Ricey

Rudkin was fully behind Rodgers. Various Percy articles backed that up. Rudkin is Director of Football and wholeheartedly trusted by the owners, if he had wanted Rodgers gone it would have happened earlier than it did.

…and does Rudkin not have a part to play in those poor finances? Signing poor players on big wages that we can’t shift? Disastrous transfer window last January? Relegation caused partially by Rudkin’s stubbornness to sack Rodgers? I could go on. The fact that we couldn’t replace Casadei with another loan is probably more down to poor relationships with agents and clubs, rather than finances.

It is, and he’d be absolutely right to do it.

We’ve been guilty of this a lot this season but not last night. We kept pushing for the second for most of the second half. The equaliser felt like it came out of nowhere and then obviously the implosion occurred.

We are an exceptional team with a resilience problem. Lacking the composure to take the big chances and crumbling when put under pressure at the end of matches. We were superb tonight for 80 minutes but it’s another match to add to the pile of matches that we’ve thrown away.

See.

We’ve been brilliant but I’ve watched football for long enough to know that there’s no way that we don’t rue all of these missed chances. Not a chance.

Also, why does tonight feel like a Play-Off semi-final first leg?

Leeds have improved a lot against lower blocks over the last few months. They have become really effective at blitzing a team early, going ahead, normally by a couple of goals and then winning the game. I'll be honest, I've no idea how I'd play it tonight. Sitting back and trying to eliminate their pace going forward doesn't really suit us. We don't like not having control and eventually we'll start to panic. Press them high up the pitch to try and cut off their transitions at source, like we did against Ipswich at home, could be suicide if we don't do it well enough. We'll also tire doing that. A lot will depend on what Leeds do. It's evident that Maresca tries to predict the oppositions game plan and then trains all week to combat it. Whenever the opposition have sprung a surprise we've often struggled in the first halves of those games. Leeds have the quality to kill the game off by half time if that happens. I suspect Leeds will come flying out of the traps to try and get ahead. If they don't, they'll drop a bit deeper to try and spring some traps.

I agree to a certain extent but the equaliser for Ipswich at our place was always coming. We didn't take our chances, sat back, lost control of the match and became nervy.

Perfect!

It's really thrown me that 4th Quartile isn't green.

Hull pressing like mad, be surprised if they keep it up. If their finishing was better they’d be out of sight by now.

7 wins is probably the aim. Takes us to 99, but no doubt there will be a draw or two in there as well. Not sure if it'll be enough to win the league but it'll be enough for promotion you would have thought.

His biggest weakness is his lack of pace. He is so painfully slow that he can't really press and he can't defend against transitions. Against Watford in particular they had so much joy through the middle of the park and that was partly down to the fact that Praet just couldn't get back into position to defend the transition. We'll need more energy in there against Leeds, so hopefully it'll be Ricardo or even McAteer in that 8 role.

What concerns me is that after they've played us Leeds have a run in against teams with an average league position of 14th. After they've played us their next four games are against 20th, 19th, 23rd and 21st. The last time they dropped points against a team in the bottom half was Rotherham in November.

It was a really strange performance. Too eager to force things in the first half and then far too relaxed in the second half. Towards the end he looked like he was trying to see out a victory.

I still think there is a weakness that has carried over from the Rodgers era and that’s the panic that ensues once we don’t have the level of control that we are used to. We often have one uneasy spell per match but normally we come out the other side unscathed. Today Boro punished us. Onwards.

He was partially at fault for the first goal by being so deep and playing Boro onside and he also can’t direct a header accurately for shit, but his main issue today was Krusty the Clown playing alongside him.

True. Still, I’d be starting Vardy on Friday.

Sloppy, especially defensively when trying to guard against their counter, but it’s one of those where we’ve created five golden chances and scored one. On another day we win that comfortably, but that’s what happens when a bit of complacency and sloppiness kicks in. One thing I will say though, and not for the first time, is that I can’t work out the subs. Mavididi was poor, but he’s put Cannon out wide to get on the end of Fatuwu’s far post crosses and then taken Fatuwu off early in the second half. We are then left with no one who can beat a man and a striker out wide. KDH, Mavididi and Fatawu being totally off it today was probably our biggest problem.

He was a liability every time he played, thus eventually being frozen out. Rodgers had no choice, especially once Vestergaard started spouting off in the press.

I'm not sure about this, which is crazy when you consider how important he's been for us this season. His biggest strengths are his passing ability and two footedness, which considering how often he has the ball means that he's become absolutely essential to how we play. In the Premier League very few matches, if any, are going to be like the majority of matches we face in the Championship. He won't have the ball anywhere near as much and he'll be tested a lot more as a defender, which remains his weakness. He's on a big wage and he absolutely bombed for us in the Premier League previously. It's a risk.

Hamza or Yunus for Praet please.