Tråden skal hete SPILLER: Neil Collins
The Neil Collins Issue.Having reflected on the Middlesbrough game (in advance of the Dielhenn Debrief) once again I seem to be attracted to sheer walking idiocy that is Neil Collins. Yesterday he was pivotal to a game where we were under-par. He concedes the corner they score from (although at least he got his challenge in), he is the player behind Wheater as he gets the header in, he is the player always launching it long when we know we need it to feet and he is the guy who ficks on the hallelujah ball that 2 touches later finds its way to Becchio for his sublime finish.
Now extrapolating from one game is never a perfect sample but from my perspective he has had 30 games for us since March 2010 and has been poor IMAO in most of them. We payed an estimated £500k for him, big money for us these days and he never convinces he is better than L1. Then their are the stats, 20 league games this season he has played in we have conceded 36 goals, 1.8 a game average, in the 5 league games he hasn’t we have let in 5, average 1.0. Coincidence or cause and effect, the latter IMAO (yes in order for the sample to satisfy the science community Collins would have to miss the next 15 games, I think I can live with that).
A bit like George Graham and Mark Jackson, where the manager seemed to refuse to drop one of the worst players we ever had until he had at least one decent game, Grayson seems to have a fixation with Collins. Bruce was clearly fit else he wouldn’t be on the bench, Bromby was excellent against QPR and yet is back in the cold! We have Naylor also back to fitness, when will our strength in that department in terms of numbers (add Michalik and Lees) be reflected in a pair that worked (O’Brien/Bruce seemed to be doing the job for most of us)?
Its clearly not fair to focus one just one player as an issue but in this case the urgency is clear. There is no point scoring the most goals in the division if we concede so many with it. Yes I would love to see Collins have a brilliant last 21 league games, as I would any existing Leeds player, but on the evidence before us the case for having a different, and better, central defender than him in the team is overwhelming IMAO.
http://clarkeonenil.co.uk/front-page/leeds-united-and-the-seasons-biggest-liability