Lighthouse

It was only a month ago people were saying Leeds were unstoppable and they couldn't see them losing again all season. One international break later, with promotion in their grasp, they get zero points from Blackburn and QPR. Anything can happen in the playoffs, in fact WBA could still bottle them entirely, their only win in the last six was Rotherham at home.

Just looking at the whole form thing for context, last years contenders finished the league: Luton Boro Coventry Sunderland Ranked in order of form over the last 6 games they were Sunderland - 14 points W4 D2 L0 Luton - 12 points - W3 D3 L0 Coventry - 12 points - W3 D3 L0 Boro - 8 points - W2 D2 L2

Now it’s starting to get funny.

Ageing like a fine prawn sandwich.

I would broadly speaking agree with this. For me it’s all about whether he knows the flaws in his teams and more importantly how to address them. Perhaps saying we were good for the first hour of the Leicester match was just media speak. Perhaps he is just trying to carry a positive attitude into the playoffs, knowing that it’s still all to play for and really there’s some serious work to do in training and over the summer. For everyone comparing us to Ipswich and McKenna, his first season there ended like this, sometimes patience is needed.

There could be nothing riding on our trip to Elland Road.

Punjab Kings have just completed the highest ever T20 run chase, after being set 261 to win.

We didn't hire him for his Swansea results, we hired him based on what we thought we could achieve with the players we have. Nigel Adkins was fighting Championship relegation with Scunthorpe when we hired him. He was replaced by a man who was 14th in La Liga with Espanyol. There's not a manager in football who hasn't been sacked from somewhere for a string of poor results. I've no idea what your problem is with getting management from City's academy, they're one of the best in Europe. I don't know how two people constitutes an obsession either. The point you're missing is that you can't choose results, there is no 'results' based system. Any idiot can sit here and say, "yeah we need to be one of those winning every game 3-0 type teams," but you need a good strategy, properly implemented to get there.

46/4 in reply, we’ve certainly rocked them so far. I’m sure they’ll get a partnership going eventually and probably lead by at least a hundred.

Gubbins dropped on 9, then Vince out for 5 next ball. Bit of a mare so far.

It’s absolutely no different to playing ugly, route one football and losing by the same score. The fact that we have a way of playing which doesn’t always work doesn’t mean it’s pointless or ‘propaganda football’, just that it isn’t being properly implemented. If you lose 5-0 with 30% possession it’s just as sh*t.

‘Results’ isn’t a style of football. I’ve no idea why anyone would think we prioritised a particular style over actually winning games. We thought we would succeed playing the way we did, it’s that simple. We weren’t wrong as such, it’s simply that the players and the manager who implemented that style didn’t get it right. We don’t have an obsession with City youth players either, we hired Shields and Wilcox, who both have a strong link to their academy, and went with the highest rated prospects they knew from their previous employment, with mixed results.

I’ve no idea what this is supposed to mean and people keep saying it. We’ve played a variety of different styles since Cortese left, from the old school, simple Hughes and Jones types to Ralph’s high press and Martin’s possession based game. None of these are exactly revolutionary, Martin is only playing the same philosophy that won Spain a bunch of trophies 15 years ago.

It’ll be interesting to see if JT makes the XI and for who. You’d have thought Holland.

Good Lord, no thank you on several levels.