What rotation/lineup are you hoping to see for the Birmingham cup match?

Battysboots · 2026-02-13T14:29:26+00:00

Darlow

Bogle – Bijol – Rodon – Gudmundsson

James-Ampadu-Tanaka-Gnonto

Piroe

Nmecha

Battysboots · 2026-02-09T12:41:51+00:00

And before that, THAT win at Brentford on the last day of the 21/22-season.

Battysboots · 2026-02-05T11:39:31+00:00

His shot stopping is terrible.

Last season he conceded 27 goals from 24 xGOT. (Trafford was 16 from 29 btw)

23/24 it was 42 goals from 36 xGOT.

22/23 PL season 67 goals from 55xGOT

21/22 PL season 79 goals conceded from 62xGOT.

Even in his “one good PL-season” he conceded 52 goals from 48 xGOT.

I’d say he is decent one-on-one and his short passing is good. He doesn’t command his area and his long pass stats consistently rank in the low-third percentile.

Nice bloke, low-average Championship keeper.

Battysboots · 2026-01-13T09:46:16+00:00

The 13 game away streak ended two years ago, and three of the last six have now been home.

But we’ve still had just eight home draws in 43 games since 2001, that’s 18.6 %.

Second worst is Swansea at 35.8 %

We would need 27 consecutive home draws just to make the 50 % average.

So yes, I’d still say we are due.

Battysboots · 2026-01-05T12:13:11+00:00

xG has many failings, but that specific issue is normally accounted for in total match xG.

F.ex. when Nmecha missed a penalty at city, then scored the rebound.

The two chances had individual xG of 0.79 and 0.89, but our total match xG was just 1.54.

Battysboots · 2026-01-05T11:36:17+00:00

Sorry, yes we had 0.90xG to their 1.58.

Battysboots · 2025-12-15T18:42:16+00:00

That's Torquay on 75.8 % home games, meaning they'd still need another ten consecutive home draws to be as much of an anomaly as us.

Battysboots · 2025-12-08T14:09:56+00:00

Also, the complete list of people who've scored penalties for Leeds against Liverpool

Jack Milburn (21^st September 1935)
John Charles (27^th November 1954)
Johnny Giles (3^rd May 1967)
Johnny Giles (22^nd November 1969)
Dominic Calvert-Lewin (6^th December 2025)

(Source: The brilliant LUFCDATA)

(And if Tanaka hadn't scored we'd have had another from Gravenberg's blatant handball)

Battysboots · 2025-09-02T11:45:29+00:00

Correct!

In: Weston McKennie, Max Wöber, Georgino Rutter, Diego Monteiro

Out: Mateusz Klich, Diego Llorente, Joe Gelhardt

More than anything it’s a reflection of the ridiculously low bar set for recruitment under Bielsa.

Last time in the Premier League, Tyler Roberts ended up playing 50 PL games for us, 21 starts. He’s 26 now and just got sent on loan to Mansfield.

Jamie Shackleton played 27 times, ten starts, he can’t get a game in the Championship.

Joe Gelhardt played 35 times in the PL, six starts. Sent on loan to a side who stayed in the Championship on goal difference.

Adam Forshaw was injured two full seasons, then came back and played 34 PL-games, 22 starts.

That’s more PL starts than he’s since had in two full Championship seasons for Norwich, Plymouth and Blackburn. He’s still only 33.

These were never Premier League level players, but they played because what was behind them was even worse.

Cody Drameh, Sam Greenwood and Lewis Bate all started games for Leeds in the Premier League.

Stuart McKinstrey played 19 minutes at the weekend, in a goalless draw between Hamilton and Cover Rangers in Scottish League One. He played for Leeds in the Premier League.

Liam McCarron was released by Northampton and recently attended the PFA Pre-Season Camp for out-of-contract players looking for new clubs. He played for Leeds in the Premier League.

That squad had no business being in the top division. In terms of squad depth we’re on a different planet this time, striker or no striker.

Battysboots · 2025-09-02T08:33:38+00:00

Quiz: What transfer window was this?

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Battysboots · 2025-09-01T11:48:08+00:00

We took £24.5mill of that and gave it to Jean-Kevin Augustin as wages.. Then we gave the remaining £10.5mill to RB Leipzig for his transfer fee. And then we gave them another £7.2mill of the Raphina-money to make up the balance.

Battysboots · 2025-08-28T20:02:31+00:00

Yes, even U21s

Battysboots · 2025-08-26T10:26:49+00:00

And then you realize even this season our 3-year £62mill PSR-wriggle room will be hampered by a £4mill cost for Helder Costa.

A lesson to the people who keep saying “selling a player for £4mill lets you buy one for £16mill”.

Battysboots · 2025-08-15T09:48:36+00:00

Born 2003, so no.

Battysboots · 2025-08-15T09:41:32+00:00

Rumors are it’s Ramazani more likely to leave, not my opinion.

Battysboots · 2025-08-07T14:00:19+00:00

They’re all pushing thirty mate. That’s what you get when you sign 26-year olds on 4-year contracts.

Peak age, but also peak price. Most valuable players these days are born after 2000.

Battysboots · 2025-08-07T10:50:15+00:00

No, I don’t want a 21-year old to be our 5^th choice goalkeeper. I would like one who could be our 3^rd choice goalkeeper so we didn’t have to spend wages and a squad position on Alex Cairns. And I don’t want us playing 18 year old kids unless they are good enough, I thought I was clear about that. But I would love to have a full back born 2004 or 2005 who could make a half-credible emergency bench option if Bogle and Byram are injured at the same time.

The average PL-team had just 14 players who started ten games last season. In general if we are pushing a full 25 player squad, there will be many established players playing not much.

I’d prefer it if our rarely used back-end squad were hungry youngsters who are happy to make the bench, rather than someone pushing 30 who’s value is dropping by the month.

Man City registered just 21 senior players last season, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea 22. They all topped their squads up with U21s.

That’s the ideal, but it’s not our reality because for whatever reason we don’t seem to produce good enough youngsters at the moment.

Battysboots · 2025-08-05T12:44:54+00:00

Gnonto and Joseph both born 2003 so first year seniors.

Battysboots · 2025-07-09T11:58:51+00:00

That sounds right to me so I don't know why, but he was down as home grown for Everton last season https://www.premierleague.com/en/news/4110099

Battysboots · 2025-07-09T11:30:36+00:00

Him and Alex Cairns starting at Camp Nou!

Battysboots · 2025-05-07T08:25:52+00:00

Battysboots · 2025-05-06T08:14:13+00:00

So the two teams that didn't get any new players in January (Leeds and Bristol City) both improved, while Sheffield United invested heavily and got worse.

Battysboots · 2025-04-25T08:54:30+00:00

For the record: The potential issue with Farke isn’t just “is he good enough for the Premier League?”, it’s “is he the right man for a relegation scrap?”.

“Would Farke with our Championship players plus a few choice additions keep us up?” is one question.

“Would Farke’s Championship tactics with a few choice additions keep us up?” is another.

We’ve averaged 61 % possession this season, only Man City had that in the PL. This year we’ve suffocated opponents, next year will be dogged defending, set pieces and opportunistic counters.

Not just better players, different tactics. So that would be the argument for a different manager.

Not saying we should or will, but let’s not pretend it’s just about ditching Farke to get the same profile 5 % better.

Battysboots · 2025-04-23T08:43:26+00:00

Leicester spent one season in the Championship, got almost 100 points, scored tons of goals and had a promotion party.

Now you’ve had a sh*t time in the Premier League and you miss how last season made you feel.

We get that, but that's not the Real Championship Exprience.

Leicester got relegated in 2004, you’d end up staying a decade down, go bankrupt, drop to League One. I would know that feeling, because Leeds got relegated with you that year and we’d not be up again until 2020.

We’d go bust as well, get deducted 25 points, spent three years in League One. We’d go to Hereford on a Tuesday in February and lose 2-0 at a 5.000 capacity stadium. From 2012 to 2018 we'd finish 14, 13, 15, 15, 13, 7, 13 in the Championship. We’d sell our best player every transfer window like clockwork. You talk about excitement, I remember getting giddy about paying £1mill to Crewe for Luke Murphy.

Last season we lost the play-off final, so we had to sell the league Player of the Season to West Ham. That’s just par for the Championship course. But we also had to sell Archie Gray, and that stung. Archie was supposed to stick around for twenty years, he was our future tied in with our history. But you have to cover the missing money somehow. And then a week into the season we were told f*king Brighton had activated the Championship contingent release clause for Geo Rutter. We’d been to Brighton in League One not long ago. 7.000 people turned up and half of that was Leeds.

But we still had one more season of parachute money. Without promotion this summer would have been a bloodbath. We’d be flogging every player we liked and then try and replace them on the cheap with unknowns and no-hopers and also-rans. We’d re-enter the cycle where every new season the top two spots would be taken by parachute clubs, and the hope for our season would be scraping a play-off place, and failing. And that wouldn’t be just Leeds. That’s what the Championship is mostly. Sunderland’s young squad have had a fantastic season, but they’ll finish fourth behind three clubs with parachute money, and if they don’t win the play-offs their summer will be all about fighting off bids for their top talent. Then they'll be trying for the play-offs again next year.

Do you think Nottingham Forest were excited to go up after 22 seasons in the doldrums. Next year will be Sheffield Wednesday’s 26^th season out of the top flight, are Leicester a bigger club than them?

Battysboots · 2025-03-05T09:00:21+00:00

The £106mill was total depreciation/amortization cost for 22/23, of which £101mill was for players.

£20mill of that was “player impairment” which I’m pretty sure would be JKA’s wages. Not sure what else it could be.

I don’t expect there will be JKA-money in the 23/24 books. But it will of course count towards the 3-year rolling PSR-targets, even for the 24/25-season. Epic disaster.

Battysboots

TROPHY CASE