With Leeds sitting just outside of the top half of the Championship, it’ll take a big push to get the fans dreaming of promotion to the Premier League.
Nine teams are vying for the four slots in the end of season lottery, although Aston Villa and Derby would appear to have two sewn up. That leaves two from seven; Leeds United being one of those seven.
Paul Heckingbottom might have his work cut out in achieving Leeds fans’ dreams, but being unbeaten in the last three matches is a great basis for a late surge. The recent 1-0 win against Brentford was a huge morale boost, given the Bees are close rivals in the play off hunt.
Despite defender Liam Cooper scoring the only goal of the game, it was the partnership of Samu Saiz and Pierre-Michel Lasogga that really got fans pulses racing. In that combination lies Leeds’ best hope of putting together some end of season form and maybe, just maybe stealing sixth spot from under rivals’ noses.
Pierre-Michel Lasogga By Amy.Leonie – Eigenes Foto; aufgenommen beim Training von Hertha BSC Berlin, CC BY 3.0,
Lasogga is on loan from Hamburger SV and currently has ten goals to his name. It’s not been a great season by his own high standards; spells injured and on the bench have disrupted his momentum. What could he have achieved though if he’d stayed fit and in Thomas Christiansen’s plans?
Lasogga had five goals from seven matches going into March, a run of form that will be crucial to any lingering hopes of promotion.
If him hitting form wasn’t enough, Samu Saiz is also back in the starting line up after a horrible start to 2018. His dismissal in the FA Cup defeat against Newport might have been controversial, but Christiansen cites it as one of the reasons he was dismissed. The Spaniard might be unpredictable, but on his game he’s unplayable. Saiz has five goals and five assists this season, the second highest number of assists in the squad after Pablo Hernandez, having played six matches fewer.
The odds are not in Leeds’ favour, they’re a long way down the list for promotion, priced as 50/1 for a long-awaited return to the top table, well behind next best bets Brentford and Preston on 14s and 20s respectively.
It might still be worth looking at the bet £10 get £30 888sport betting offer, though, as Lasogga can be found at a generous price to finish as the league’s highest scorer. He’s seven behind in the charts at the moment, but with Saiz providing the bullets he might be a long-shot to storm up the table.
Pablo Hernandez By Juan Fernández – flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0,
It is looking increasingly like another year in the second tier for Leeds United, something fans will lament with one breath and praise in the other. After the torrid Cellino years, any sort of stability should be welcomed and, although Paul Heckingbottom isn’t a manager to set pulses races, one or two of his stars are. Lasogga is due back at Hamburger SV in May, but Saiz remains contracted to the club beyond this season. The former will likely not be back next season, so replacing him will be incredibly important, but Samu Saiz should be retained because, in him, Leeds have a player that can change a game in a instant.
Who knows, with a little bit of luck and hard work, it might just happen as early as this season. Miracles do happen every day in football and Leeds United are undoubtedly due one soon
Life, Leeds United, the Universe & Everything 
We are in relegation form, no chance.
Too many players that are not good enough to take us up, summer clear out required. Victor Orta first out p[lease.
Sackho,Cooper,Phillips,Wiewald,Anita,Pennington….
Not convinced with Heck’s appointment, I would have preferred someone with more experience.But happy to be proven wrong.
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O’Kane,De Bock,Lonergan,Grot
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I’m ever the optimist, Rob, but my hopes after these last two outings are gone; promotion is not going to happen. Consider it: with ten matches to go, we’re bottom half of the table; more goals scored against us than for us; we’re repeatedly clean-sheeted; there’s no passion or professionalism on the pitch – to say nothing of no Premiership talent. And Hecky? We embraced him with high hopes, but he’s loser worse than TC. And Radz? We achieved more and were finishing better under Cellino! I’m despondent and frustrated. My solace is that we won’t fall back into League One. 😤
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Unfortunately, there is no promotion push coming this season. I was one of the few who thought Christianson should not have been axed and the continued poor form I think validates that viewpoint.
We have a team that does have some talent in it and the flying start we had proves that; however, as can be the case with players from warmer climates with games played that are shall we say less robust, and who are completely unused to the English game at its most hard core, they came undone.
Our team is full of lightweights who are finding it immensely difficult to acclimatise and the recruitment policy has meant that we have missed the steel backbone and midfield required for competition. They have shown they can grit and bare it for the odd game but do not have the resilience or mindset to consistently rise to the occasion and fight for games.
The idea that second tier players from the continent are comparable to second tier football here is a misconception carried forward from the Cellino era and Radrizani has failed to learn from. Orta does not understand this and is obviously not astute enough or discerning enough in his recruitment choices.
I hope the lesson is learned for next season or there will be no promotion push coming any time soon.
It has taken me a lot to come to terms with this and it saddens me that this season has been a wasted opportunity.
I look bleakly towards next season and hope that someone with footballing knowledge can get Radrizani to rethink his strategy; but I doubt it.
Quality not quantity is what is required. But more importantly (and I am honestly not being xenophobic) it needs to have “Made In Britain” stamped across it.
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Sorry but we are are bottom of the league on current form for 2018 and stats tell no lies.
If we hadn’t have had the brilliant start, we would be down there with Burton!
Warnock has worked wonders with virtually the same squad as last season, proving that you can do it without the money that Wolves have.
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Lasogga too slow.
Saiz too far from number 9 all the time.
New Chapman and Cantona, not.
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We have no chance of play offs after being totally outplayed in the last 2 games and with one win this year we are bottom of the league on form this year!
Andrea now has a massive task ahead of him to review this whole DOF role and IMO Orta should go. If DOF continues we will not attract a manager of Pullis quality and will have to give Hecky at least a season to select his transfer targets and stamp his philosophy on the squad.
He does not seem to have learned anything from the failed Cellino ploy of buying cheap players from 2nd tier European teams and will now be faced with trying to offload many of them who are tied in on 4 year contracts.
Rather than moan about the Wolves model he must look for opportunities to copy it or quite simply cough up more of his own funds to focus on buying quality proven championship players with a few quality Prem league youngsters on loan.
Whilst we may sneak a top 10 finish this season it sadly feels like a season totally wasted after we made such a promising start and with so many good things happening off the pitch including ER repurchase.
Andrea & the board also massively raised the fans expectations with boasts of our squad being top 6 quality making a rod for their own backs now that things have turned sour, including the new crest debacle which would have been better saved for April 1st!
The next few months and in particular the summer recruitment will be critical to Andrea & The Board reigniting the fans enthusiasm from earlier this season and if he gets it wrong then I fear that season ticket sales will slump and we could be in a relegation battle.
I personally feel that Andrea has been great for the club and at last we have an owner genuinely looking to engage the fans and restore the professionalism of our great club but where I feel his inexperience has seen him make many mistakes. He should look to take some good advice from outside his current management team to ensure the same mistakes as this season are not repeated.
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My only hope for the rest of the season is that we win enough games to finish with some dignity. Looking to next season lets hope for Radz & Co that the penny has dropped and that if we aim to get out of this division then serious investment is needed in the first team, not just a few additions, and by the look on their respective face’s the other night against Wolve’s i’d say they’re looking pretty hard for that penny because they’re going to need lots and lots of them come the summer TW otherwise next season is gonna be one few of us will want to remember.
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I’m still unsure whether it is Orta being allocated a small purchase price per player by Radz or if Orta really doesn’t have a clue! Either way, we’re doomed.
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Lasogga should show more aggression. He’s a big lad but in my opinion he’s not making his presence felt enough. Remember Joe Jordan and those terrifying toothless scowls? And apologies if this is a bit off piste, but I’m still flabbergasted that the club hasn’t issued an official apology to the bloody brilliant Three Thousand who braved the appallingly bad weather to support that sorry excuse for a Leeds Team up at Middlesborough.
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So sad that here we are once again in the depths of despair coming up to the finale of another season. I still cannot get my head around the total self destruction of a bunch of players who started the season so magnificently. This has got to be some kind of psychological breakdown. You just don’t lose skill and talent and the ability to do your job just because you suffer a defeat. This all stems back to Millwall. Confidence, pride, belief was destroyed, and when you add to that injuries and lack of discipline we simply collapsed.
When you play well as a team you can carry a player under par or a bit out of his depth at this level but not when you are mentally scarred.
It’s not a question of who we retain next season, it’s purely a question of who we bring in. Saiz is brilliant when he is on form and the team play with him but if we are totally disjointed then he suffers. If he goes it won’t be the end of the world. Same with Jansson as his form has suffered. He is not the same player.
Orta is the key to the future of this çlub. If he stays, he will be a liability just as he has been with previous clubs. Radrizzani must get rid of the guy and give Heckingbottom top priority over the type of players we need and who we sign. How can you possible judge a coach fairly if you just impose most of your squad, it’s rediculous. Right now I am not optimistic about anything unless we step up to the mark and finish the season with pride. MOT
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Funnily enough i tried to leave a comment earlier saying the only two I’d keep from that team would be BPF and BFG (janssen). Possibly Alioski too as he has something. Hernandez is leaving anyway apparently as his lass is about to drop and Saiz despite his ability has dropped us right in it after his spitfest at Newport the dirty little t–t. Just look at the results during his absence then his performances since his return. He thinks he can do it all on his own and I’d be surprised if he could even pass water. As for “Hecky”? Where do you start? Sticking with the zonal marking instead of his preferred man marking? Well hows that going you clueless article?
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I am a day late reading this missive and after the show at Reading it is clear there is something massively wrong with our Leeds players.
I live in hope of seeing this club back in the Premier league. At the start of the season I told myself with all these new players it will not happen this season but once they played along side each other for a season and wheat was sorted from the chaff next season looks as though it could be it.
Well we have a lot of chaff and not very much wheat. The only job they have completed this year is to get a manger the sack and it was all their doing. Looking at some of the tweets the usual crowd are already baying for Hecky’s head. I think he has made it quiet clear you cannot make a silk purse out of a sows ear and if he gets the sack instead of Orta then AR needs his head examining.
I would like to see Leeds finishing at a respectable level this season but sadly I cannot see it being in the top six.
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Why has it taken the Reading game to show you theres something wrong with the players? And as far as the “usual crowd” go,they have a perfectly good right to complain,its the only way to get things done. Blind loyalty has got us nowhere and is most likely the reason the club has been run by sharks for the past fifteen years. AR has been proven to be a terrible judge,first with Orta then TC and now heckinbottom. I suspect there is something going on as we’ve never looked like a promotion winning side for 15 years and that’s how the owners have wanted it and I’d wager AR only bought the ground for when he flips the club. Theres a hell of a lot of money laundering going on in British football as well as match fixing and corruption(Leicester winning the title?Really?) and i wonder if that is why so many of these itinerant mercenaries with no ability were recruited in the summer? Carry on backing these lower league coaches if you wish but you’ll get what you deserve.
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I appreciate and have read your reply with fresh eyes and yes I too think most of the players leave a lot to be desired and no it has not taken me until this last game to realise it. I was just saying I had not read the missive until after the Reading game. As for the manager we have who we have and yes Leeds deserve better players and a higher level of manager/coach and I wish for that as you do but until Leeds get an owner with deeper pockets and is not afraid to put his hand in those pockets we have what we have. I just hope PH can do as a good a job as possible until the time comes when Leeds gets what it deserves.
It’s those fans who give up their time to watch the team, support them through thick and thin, turn out in any weather and spend their hard earned brass that deserve more than they are getting plus some. Patience is running out with many of us and that’s an understatement ( I am trying to keep it polite) but I’m afraid as fans we are going to have to bide our time and hope that very soon Leeds will get that great big dollop of good luck that it really does deserve.
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