As the post is meant to be satirical, I think that Gruber’s “completely accurate” quote is rather to say that the DigiTimes report is “completely realistic” with the rest of the writing we’ve seen in the past week.
This doesn’t surprise me at all. This film was a ridiculous mess.
Being defeatist will never help your cause
Andy Lonergan is, in my view, one of the Championship’s best goalkeepers, but even I thought when watching the highlights against Reading: “Would Alex of done any better?”
Simon Church’s lob, as any cheeky chip that goes ‘over and in’, will always ask questions of a goalkeeper - Especially when he is returning to action after two months on the sidelines, and unintentionally causing the on-field fiasco that was Paul Rachubka.
Alex McCarthy has undoubtedly impressed in Lonergan’s absence, and was obviously left out of the squad that played against his parent-club. But in the wake of it all, Grayson has an interesting choice to make in the goalkeeper he decides to start on Boxing Day.
It is clear that McCarthy wont be here to stay with us permanently in the near future, and as such it is inevitable that Lonergan will be put back in the frame. But his recent comments haven’t really inspired me with any great confidence:
Opinion was divided over whether the 28-year-old was entirely to blame for Reading’s winning goal, scored by Simon Church with a second-minute lob, and Lonergan defended himself in that instance but he was scathing about his influence on the Championship game as a whole. He described himself as “poor” while admitting he had no expectation of receiving the nod from Grayson at Derby on Boxing Day…
…“It’s been a frustrating time for me. I started well and I feel like I’ve got to get back to that level now.
“The only way I’m going to get there is by playing on a Saturday. It’s not something that just comes back to you quickly. I was happy with my form at the start of the season but that comes with the confidence of playing.”
Has anyone else picked up on the irony in these words? He admits he needs game time to get back the form he had pre-injury, but at the same time has given up any hope of being called to the squad for the Boxing Day clash against Derby?
This was the player Grayson held out for to wear the Number One jersey two weeks before the first game of the season and was automatically selected for that game, even without playing any matches with the senior squad beforehand. “In-Lonergan-We-Trust” was the mantra.
He admits it was “just a blip” against Reading, so I ask why is he being so hard against himself when he can potentially have a second bite at the cherry on Monday?
Either he is an incredibly modest character or incredibly cynical of the way football managers work; I don’t blame him after having his Preston career ended by Phil Brown the way it did. But even so, I find it hard to believe that Grayson shouldn’t trust him for the way Lonergan performed last Saturday
The problem Grayson has is if this “blip” becomes a recurring theme for Lonergan to get back to his best, whilst the young potential and, so far, reliability in Alex McCarthy is wasted.
If Grayson thought the way Lonergan currently feels his manager should, Rachubka wouldn’t have been given the chance to muck-up against Blackpool based on his past performances where mistakes were made.
As for what Grayson should do on Boxing Day: If he is indeed stuck in a rut between McCarthy and Lonergan, stick Maik Taylor on instead. He is a great keeper who still manages to get called up to his national squad without even having a club to play for - surely that says something.
This is a great post detailing every reason I like being a Leeds United fan.
Colin Robertson, TV editor, the Sun on the return of Jonathan Ross to the chat show on ITV.
I’m a big fan of the guy and wish him well in his new venture.
I have acquired an iPad
Howdy y’all, for my birthday I acquired an iPad. The lowdown is that it is quite simply awesome; this post has been typed on it.
I’ve only had it for a couple of days now, but what I can say about it is that i haven’t logged into my Mac since I’ve set it up. I know that this is probably due to the novelty of it so far, and time will only tell if I keep up with doing everything with it.
That is all for now.
Dear guy who just made my burrito:
Have you ever been to earth, player?
On earth, we use the word “burrito” to describe a tortilla filled with things you eat. Pretty simple stuff, and I’m surprised you at least got that part right. My burrito was, in fact, filled with food. In this, you and I agree and are friends. But this is also where my lifelong hatred begins for you and anyone else whose brain has been repeatedly scrubbed with the same mixture of bleach and Pop Rocks as yours has. Because that should have killed you, but left you around long enough to do what you did to me today. Let me explain:
You’re an idiot.
Let me further explain:
Burritos are eaten from one end to the other. So that means when you assemble a burrito with motherfucking ZONES of ingredients from one end to the other, you create a disgusting experience for the burrito’s end user. When you make a burrito, you should put the ingredients in layers lengthwise. That way, every bite has a chance of getting at least two types of ingredients, and there is little chance of becoming almost hopelessly trapped in a goddamned cilantro cavern.
Have you ever eaten one of the things you make all fucking day? You should try one. They are pretty good WHEN YOU ARE NOT WILLING YOURSELF THROUGH THE FUCKING EMPIRE OF SOUR CREAM TO GET TO LETTUCE COUNTRY.
When you eat a burrito, you don’t stand it up and bite down on it lengthwise like a fucking Rancor. Humans cannot usually dislocate their jaws to accommodate such methods. But you must think that’s how it’s done, since that would be THE ONLY FUCKING WAY to take a bite of your crapstrosity and have it taste like a burrito and not a multi-stage rocket to the planet Fucking Disgustingupiter.
And guess what else? You can’t guess anything, because I’m pretty sure you’re just a mop with a hat on it that fell over and spilled some shit into a tortilla, but just in case, here’s what:
Humans also don’t eat burritos like fucking corn on the cob. Like a fucking typewriter from one end to the other a little at a time and then DING next line. But today I wish I had tried that. Because at least THEN I would be able to eat some rice, then beans, then be all like HEY BEANS I’LL BE RIGHT BACK JUST GOING OVER HERE TO THE GUACAMOLE FOR A SECOND.
Nope.
My experience was more like HEY BEANS IT’S JUST GOING TO BE YOU AND I FOR A MINUTE UNTIL I CAN FUCKING EXCAVATE THE RICE FROM BENEATH YOU BUT BY THEN YOU WILL BE A FADING MEMORY OH HEY I WAS WRONG I’M IN THE FUCKING CHEESEOSPHERE NOW RICE MUST BE NEXT I HOPE IT’S NOT ANOTHER FUCKING SALSA POCKET.
And don’t even fucking think I’m about to open this shit up and re-engineer this nonsense. You and I already know this tortilla was made to maintain its physical integrity for thirty seconds once touched. There just isn’t time for me to do your job.
There also isn’t apparently time for you to do yours.
In conclusion:
You’re the worst thing that has ever happened to the universe.
Southampton 3-1 Leeds United
As far as season-openers go, that was definitely not the right way to go about it.
The penalty in extra-time did nothing to lighten my spirit after watching three very simple (albeit well taken) goals from The Saints fly into our net due to some horrendous defending and seeming lack of ability to pass to anyone from midfield.
Positives
New goalkeeper Andy Lonergan showed his worth today; brilliantly blocking a point-blank shot from Southampton midfielder Andy Lallana in the first half and pushing Richard Chaplow’s long-distance attempt on to the bar in the second. Those who still complain of Kasper Schmeichel’s departure from Leeds are now banging an old drum in my opinion. Lonergan was confident taking shots out of the air from set-pieces and was incredibly vocal when his defence were in the unfamiliar scenario of being in the correct position. He is a great replacement for Schmeichel and I can only hope seeing the ball in the back of the net three times today does not knock his confidence for our match next week.
The only other thing that can be praised from Leeds’ performance today was the way they came out after half-time. The first half showed little in terms of closing the opponent down and saw seven or eight players behind the halfway line when they did not have possession of the ball, leaving Southampton to pass freely away and not have to worry when the ill-fated long-balls from Leeds didn’t find McCormack. When the second half whistle blew Leeds looked to try and take a hold of the match and looked much more like the team we know and love. However that was soon quelled when the third goal was conceded. That ability to adapt to a games situation is a very important one if we plan on winning as many games as possible this season.
Negatives
The gaping holes left in the defensive line were amazing to see. Time after time, Kisnorbo or O’Brien could be seen to be drawn well out of position, the perfect example being the lead-up to the second Southampton goal that would not of come about if the defence were kept in line. Its all well and good for them to rush onto opposition to get a hold of the ball, but when the midfield seem to just stand there gazing around, wondering what they are having for tea, it doesn’t leave much back up in case defenders fail to get possession.
Loan signing O’Dea only looked reasonable when he was given opportunity to attack, but showed a lot of clumsiness in being able to hold on to possession when the pressure from Southampton came towards him.
The midfield? Put bluntly I couldn’t see it for most of the game. When Southampton attacked they either seemed to breeze through three ghosts or get floored by Michael Brown’s clumsy challenges - I know he has a reputation for being a psychical player, but he is going to do Leeds no favours whatsoever this season by giving away as many free-kicks as he did today.
Both Clayton and Howson (who had the best chance to score for us today) showed moments of skill at the same time as having no intention to pass to any other player around them. It was baffling to see how they could twist and turn around players, and then just push the ball into open ground for the opposition to snap up.
In attack similar problems showed up. Both Gradel and Snodgrass were left to their own devices when they received the ball, and when support came they just didn’t seem to have chemistry with the rest of the team and would either pass the ball backwards or simply give it away.
As mentioned earlier, McCormack’s part in this game was to run onto the long balls when the rest of the team ran out of ideas - A good plan if any of those long balls worked out (they were either misplaced or over-hit most of the time).
The substitutions that were carried out proved to be fruitless. Billy Paynter’s chance could of been much better and fuels more reason for the fans wanting him out of Elland Road. Ramon Nunez and Lloyd Sam were not given enough time to prove their worth, ten or so minutes more Nunez especially may of given the team the perfect setup or strike to claw a goal back.
Conclusions
Overall, a dismal day for Leeds United. Much more could of been done to prevent such a terrible result from happening. I hope this defeat is a shock to the system for the team (both players and management), where an easy pre-season (Newcastle the only game that could be truly deemed a challenge) did nothing to make the side improve on what was a terrific start back in the Championship last year.
Full BBC Coverage can be found (here)[http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/14351913.stm].
The Joys of Markdown
Since I have finished University for the year, one thing I have been doing is learning how to write using Markdown, a lightweight markup language for my blog writing.
I am no newcomer to the world of basic HTML formatting, which the Markdown language is converted to after I finished writing. Markdown for me is so much faster to use whilst writing a paragraph quickly and is also much more readable, as opposed to looking through a series of HTML tags to scan through your content.
The application I use to write in Markdown is TextMate, which integrates brilliant with Markdown, highlighting the various syntax it uses with different colours and can also be used to skip through sections of writing through the use of the headings you apply to text.
The only gripe I have whilst using Markdown is that, whilst being used on Tumblr it does not format Markdown (or HTML) properly in the Dashboard; making it confusing in some cases to read my posts without clicking through on to my blog. I tend to use the same uniformed formatting for my posts on Euphony something that can’t be done through the use of Markdown through Tumblr.
I’m going to email Tumblr, hoping they respond back, to see if anything can be down about this problem. I will update again with any developments..
