Your Leeds United views: Monk's men are on the up

Leeds 1962, via website

Well done to the team on Tuesday night (against Reading), they fought hard against a team who were hard in the tackle, who had some strange tactics with their tippy tappy football – 77 per cent possession in their own half!

There were some great performances from Luke Ayling, who for me is a fantastic full-back and as good as we’ve had for a long time.

The defence was resilient and let next to nothing past them. Ronaldo Vieira, well he’s definitely earning his pay. He’s one for the future but is showing his worth right now.

Hadi Sacko – I love this guy. He runs at defences and they don’t know what to do with him. Chris Wood – who was not my favourite – is now showing why we paid a lot of money for him. He was in the right place at the right time on Tuesday night.

I hope he’s okay, we’ll miss him if he’s not fit. I could go on but rather than that, well done everyone who was on the field. It was a great Tuesday night crowd against a team travelling a long way. We’re on the up and long may it continue for Garry Monk and his team who are clearly on top of their game.

Wood’s injury is a big worry

chrisclee, via website

I’M hoping and praying Chris Wood is okay or Garry Monk can find the goals we need from other players in this team.

It’s unbelievable what Monk is achieving, we’ve played the first, second, and third-placed teams in the Championship plus Aston Villa with key players missing and we’re still in the play-offs. Our first signing in January should be Monk and Pep Clotet.

Strengthening is key in January

neverforgets, via website

Expecting Chris Wood to go a full season without getting injured or suspended is just asking for trouble, another striker along with a couple more quality additions is an absolute MUST in the January transfer window, if Leeds are to have any chance of maintaining the top six position they now enjoy.

If by some miracle Leeds did return to the Premier League which personally I very much doubt, many of that squad would need replacing, in January. We will all find out whether the ambition is there at boardroom level or that once again we are just going through another false dawn.

Squad beginning to look stretched

WhiteinBramcote, via website

What a fantastic performance on Tuesday night.

Every single player gave 100 percent. This was the perfect response to the disappointment at Brighton and the crowd were magnificent. I hope Chris Wood’s injury isn’t too serious and it is worrying to have it confirmed that Marcus Antonsson was injured in training as well. Our squad is getting stretched very thin at the moment.

It was important to bounce back

Luvmeteam, via website

IT WAS an important to bounce back after a loss, three pointers make such a difference. Win two, lose one and you get that two point average that puts you in the promotion hunt.

The team is putting in the effort and just how far that will take us I don’t know but it is good to feel we are doing justice to the shirt now. Well done boys.

Whites have showed everyone how to play against the Royal

AK10, via website

Reading may have overwhelmingly dominated possession but apart from the 2-0 scoreline, a key factor is where they had that possession.

I suspect that a stat showing where they had possession would show a lot of it was in their defensive third and that was because we kept them penned in without making outright attempts to get the ball off them. They wanted our players to come to them and leave gaps further up field but our players weren’t over committing in their attempts to get possession. There was a lot of passing across the pitch by their defenders. As Eddie Gray said, holding shape and not rushing to get the ball off their defenders was the right tactic against an opposition who wanted you to do just that. Reading were intent on just keeping possession, hoping the gaps appeared but it was ineffective possession as the stats show. Perhaps we have shown other teams how to play against Reading and they will have to change their tactics. They either couldn’t or wouldn’t adapt the way they played and that could be their downfall. We were a bit like that last season but Garry Monk and these players seem able to adapt to numerous formations and tactics.

In other words they are finding different ways of winning games. Some will be full of attractive football with good passing and exciting football and some will be ground out. That bodes well!