"Best team in the division"

[EYEBALL119 0]

I agree with that, since the defeat at Millwall we''ve been a far better team and it woke us up out our mini-slump that was mentioned earlier in the thread.

Returning to the main topic, I think its fair to say that Leeds are the best team in the division although probably not the best footballing team... we built a solid defence and worked from there. Last season McAllister had us playing some beautiful football but there was no plan B and pretty passing doesn''t always work. This season we''re playing some good ''effective'' football that is winning us games and has the ability to brush teams aside.

For the record I think it''ll take an almighty collapse from Leeds to not get promoted from here and I think Norwich will go up in 2nd. What is interesting is that nobody has mention Charlton in this thread - they''re currently 2nd on merit but even a bookmaker last week or so had Norwich at shorter odds for the league title than Charlton and they were 5th at that point!!

As Leeds found out last season, pretty football is great but its a results business...

[Beauseant 0]

[quote user="EYEBALL119"]I agree with that, since the defeat at Millwall we''ve been a far better team and it woke us up out our mini-slump that was mentioned earlier in the thread. Returning to the main topic, I think its fair to say that Leeds are the best team in the division although probably not the best footballing team... we built a solid defence and worked from there. Last season McAllister had us playing some beautiful football but there was no plan B and pretty passing doesn''t always work. This season we''re playing some good ''effective'' football that is winning us games and has the ability to brush teams aside. For the record I think it''ll take an almighty collapse from Leeds to not get promoted from here and I think Norwich will go up in 2nd. What is interesting is that nobody has mention Charlton in this thread - they''re currently 2nd on merit but even a bookmaker last week or so had Norwich at shorter odds for the league title than Charlton and they were 5th at that point!! As Leeds found out last season, pretty football is great but its a results business...[/quote]

 

I think that''s fair comment. I think Leeds have developed a very effective style of play for this division and agree that there should be no way that you don''t go up as worthy champions, barring a choke of historical proportions.

Charlton are, however, a different kettle of fish, although if Sullivan gets involved that may change very quickly. I can  understand the bookmakers attitude, because its all about form, not league position at this (relatively) early stage, and no-one could argue that our form isn''t more impressive than their''s over the last ten or so games.

[nutty nigel 7,509]

Our form over the last 10 games is better than anyones. 10 games ago we were 14th! Since then we have picked up 25 points, Leeds 23 points and Charlton 16 points. And of course we lost at Leeds during that period. But I also agree that as things stand it''s Leeds'' title to lose rather than ours to win. But there''s a long way to go and things can go wrong for either or both of us.

 

[Green and Yellow 0]

[quote user="nutty nigel"]

Yes Lambo, I made that point, but it''s also fair to point out that Lambert hasn''t waved a magic wand and made them better players.

 

[/quote]

Your having a laugh. The Norwich revival has nothing to do with Lambert it is all just a coincidence then?.

[nutty nigel 7,509]

[quote user=" Baldrick"][quote user="nutty nigel"]

Yes Lambo, I made that point, but it''s also fair to point out that Lambert hasn''t waved a magic wand and made them better players.

 

[/quote]

Your having a laugh. The Norwich revival has nothing to do with Lambert it is all just a coincidence then?.

[/quote]

Where did you see that in my post?

 

[ZLF 271]

[quote user=" Baldrick"][quote user="nutty nigel"]

Yes Lambo, I made that point, but it''s also fair to point out that Lambert hasn''t waved a magic wand and made them better players.

 

[/quote]

Your having a laugh. The Norwich revival has nothing to do with Lambert it is all just a coincidence then?.

[/quote]

He has not made them better players - they have the same capabilities its just he has shaped them into a team playing to their strengths in a system that give us a chance of scoring more and conceeding fewer than we did before.  Lambert has introduced that system and belief and so made them a better team - but I am yet to see any evidence of him making the better footballers. 

[Robert N. LiM 4,244]

I think we''re getting a bit ahead of ourselves here. We''re a good side. When the first choice central defensive partnership of Doc and Askou is playing we look solid at the back. The midfield diamond makes us very solid in midfield and gets the best out of Hoolahan. Holt and Martin work well up front. But if you suddenly took Holt and/or Hoolahan out of our team we would be far from exceptional.

Leeds on the other hand have built their success on a rock-solid defence. As some of their fans on here have argued, it allows them to get results even when playing poorly. It seems difficult to imagine them having the sort of slump that would allow us to catch them: even without Beckford they only have to find one goal per game to win, so tight is their defence. 

Fortunately, it doesn''t matter: we can finish second. That has to be the priority - catching and overhauling Charlton. They''re a good side too, but far more flaky than Leeds. They will drop plenty more points.

Have to join in with the chorus of praise for Lambert, though. He seems incapable of putting a foot wrong at the moment.

[nutty nigel 7,509]

[quote user="ZippersLeftFoot"][quote user=" Baldrick"][quote user="nutty nigel"]

Yes Lambo, I made that point, but it''s also fair to point out that Lambert hasn''t waved a magic wand and made them better players.

 

[/quote]

Your having a laugh. The Norwich revival has nothing to do with Lambert it is all just a coincidence then?.

[/quote]

He has not made them better players - they have the same capabilities its just he has shaped them into a team playing to their strengths in a system that give us a chance of scoring more and conceeding fewer than we did before.  Lambert has introduced that system and belief and so made them a better team - but I am yet to see any evidence of him making the better footballers. 

[/quote]

I wish you could write my posts for me[Y]

That''s exactly what I meant. If he''s waved a magic wand then it was to make the same players a better team.

However, if someone believed Doherty was a talentless oaf, who wasn''t fit to play for Norwich, then he still is. Unless of course......

 

[ZLF 271]

[quote user="Robert N. LiM"]

I think we''re getting a bit ahead of ourselves here. We''re a good side. When the first choice central defensive partnership of Doc and Askou is playing we look solid at the back. The midfield diamond makes us very solid in midfield and gets the best out of Hoolahan. Holt and Martin work well up front. But if you suddenly took Holt and/or Hoolahan out of our team we would be far from exceptional.

Leeds on the other hand have built their success on a rock-solid defence. As some of their fans on here have argued, it allows them to get results even when playing poorly. It seems difficult to imagine them having the sort of slump that would allow us to catch them: even without Beckford they only have to find one goal per game to win, so tight is their defence. 

Fortunately, it doesn''t matter: we can finish second. That has to be the priority - catching and overhauling Charlton. They''re a good side too, but far more flaky than Leeds. They will drop plenty more points.

Have to join in with the chorus of praise for Lambert, though. He seems incapable of putting a foot wrong at the moment.

[/quote]

He has made an impressive team from the squad.  But I agree that we do feel paper thin as far as quality is concerned. We have a solid core and so far we have been reasonably lucky with our injuries not being in core positions. Is that lucklikely to continue? 

I posted in Sept that the loss of Holt is our biggest threat and the more I see of this league the more we do need a big alternative for those short injuries/suspensions. Likewise Nelson in the middle will cause us problems and while McNamee should have eased our hoolhan issue we have only seen him play for about an hour at carrow road where he was markedout of the game and we would still need a some one else to give us a 4 man midfield. 

I am hopeful that Lambert is looking to resolve these issues in Jan - esp the striker issue. A CB is a must IF is does not look like Spillane will make a quick recovery - he is far from the finished article but looked better than Nelson when he did appear. 

 

[EYEBALL119 0]

You all must be congratulated on having a thread with opposing fans views without it descending into a slanging match - a rarity!

I''ll concede I don''t know much about Norwich, in terms of their squad depth but I can''t imagine many teams in this division, with the exception of Leeds have the resources to have the players you do. This division is a case of the ''haves'' and ''have nots''. On Tuesday Leeds beat Oldham with 10 players that I would consider 2nd choice (only Jonny Howson would be part of our strongest team) a strong reserve team in truth, went to Oldham and restricted the home team to zero shots on target and had it not been for their GK it would have been 4 or 5 nil.

Most teams in this division struggle if 1 key player is suspended or injured (a fact that will be more than evident in the next 10 weeks or so)

[blahblahblah 2]

[quote user="EYEBALL119"]You all must be congratulated on having a thread with opposing fans views without it descending into a slanging match - a rarity!

I''ll concede I don''t know much about Norwich, in terms of their squad depth but I can''t imagine many teams in this division, with the exception of Leeds have the resources to have the players you do. This division is a case of the ''haves'' and ''have nots''. On Tuesday Leeds beat Oldham with 10 players that I would consider 2nd choice (only Jonny Howson would be part of our strongest team) a strong reserve team in truth, went to Oldham and restricted the home team to zero shots on target and had it not been for their GK it would have been 4 or 5 nil.

Most teams in this division struggle if 1 key player is suspended or injured (a fact that will be more than evident in the next 10 weeks or so)[/quote]We probably don''t have the strength in depth that Leeds currently have to be honest, although hardly any do in League 1 - maybe Charlton.  As others have said on here in other threads, if we lose any one of the "front 3", Holt, Hoolahan, Martin, we would more than likely struggle to score as often as we do currently.  We''ve also had a few youth players make spots their own this season, Smith & Martin wouldn''t have been considered first team players last season, this season we''ve relied upon them.

[Mutley 0]

League 1 is definately an enigma. I know how bad we were pre Lambert, but all the talk of back to back relegation was crazy. There really are only about 6 teams who can cut the mustard in this horrible division. The Championship is so much more competative where any team can beat any other team on their day. As already stated Ken Bates should take a long look at himself / his contribution to Leeds last 3 years. How they have not got promoted sooner is hard to fathom. As already stated they have a good defence, a good work ethic, prolific striker and very organised young manager.

We have played some great football recently. Lambert has inherited a good but not brilliant squad and used his tactical nouse to bring out the best attributes of that squad. So far we have been very lucky with injuries, however I think we will need to consolidate quickly in the Jan transfer window if we are to push on and get second spot. Charlton are looking Ok, however they are prone to a wobble, and their squad is fairly young. Additionally they are haemmoraging cash and although the chairman has stated that they don`t need to sell, I expect if a couple of decent offers come in the likes of Shelvey will be off. Other than that the only other teams I`m slightly wary off, are Huddy. ( I would have counted Southampton as well but still feel they have too much ground to make up)