I sit opposite the dug outs from the FA stand. He was going nuts on the touchline against Stockport to be fair…
2 Likes
We haven’t lost for two games. I think We’re going to win tomorrow and on Saturday playing passages of lovely football. This will leave the Gasroom as confused as the players currently seem in what to do next!
4 Likes
I saw this on the Doncaster fans’ forum:
“That Leahy (no.10) in midfield was absolute quality, as were the two wide men who came on for them.”
So, it would appear that opinion is divided on whether Leahy deserves a spot in our starting line up.
@Chairboys80 believes that he doesn’t.
The rest of the English speaking world believes that he does.
An interesting dilemma.
11 Likes
if you genuinely do think is good enough for the way Dodds wants to play then you are mistaken , let me be clear , Leahy technically is very strong however he simply is not quick or strong enough to play as a number 6..if we had connell that role, we would have 7 or 9 points so far this season….the only game we have won, he was not in the team….
Bloody hell I agree with you on something!
I agree I think he’s a brilliant player and deserves a place in the team but not as the “number 6” “pivot” “Morley role” whatever you want to call it. That’s not his skill set and is not his best position.
Didn’t complete this the other day but might as well, I liked the start of his interview, he didn’t take the safe option presented hopefully (almost desperately) by the media team and admitted they hadn’t played as well as he wanted and done what he’d asked, he lost me though at the repeated guff about implementing a new system.
It’s the same as ever and I don’t for a minute believe he wasn’t trying to get them to play whatever his brand of football is last season, He certainly didn’t go with what was there and give everyone a fair crack. Now either his attempt at a coaching style doesn’t actually achieve the sort of play he wants ( it didn’t at Sunderland, last season with another good side, or so far this season) or he’s not having much joy in getting his points across, probably a bit of both.
Fairly sure now he’ll get longer than Graham Potter but you never know. There are similarities with Tony Adams who also had a big clear out but found himself hopelessly incapable of building the something new he was after. A lot of that is on the leadership as he won’t have had complete control but that won’t save him in a system designed not to save the coach.
As for him supposedly outsmarting the opposition manager, or any of the nice passing stats, its positive if they continue to improve but it doesn’t count for much without results.
1 Like
I was behind the dugout and he was more animated than I had seen him last term…shouting to players,directing, etc.
I find him perplexing in many ways but he is certainly showing some touchline passion.
(One of the laptoppers even stood up and walked into the technical area!)
3 Likes
I think we need to forget about Connell, it’s clear he isn’t coming. If he was, he would have signed by now or made noises that we was unhappy. He has done neither so comparing Leahy to a player who hasn’t played in our system, with our players is silly and a waste of time.
Morley is different because we know he can play here because he did so for 6 months. However, similar thing needs to be addressed. For some reason, Dodds and the Leadership team haven’t or won’t make an offer, only they know the reasons why. We know that Morley liked playing here and the we (the supporters) made that connection to him. But he played really well for a manager / HC that isn’t here anymore. What’s to say that Morley would have performed better under Dodds when most/all of the players didn’t last season?
However, we can’t keep looking back that the comparisons and the “what might have been”.
Is one comment on a Doncaster forum akin to “the rest of the English speaking world?” now?
I don’t mind Leahy, but I do have a slight suspicion that he’s more on the pitch for his “leadership” and being a lovely fella around the place than purely his football ability.
I think he’s given us his strongest service from left back to be honest.
3 Likes
Taylor and Allen must have about 100 successful passes each. Just to each other!
Think you have to remember everyone knows we have money, Barnsley and Bolton were probably expecting huge bids. Remains to be seen if we’d panic and do that late on. Also the squad is pretty big again, where do people like Henderson and Westergard fit in if we buy another midfielder or two. If we ever do get injuries clearing up and a settled side there will be some who see little action. Another striker is probably priority if we do splurge a bit.
Exactly this.
For a short period in time we looked to have almost the perfect mixture of superb centre backs, absolutely brilliantly balanced mid, incredible attacking left back, red hot striker and very dangerous supporting attacking cast. All under a manager who properly got his favoured style working brilliantly.
But we’ve lost about 90% of that, so it’s unlikely Morley coming in alone would be the single gamechanger some think.
6 Likes
I’m behind the home dugout and I was concerned for his health, so agitated was he. Pacing up and down, head in hands, throwing the water bottle down, shouting at the players. When there was an injury break in the first half, the players came over but he didn’t say a word to them. After a few minutes he spoke to Luke.
The new dugouts are great, a much better view now, and through them as well.
7 Likes
One of the things I always admired about Gareth is that he always took the responsibility for poor results. Even if it obviously wasn’t his fault. It’s a fantastic trait to have in a leader. I don’t recall Dodds ever talking responsibility.
After a few days reflection I think the Doncaster post match interview is incredibly weak. Quotes from players etc suggest MD is a good coach and he seems like a nice bloke, but I think it’s clear to most of us that he’s not a leader. Maybe it’s something he can learn, I’m not expecting that to happen though.
All that being said plenty of top level managers behave in the same way. Mourinho is a whiny arsehole, but is successful.
6 Likes
Against Stockport those two alone made well over 1/3 of all our passes - and a pretty high percentage of those were to one another (or Casey/van Sas) - so you may have said this is jest but it’s actually true!
Scary isn’t it!
I think he’s in the team purely to troll @Chairboys80 and worth it for that entertainment value itself
6 Likes
I’ve just listened to the interview to check my understanding of the “I’ve had a warning shot” bit of it. He says it’s in relation to “some of those performances”. It’s ambiguous, isn’t it?
He could be referring, as I still think is most likely, to the performances he’s just witnessed from some of the players - and those representing a warning to him. Or he could be referring to the performances in some of the games so far and that he’s had a warning shot from his bosses. He doesn’t operate at Martin O’Neill levels of eloquence (few of us do), so it’s hard to decipher, but I still don’t see his job being on the line for a good while yet. And if we thump the Grecians and the Biscuitmen this week, he’ll buy himself a lot more time. So let’s just do that.
1 Like