Why I Think Warnock Should Walk – Part 1

From the minute I heard the starting line up to face Watford I was worried. A change to a 3-5-2 formation from out of nowhere seemed like to actions of a manager who had one last chance to save his job. Neil Warnock wasn’t in any danger of facing the sack and still isn’t. However, sixteen games in to the new season the man with a track record of getting teams out of the Championship has been found wanting.

Warnock was brought in to get a side that was sitting just outside the Play Offs the promotion that Leeds fans had been waiting eight years for. Instead of giving the side the final push in to the Play Offs, Warnock changed the playing style to one that didn’t suit the players at his disposal and saw Leeds plummet like a stone to finish fourteenth. He promised that we would never see a Leeds side play as poorly again.

This season though has seen Leeds fail to put together a string of unconvincing performances, aside from the Capital One Cup heroics against Everton. The defeat to Watford left Leeds without a win in six games. Although there was some improvement from Leeds’ performances against Birmingham and Burnley, once again Leeds were found wanting against a superior Watford side.

I have been vocal in my disapproval of Neil Warnock. While his C.V. shows that he has the ability to get teams to the Promised Land, I thought that he and Leeds United would be a bad combination. I have a lot of respect for managers like Ian Holloway.  Holloway, like Warnock, used to be a proponent of long ball football. Unlike Warnock though, Holloway took some time away from management to learn about other styles of football which led to much better passing and some attacking and attractive football. Warnock has instead to adopt the same style of football at each club he has been to.

The issue with that is that without the investment that may have been promised to him in February he has been unable to bring in the personnel to implement his favoured tactics. But surely someone with his experience must be able to make a situation like Leeds’ work for them. Instead, he has continued with a playing style that isn’t working and doing very little about it.

Many will argue that he hasn’t received the investment that Ken Bates probably sold the job to him with making his task much more difficult. Yet after a busy summer in which he signed more players than he sold, we were still being told that the squad was threadbare. Personally I think that Warnock is using the lack of investment as a crutch for the team’s poor performance. Nine of the starting line-up against Watford were players that Warnock had brought in during the summer. He can have no excuses having made so many changes. If the players he has brought in are not good enough then why sign them in the first place?

I would rather have seen him spend what money he was given on fewer players but of higher quality. Instead, Warnock has adopted a quantity not quality policy having signed four players from recently relegated Portsmouth. I questioned to ambition that we were showing in signing a number of players for reduced fees from a club that couldn’t keep themselves in the division that we were trying to escape from but in the opposite direction.

I understand a number of players were sold to bring in more money for wages and transfer fees, but I couldn’t understand selling someone like Billy Paynter, who appreciate had struggled during his time at Leeds, but bringing in 34 year old Andy Gray, a man who looked set to join League 2 Bradford City until Warnock swooped in. Having seen Gray in action this season, it’s hard to justify getting rid of someone who offers more.

Early in the season Warnock also said that Leeds still needed a couple of wingers. Despite not having the money to bring any in, at least permanently, it seemed odd that Ramon Nunez and Robbie Rogers were completely disregarded while central midfielders Michael Tonge and Paul Green have played out wide. Both Rogers and Nunez could have offered an alternative when Warnock’s tactics have failed time and time again.

While I can see that there is money to be saved in sending players like Rogers out on loan, there can’t be that much of a saving to be made by sending Poleon and Thompson out on loan. Poleon looks to have the pace and trickery to cause defenders problems and seemed a good player to have around whilst McCormack and Somma are out injured. Instead they have both headed to Bury where both have impressed with Poleon getting a number of goals in the process.

So far Warnock’s transfer policy has had a detrimental effect on the team, taking over a team that had the potential to go up and turning them in to a lower mid-table side that plays a very negative style of football. In selling off a number of Grayson’s team and replacing them with his own players, Warnock can look no further than himself for Leeds’ poor start to the season.

In part two I will look at how Leeds’ recent form has proven Warnock’s inability to change a game when we have been struggling which, unfortunately, has been far too often.

Diary of a Football Coach - Managerial Debut

Today finally saw my managerial début. I'm not going to lie; it wasn't quite as I’d imagined it over the years. No one in the terraces was chanting my name. In fact, there were no terraces, just a primary school on a very cold Sunday morning. I never thought I’d be managing a Kippax Athletic team at my age. I thought I’d have to wait until I was a dad before I could do this.

After years of playing Football Manager and FIFA I was finally able to live out my dream. It’s something I've wanted to do for a number of years now and I'm so glad my good friend Danny Hall offered me this opportunity. Aidrian Boothroyd said that he knew he wanted to be a coach when he realised he was a crap player and I am very much the same.

I realised long ago that I have very limited talents on the football pitch but always considered myself to be able to read a game quite well. It’s a bit like having the extra yard in Teddy Sheringham’s head without any of the ability to do anything about it.

I'm hoping that this will be a long term thing as I’d quite like to be able to see how this group of kids develop and if any of them can go on to play at a higher level. At 6 and 7 it’s very difficult to tell where they might end up. I've seen one or two that have a natural ability for playing that many others don’t possess but you just can’t say how they will be when they’re 11 in terms of both ability and physically.

Today was the first time seeing them in a match after working with them a couple of times in training so gave me a great chance to see what they were like under more pressure. I saw a lot of positive things and a couple of things that will need work, but that’s to be expected. Although we lost, there was a lot to be encouraged by and thankfully they didn't look too disheartened afterwards.

I'm really looking forward to the rest of the season with this group of guys (and a girl in goal). Hopefully we can get a few wins under our belts and I can develop my coaching skills as well as the kids skills.

How Warnock Got It So Wrong

I was never really behind Warnock's appointment. Sure, when he first arrived he said all the right things that charmed me to believe him. But since then he has failed to motivate the squad like had been hoped. What's worse is that he has taken every opportunity to remind us that it's not his squad that's apparently letting him down and making sly digs at the previous regime's signings.

Through all the excuses and the disrespectful comments however, Warnock has failed to address the fact that he has taken over a team that was 8th in the table and in contention for the play-offs that now find themselves 14th. This is quite an impressive achievement considering that the only changes that Warnock has made are to bring Danny Webber and Paul Robinson in, with Webber only making substitute appearances so far.

How has such an experienced manager with such a pedigree at this level managed to get it so wrong? It was alleged that Grayson had lost the dressing room. So if this is the case shouldn't the players have returned to their normal, above average form? Instead, we've dropped like a stone. It's hard to look past the fact that the only thing that has changed is Warnock.

Leeds haven't been able to defend well since returning to the Championship last season. So it seems odd to play a style of football that will put more pressure on the defence. With players like Snodgrass, Clayton, McCormack and Becchio it seems a complete waste to continually pump balls to the Argentinian's head. Why would Snodgrass want to remain part of a side that completely bypasses the midfield? "Norwich, here I come," he must be thinking.

Warnock's loyalty to old players also worries me. He has stated on a number of occasions that the squad is threadbare but in reality for most positions there are two options. I find it difficult to believe that he rates Michael Brown and that Mika Vayrynen isn't at least as good as him.. He's definitely quicker, that's not hard. From what little I've seen of him he can get closer to players and doesn't just randomly kick anyone in sight. He wants to get involved and can actually add something to the team. Leigh Bromby's inclusion also worries me. After his three assists at Brighton, I was happy to never see him again.

On a number of occasions Warnock has also said he's going to give players a chance. This has been something of an empty promise. Warnock has only made changes so far due to injuries or suspensions. Why are we persevering with Paul Robinson at left back when he's already too old and a threat to the side with his wreckless challenges. With four games to go, this would be the perfect chance to play Ben Parker, give him a few games to prove himself. We've been paying him not to play most of the last few couple of seasons, why not actually make use of him and vaguely justify the wages we're paying him for the rest of the season?

There are a number of other players who we might as well get some use of for the rest of the season so we can make a decent evaluation of them. Bruce, Nunez, Rogers and Webber need to more than the odd game, or in most cases the odd subs appearance, here and there. Nunez, Rogers and Webber especially have the potential to have a great impact on games but never have the chance to do so being brought on with 10 minutes left with the side losing. Bruce may not be the answer to our defensive woes, but he's no worse than O'Dea.

I was happy when Warnock said he was going to try and tie a number of players down to new deal. McCormack, Clayton, Snodgrass and White, great stuff. Darren O'Dea? Really? O'Dea has been nothing but a liability for the majority of the season yet Warnock wants him permanently. Say what you want about the boredom we suffered under George Graham, but he knew a good defender when he saw one. Warnock clearly doesn't have such gifts. Given that we only seem to be linked with his old players it doesn't seem that he would consider someone different. Someone possibly better than the likes of Clint Hill and Paddy Kenny.

The style of football since his arrival is awful. Except for against West Ham and Southampton, every game has been a slog that Leeds look like losing, and often have lost. He has even said the side lacks strength and height, yet his tactics for last few games have been to pump it long, which Becchio often loses out on and then the midfield don't have the fight in them to get it back putting the defence under more pressure. The cycle continues if they eventually get it away.

The Reading game was the clincher for me. When down to ten men against the most inform side in the division, why would you keep hitting long balls to a lone striker who has no midfielders anywhere nearby to pick up on the scraps of any balls he does occasionally win? It's just a stupid and ultimately fruitless tactic. In situations like that, you have to keep the ball and make the opposition chase it and wear themselves out then go for the sucker punch. Instead, we gifted it back to them over and over again. There was no heroic defending, it was just a good job that they didn't have their shooting boots on. Ian Harte alone could've have a hat-trick.

Once the game reached the hour mark changes needed to be made. Some players looked knackered. Becchio is always tired around this time anyway, Snodgrass hardly had a touch all game and Brown was getting nowhere near anyone. So why wait until the 85 to make the subs. Sheer stupidity. Three red cards in three games has also added to the missery. I sit at Elland Road wondering if he's ever thought about trying to play football instead.

Warnock has got it wrong. For me, this can't be debated. Simply by being as stubborn as only Neil Warnock will be, he has cost us what little chance we had at the play-offs. Week after week he is trotting out the excuse that it's not his squad. If the supposedly inferior Simon Grayson could take Leeds so close to the play-offs and get sacked, why do I have to watch someone who has failed so miserably plan for another season? It's not a prospect I'm looking forward to.

Andy Carroll - The Most Expensive Purple Patch

Much has been made about Andy Carroll's form since his move to Merseyside. Since his £35m move he has found the back of the net 6 times in 33 games. A number of reasons have been cited for this, chief amongst them being Kenny Dalglish rotating the squad not allowing Carroll to gain some consistency. My theory is slightly different. I believe that Carroll was signed during a long purple patch, a great run of form that saw him score 30 goals in 62 games. An impressive record, admittedly 19 of those goals came in the Championship. But it's the period of his career before this time that makes me think that Carroll may have been performing about himself.

The season of Newcastle's relegation to the Championship saw Carroll appear 16 times, scoring only 3 goals. The season before he played 6 times for Newcastle without scoring and netted only once whilst on loan to Preston, featuring 12 times. Between the 06/07 season and the 08/09 season Carroll played 41 games and scored only 4 goals. Normally, young strikers coming through will show some sort of early form that can be an indication of what's to come. For example, in his first season for Leeds, Alan Smith scored 9 goals for in 26 appearances, most of them coming from the bench.  Similarly Wayne Rooney scored 8 in 37. These two were scoring goals and consistently showing promise and hit the headlines very quickly. Carroll only made 8 appearances in his first two seasons, scoring none. Although clearly the Newcastle management saw some potential in him, he wasn't grabbing headlines and didn't stand out as a future star.

His loan spell at Preston did little to show he would play at the highest level. Just one goal showed nothing that particularly impressed either Preston or Newcastle. 3 seasons in to his professional career Carroll had made just 29 appearances for Newcastle. At the same stage of his career, Alan Smith had made 116 appearances and scored 33 goals including 7 goals in 16 Champions League games. It wasn't until Carroll started to play regularly for Newcastle when they were relegated to the Championship that he began to develop a scoring run with 19 in 42 games. Unquestionably a good record, but nothing astonishing.

His first real run of Premier League games saw him score 11 goals in 19 games. Slightly better than a goal every other game, Carroll was finally starting to make a name for himself. Unfortunately, it was at this point when Liverpool were looking for someone to replace Fernando Torres who had just made the move to Stamford Bridge. When Liverpool offered £30m for someone who had been valued by Newcastle at just £1m only a year earlier, Mike Ashley must have nearly fainted. Liverpool had set themselves up to fail early on. Once it was made clear that they desperately needed a replacement for Torres, Newcastle had complete control over negotiations. £35m later, Carroll was a red.

Since that time he has netted just 6 times. He has been unfortunate in playing at a time when Gerrard has been injured and Dalglish has used squad rotation, not allowing Carroll to find some form. However, I still believe that this is not down to the tactics, the managers squad policy or even the change of clubs. I believe that Carroll is a decent striker, but probably not a top level striker. Clearly Newcastle didn't value him too greatly. If it would have, Carroll would have had a much higher price tag for a young player with potential. If Newcastle were willing to let him go for not too much more at that stage of his career, they must not have had a great amount of belief that he would become a world beater. The combination of pressure, and playing at a level beyond is, I believe the reason that his move to Liverpool has been a failure.

In His Defence...

After the humiliation at Barnsley it is understandable why the 'Grayson Out' army is louder than ever before. It's tough losing to any local rival but a 4-1 battering really hurts. However, I remain loyal to Grayson and think that calls for his head are very premature. Don't get me wrong, I understand that this hasn't been a great season but it's also hardly a nightmare.

The summer proved to be a key time for Grayson without him actually being able to do much about it. Such is the way Leeds do business that Grayson simply hands over a list of the players that he wants and Shaun Harvey is sent away to get them, although Bates is occasionally involved in negotiations such as Andy O'Brien. With him being forced to let go of Johnson and Kilkenny, two players that divided opinion, as well as losing one of the best players in the Championship in Gradel and not having the time nor the funds to replace him I think it's entirely understandable that we're playing like a mid table side. Those three players were regulars in our midfield, with Johnson and Gradel contributing plenty of goals. Although he never said much on the matter, I don't believe that Grayson wanted to lose Kilkenny and Johnson, two players that he initially dropped from the side when he arrived and who fought their way back in to the team. Gradel contributed 18 goals last season and is a player of very high quality, losing a talent like him was always going to be difficult. Again though, this can be put down to the administration rather than the manager for not offering Gradel a good contract.

We were linked with a number of quality players and each time the deals seemed to fall through as soon as they found out about the £12k wage limit. Players like Puncheon, Smith and Bowyer were all linked and are players that would, I believe, walk in to this side and each add something, and who seemed to be willing to talk with the club but it was the lack of money that halted the deals. Clearly the collapse of these deals is down to the administration of the club and not the manager.

Just running through Saturday's side explains a lot. Connolly, O'Dea. Kisnorbo, Vayrynen, Pugh, Brown, Nunez and Keogh are all replaceable players and with Snodgrass and Howson missing, it's no wonder the score was as bad as it was. Then there's those outside the first team. Bromby, Bruce, Paynter, Rachubka, Forssell, Sam and Maik Taylor are all being paid to do nothing. Some of these are understandable. Yet it still baffles me that someone like Alex Bruce hasn't had a chance in the side since the 3-1 defeat at Swansea last season but before that he'd been playing in the defence during the clubs best run in the league all season, including a terrific performance at The Emirates. However, this is just one player from a large group who have done little to show that they're good enough to take Leeds to the next level.

An article recently published that is doing the rounds on Twitter suggests that the players are unhappy with the way in which he dealt with the Andy O'Brien situation. In summary O'Brien said he wasn't ready to play against Leicester or Burnley but was admonished by Grayson when he allegedly asked not to play. In my opinion, after giving O'Brien so much time to deal with his personal problems the club had a perfectly reasonable case to want him back playing. He is one of the highest earners at the club and they had already shown him loyalty by granting him time away from the game to deal with his issues. Given the time frame he must have expected that the club would want to play him again at some stage, especially with him putting in a good performance against Leicester.

This article is without source so it may well have some truth. Personally, I believe that it is a coincidence and just the fact we have a very average squad. There are a number of players that are getting paid good money to do very little or nothing. Even those that are in the first team are average players for this level, hence the position we are in. In January the club needs to get rid of much of the deadwood and inject some passion and quality back in to the side.

Good luck Andros Townsend.