Leeds United: Does Warnock deserve criticism? Your opinions wanted!

After yesterday’s utter capitulation against Hull City, criticism was levelled directly at Warnock, his tactics and his team selection from all angles. Whether it was Twitter or WACCOE that you visited, there were many people who were justifiably angry at how Warnock set the team up.

The reality of Warnock’s style of football, which can be accurately summed up as “long”, is that when it results in a victory, it is difficult to criticise, but when it results in a loss, all the flaws of this style become obvious to even the most lax of football watchers. There is clearly no plan B, and the only passing moves we make are on the counter or after a defensive error, on the transition. The midfield is often entirely bypassed, and creative players find themselves useless after the game has settled into a normal rhythm. Yesterday, against Hull, Leeds managed a mere 35% of possession, the sort of statistic teams have to face up to when they play against the likes of Barcelona. Is this acceptable?

On the other hand, Warnock has had to deal with limited resources this season. Would he have brought the players in that he signed had he had more money? Will January lead to a shift?

Initial signs suggest “no”. Warnock is, after all, one of many managers who spent millions on Ade Akinbiyi, choosing to spend a then club-record of £1.75m on him when he signed him for Sheffield United in 2006. In reality, Warnock has been able to spend fairly freely at every club he’s ever got promoted from the Championship.

QPR were good, they were solid, but they had a player in Taraabt who was far and away the best player in the league, who could metaphorically pick up the ball and win games singlehandedly. He was, of course, not initially brought to the club by Warnock, with previous manager Jim Magilton hailing him as a “genius”. Similarly, the player that Warnock described as the “best [he] has ever worked with”, Alejandro Faurlin, was brought to the club before his time. Warnock brought solidity to QPR, Clint Hill, Shaun Derry etc..

Is Warnock a dinosaur tactically? Has The Championship, with the money that is being thrown into it these days, moved on from a few years back? When Hull passed it near us, our players looked at the ball as if it was some sort of magical mystery. Have the likes of Roberto Martinez, Brendan Rodgers, Nigel Adkins and Roberto Di Matteo shown that with the right manager, a lower league side can achieve great success playing football that is actually enjoyable to watch? We supposedly have a bit of money, surely no less than any of these managers had when they were getting promoted. Do we want Warnock making signings or someone with a more modern style of football to implement?

Is Warnock the manager Leeds want going forward? I’m interested to hear the opinions of this site’s readers. Please comment below, email me or send me a Tweet – if I receive enough in the way of comments, I’ll synthesise opinions for an article tomorrow.

Follow me on Twitter (@awinehouse1).

Spoughts
Editor

19 thoughts on “Leeds United: Does Warnock deserve criticism? Your opinions wanted!”

  1. I agree slightly. However, Warnock rightly spent his paltry budget in the Summer on defenders to solidify Leeds. He and most other Leeds fans saw this as the vital need. Gone were the likes of Darren O’Dea and Andy Lonergan and in came the likes of Jason Pearce and Paddy Kenny. The latter two are clearly superior footballers. Warnock has not had the budget to bring in the attacking ‘flair’ players needed to create a dominant championship force. Despite this, I do agree that we could play more aesthetically pleasing football, but I believe that Warnock is the right man for the job.

  2. Neil Warnock does not appear to be the right man to take us forward. His win percentage and defensive record are very poor. I anticipated that he would resort to long ball tactics but did not expect us to concede more goals than even under Grayson! My dream scenario now would be for Lambert to leave Villa and for us to snap him up!

  3. I read a respected column recently which described Mr Warnock as a moronic dinosaur. I could only smile and agree. Football has changed, Mr Warnock has not.

  4. WARNOCK NEEDS TO GO NOW AND GIVE SOMEONE A CHANCE TO USE THE MONEY WE HAVE GOT (WELL SUPPOSEDLY) AS WE COULDN’T COMPETE WITH LEICESTER FOR A STRIKER OR MAYBE IT WAS JUST THE WAGES WE COULDN’T COMPETE WITH UNTIL THE DEAD WOOD IS GONE OUT OF THE CLUB, BUT TO CALL KENNY A SUPIERIOR PLAYER IS BULL HE HAS LET NEARLY AS MANY IF NOT MORE GOALS IN THAN LONERGAN, WARNOCK NEEDS SACKING SO WE CAN START FRESH IN THE NEW YEAR, GIVE THE NEW MAN SOME MONEY AND TRY AND GET THE PLAY OFFS, GET SOME GATE RECEIPTS BACK AS WELL PLAY ATTRACTIVE FOOTBALL AND A BIT MORE MONEY FOR NEXT SEASON THEN MAYBE WE WILL DO IT, BUT WITH WARNOCK WE ARE GOING TO FINISH MID TABLE IF WE ARE LUCKY , HE MIGHT AS WELL WALK NOW AS AN ATTEMPTER RATHER THAN A FAILURE AT THE END OF THE SEASON.

  5. When you see the old Leeds teams with passion, strength, quality and guile you know what LUFC stands for. Today, we continue to tarnish the reputation of this once great club by playing crap football. The style does not even give the players a chance in some games. We need a new start David Haigh. Time to cut your losses. GFH wanted LUFC. Lets now see how good a business man you are in restoring Leeds to former glory. Where do you start. I would start with a clear out – again! The balls in your net!!!

  6. MR WARNOCK neeeds to admit that these last 2 defeats its only him and his tecnichal staff that needs to blame. there is so much wrong in what we all seen lately specialy when you start 2 away games with players that been out of action for a long time. football is not won by poppular names but its won by good and fit players and i like him to explain to us what kind of plan he had for both games couse our players seems to dont know what to do when the ball is in there feet ,they seems so lost and confused+ scared. he realy needs to take a good look on himself and his staff before he trys to sort out the mass of his own players. thanks tommy clinch

  7. Leaving out Becchio was a moronic decision imo. If it was done so that he wouldn’t pick up a yellow card and miss the Bolton game, it still doesn’t make any sense? I rather have started with Becchio up front and given ourselves a chance of winning/drawing the game than not play him at all as I think we could stiil beat Bolton without him but not Hull?

  8. warnock dosent know what hes doing hes never managed a big club before to many of his old players like brown gray kenny[though good keeper] no pace or creativity in squad and why drop your top scorer

  9. I BELIEVE LEEDS NEED TO ACT NOW. GET RID OF WARNOCK I KNOW HE DID NT HAVE MUCH MONEY BUT I WOULD BE FRIGHTENED OF WHAT RUBBISH HE WOULD BRING IN WITH MONEY . BROWN ,GRAY ,VARNEY ,RACUBBA , BROMBY ,KISNOBO, GET RID OF ALL THEM IN JANUARY TO FREE UP WAGES. I WOULD GO FOR DI MATTEO A YOUNG MANAGER AND AVAILABLE HE PROVED IT AT CHELSEA. NO ONE STANDS A CHANCE WITH ABRAMAVICH . GET HIM IN HE HAS GOOD CONTACTS AND WOULD SPEND THE MONEY ON GOOD PLAYERS. I WOULD NOT TRUST WARNOCK WITH SOME DECENT MONEY GOD ONLY KNOWS WHO HE WOULD SIGN CHRIS MORGAN.. THE BOARD NEED TO ACT KNOW

  10. I can’t understand why Neil Warnock doesn’t teach the team basic one and two touch football and pass the ball on the ground rather than the long ball . Why doesn’t he use the wide men and get them to cross the ball in straight away for the attackers to put pressure on the defenders.

  11. I think this whole idea of having Mr. Warnock promote Leeds United in one farewell season was a huge mistake and based on an illusion. It takes 2-3 years to build a promotion chasing squad – unless you have an endless pot of money – which we never had. The squad today has maybe 3-4 players that can have ambitions of premier league football, whereas the rest are having their career peaking wearing a Leeds United shirt. Pesronally I think Warnock is a Dinosaur and his long ball tactics chasing the second ball has no room in modern day football which is all about keeping posession, movement and technical skills, Sorry but the best thing GFH could do was to install a modern type of manager, support him and give hime 2-3 years to get us promoted to the Premier League.

    B.

  12. I don’t think it is all Neil’s fault but he does seams lost, I don’t think any of the managers been mentioned would not come to Leeds.
    Bates has left us truly init, the only hope we have got is if the board is up to it.
    Money needs to be spent but will the board sanction this?
    Neil needs to go, how about Gordon and Gary Mac.

    Barry

  13. I stil feel warnock can turn things round, I agree his long ball tactics yesterday was stupid and didnt work and some of the performances this season have been dreadful. Also Varneys shite, Browns too old and Im not convinced Tonges the answer either to what I believe is our real problem, centre midfield. We need someone with a brain in there, not just brawn, that can link up the defence, put the ball on the floor and pass it around. Thomas, Hall and McCormack all need the ball at their feet to be effective.
    Were still lacking leadership as well, I mean Captain Peltier for fucks sake? He s like a bunny in the headlights!!
    Agree that it was maybe asking a lot to change the whole team, expect them to gel, sort out a takeover and get promoted all in the same season. I say give Warnock the transfer window, some cash ( assuming we do now have some) and see where we are at the end of the season then judge.

  14. i wanted strachan when grayson went,gordon loves the club and the club loves him,he would put the passion back in ER,i know we probably still won’t compete with the mancs but at least we would have pride and i would love to see the wee scot pacing up and down the touchline and know that he wants to win,not just because he is manager but because he is leeds.

  15. The appointment of Warnock was bourne out of desperation by Ken Bates. There was no thought or reason for it, but he hoped that Warnock was a miracle worker who could project us in to The Premiership on a shoestring budget. No chance and the gamble has failed as did Kenneth William Bates in 8 wretched years of misery and underachievement.
    I have doubts that GHF have serious funds, and that they are capable of turning a once great club around.
    Warnock needs to go now, along with Gwyn Wiliams and Peter Lorimer.
    A new start is needed. A long term policy of reaching The Premiership, essential.
    A modern manager such as Poyet, De Matteo, Lambert, or Robbins needs to be appointed and a transfer policy implemented, that ensures only players with future value should be signed.
    Of the wretched current squad including loan players only Kenny, Byron, Lees(possibly with the right coaching),Austin in time and Bechio providing he is given proper service could survive and thrive at a higher level and that is not enough.
    The current Championiship is very average and the best sides play football on the floor with width and pace of which we have very little,
    Warnock is doing a terrible job and to keep him on achieves nothing. Remember at Hull he insulted all of us who travelled by admiting we could not win and playing a weakened team. For that and nothing else he should be sacked immediately.

  16. To be in the same league position after 2 straight defeats is testament to how poor this league really is. We could still make the playoffs, but not from our own doing. Other teams could still open the door for us because they are just as good/bad as we are. Theres only 3 or 4 class acts in this league. The rest of the places are up for grabs. If we do go up a major clear out of hangers on will have to happen. Next thing is having the cash to replace them and keep us up. Theres better teams than us waiting to be relegated from the Premiership. We have just got to accept that GFH are not Roman Abramovich, they will not spend spend spend. If Warnock does get some cash i hope he stops getting his old 2nd rate players in from his other clubs. Is that the only way we can attract players to our club. Maybe he’s going to throw a big retirement party at the end of the season and he wants to get all his old mates in one place. I wont give up on this season just yet but either way theres going to have to be a massive rethink for next season.

  17. Another poor performance and I see we are after another couple of Neil’s,
    I only started watching them again after Bates left, It looks like GFH don’t want our custom so if there is no upturn in players bought to the club I’ll give it miss watching this kind of football.

    Barry

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