To Have And Have Not

A critical game in a gruelling season, with much at stake for both clubs.
One team played the 2nd-half wanting the points more than the other; in glaring detail.

Many disappointed, angry fans asking themselves the question:
‘It’s no longer did the players realise what was at stake, but DO they?’

Well, the here and now is the here and now. A new manager declaring he’s up for a challenge.
He’s far from the first, and we certainly can’t suggest he’ll be the last.


Yet other than one very, very disappointing image that the 1-1 equaliser left me, what interests me are solutions. And in this instance, the solution itself stems purely from the absence of one crucial element on the pitch we’ve lacked for some time: charismatic leadership.


That’s probably stating the obvious to most of you.

Diagnosing what’s wrong isn’t hard to see, but what actually is going to spearhead a completely different approach of personnel application – in a very short space of time?

There’s a gamble to be taken.

A gamble that not only risks the development of a young footballer’s long-term career aspirations, but one that effectively defines his employer’s integrity as a Premier League success or failure.

Looking back to my previous Bloggers Bar thread, it may have appeared as a joke for me to suggest that a 20-year-old player with barely 3 full games as a top-class Premier League athlete could possibly become overnight captain material, let alone do so in a club that’s been condemned as trapped in FFP handcuffs the moment UEFA formally decided to introduce a budgeted handicap on clubs with low sponsorship revenue to cling to, eleven years ago. Trapped, until at least the new stadium is completed, or when UEFA’s long awaited review of those Financial Fair Play restrictions sees sense.

But I’m certainly NOT joking when I suggest to the world, that the player at our club with the strongest level of mental resistance upon collective failure needs to be thrown in at the deep end of the game – and given the captain’s armband.


I’ll explain the detail.

Against a leaderless Brentford on Saturday afternoon, we witnessed a completely different team performance. Individuals in control of their own games, as a result of managerial coaching bringing imagination from every player on the pitch – including the much criticised Alex Iwobi.

For 25 minutes, last night’s fixture showcased two teams just going for it, at a very high tempo, with Everton slightly the more threatening. Plan A working to perfection, save Richarlison checking the assistant refs were paying attention to a blatant Brazilian being actively off-side in the act of putting ball in net.

Richarlison himself loving every minute of Demarai Gray and Anthony Gordon’s mobile passing skills and unselfish movement. The rest of the team instinctively knew this enough to pass the ball quicker and, where possible, with disguise.

The goal may have arrived more through default than design, as it did in Lucas Digne’s debut at Molyneux, August 2018 (the Brazilian’s debut too, scoring the opening goal in that 2-2 draw in similar circumstances). The problem became apparent all-too-glaring in visual horror immediately after winning control of this key fixture, 0-1 up and now with the passing capacity to mentally strangle the spirit out of the home players and fans.

One of our players, assigned to mark Newcastle captain Jamaal Lascellas, decided to half switch off on a set-piece. Lascellas heads the ball, completely unchallenged, into the danger area and an own goal is conceded. Raw anger wouldn’t take long to replace astonishment.

I’m not mentioning the guilty marker’s name.

Instead, I simply wish to emphasise how enthralling watching Anthony Gordon in those first 25 minutes alongside Demarai Gray and Richarlison was. Relentless running, leaving Magpie players without a clue how to deal with the trio and earning control of the match in the right ways. Imaginative use of both feet in using the ball’s momentum when other players passed it to them, coupled with vision to instinctively find team-mates making those unselfish runs. Chemistry, to put it simply.

Throwing this all away – a seven point margin between us and ‘3 from 4 for the drop’ and ‘We can now worry about getting 10th place and a top half of the table finish, at least…’ all gone up in smoke.

Yes, we should be very disappointed in what didn’t happen last night, when it needed to.

The solution however, is a gamble our young, ambitious and (to my surprise) talented manager may have to take. But if Lampard really is that ambitious, then let’s see him match words with actions. Anthony Gordon has all the physical and mental attributes, it’s simply a question of whether he has the on-pitch communication skills to handle all the game can throw at him, and deal with it in his stride. The current Aston Villa manager could certainly do all that.


Leeds Utd isn’t the fixture for tired legs. But if it requires somehow finishing at least 10th place every season ‘til BMD is complete and UEFA finally does something right, just to hang onto these key players, then Leeds Utd is exactly the team to display forward-thinking football against.