outside the Angel tube stop and it was packed full of Leeds fans (the only red shirt was a lad drinking coffee and he soon left)/ The pub was so full we were even served by Tim Martin himself (founder and owner of Wetherspoons) The Emirates is an impressive stadium and although no beer was on sale ( a restriction only applied to us and Spurs) we could have bought 'oodles of noodles' or hand crafted pies ! Leeds fans were crammed in behind the goal - the biggest away following at the stadium according to some Gooners we spoke to after the game and certainly the noisiest ! My mates and me had all agreed that a 3-0 defeat would be Ok as long as we stayed level long enough to enjoy ourselves ! Instead we put on a perfomance and result that will live long in the memory. Not much to say about the game -you will have all seen it on TV but they were all heroes today with an extra specail mention to Bruce, who was absolutley outstanding - if he and we can defend like this in the league we soon won't need to score 2 to ensure a draw ! We rode our luck in the first half with Arshavin missing a one on one and a corner being headed over. Second half we really were on the back foot till Max skipped into the box and went past the defender and then went over his trailing leg - 100% penalty even if he did play for it - up stepped Snoddy and in it went - we all went mental and the noise went up a few decibels. Still 35 long minutes to go - could we hang on ? Well, even better we almost got the crucial second with Becchio being denied by a top rate save and a geat bit of defending , a Snoddy free kick also went very close. At the other end, we defended like lions and Arsenal had to send on the really big guns. We came so very very close to hanging on but then the ref pointed to the spot for the second time against us and this time there was no flag to save us - and so the dream of a win at Arsenal and lightenting striking twice was lost but the lads had done us proud and deserved the acclaim they got at the end OK so we might well get hammered in the replay - a la Spurs- but today was a day to savour Dave _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected] MARCHING ON TOGETHER _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: http://mailman-new.greennet.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email [email protected] MARCHING ON TOGETHER
