saintant

I think Rothwell has bags to come in his locker and hopefully the two goals yesterday will give him the confidence to influence games more. There is no doubt he has the ability to take players on and drive forward with the ball and I'd love to see more of that from him.

Was it the first half shambles that convinced you? 🙂

I reckon 4 points from the Brizzle and West Brom games would represent a decent return. Leeds upcoming fixtures are Swansea and Plymouth away followed by Leicester at home so I'd expect them to drop points out of those matches - can see them drawing with Plymouth and Leicester.

I take your point but even the best strikers miss a fair few chances. It's a numbers game and AAs are pretty good so far. He'll not convert every chance but he does well enough in his position.

The lad is as close to a natural finisher as we have. When presented with a chance he often converts and, if not, he usually makes the keeper work. His positioning in and around the penalty area is also good meaning he is usually in the right place at the right time. He's improving fast and deserves a run in the side as our main striker as game time is what will sharpen him even more. Mara is not the finished article but has the potential to become a top notch striker provided he puts the hard yards in.

A strange player who has scored 15 and registered 11 assists which is the highest combined total in the Championship and has among the highest strike accuracy percentage. I don't mind strange if it produces those numbers.

Bad as the first half was I think we need to highlight the fact that we won the second half 5-1. Huddersfield have rightly received plenty of plaudits but we battered them in the second half. The subs played a large part which shows our strength in depth and bodes well for the remainder of the season.

I wonder if RM might deal with the absence of Downes by playing Stephens in a patrolling role just in front of the back four as a bit of extra security. It might stifle some of our creativity but we have plenty of goals in us - may see less of the 4 and 5 goal matches but we should still have enough to score enough to win games. He is clearly a big fan of Stephens so it wouldn't surprise me.

Think you could add Huddersfield to that list after the way they played today. Leeds have to go to their place which could be tougher than they think.

Think it will involve cider drinking summats.

Baz KWP THB Bednarek Manning Charles (assuming no Downes) Rothwell Smallbone Brooks Mara Fraser Rest Arma and Stu for this one.

Agree. It is his birthday today and the official site had a montage of his goals - some absolute crackers there. Show me a striker who doesn't miss chances - they don't exist. Arma is contributing his share of goals and assists so let's not be critical of a few misses.

Any new on Downes?

Absolutely - it would take some goal to better that. His technique to keep the ball down and the way he cut across it to send it swerving and arrowing into the top corner was sensational.

As routine as it gets.

Getting there bro! 🙂

This is worth a bump. Never get bored of watching this goal.

Think we'll be looking for someone to fill in for Downes if he's done his groin.

I think we can live with missing Stu for a few games as we have cover for him.

I think RM will be fuming at some of our play today but obviously delighted at the way we fought to secure the win.

Yeah agree, if Downes is out for a while we have no natural drop in replacement who gives us what he does. Hope it's nothing serious. We'll just have to outscore every opponent like we did today.

We're so lucky to have this guy in our squad - he will be crucial in the remaining games and played a big part in turning things around today. Think he'll be one of the first names on the team sheet from now on.

Take a bow son, that first goal was sublime.

Funny but all games are easy when you keep winning.

See they have to go to Huddersfield on 2nd March - let's see how easy they find that.