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Neil admits that we’re not good enough for top two
Neil admits that we’re not good enough for top two
Tuesday, 22nd Jan 2013 17:48 by Tim Whelan

Sometimes reality can be very difficult to avoid. Neil Warnock has admitted that our current squad isn’t good enough for automatic promotion, be he that he is not given up on a play-off place. Meanwhile, Alan Tate has returned to Swansea City.

No shit Sherlock! We’re currently nine points adrift of second placed Leicester City and if we had been planning to close that gap then losing four of our last away games wouldn’t have been a great place to start. And we’ve got a lot to do if we’re even going to get anywhere close to the play-offs.

We’re five points behind sixth-placed Watford, but the Hornets have a far superior goal difference, thanks to the 6-1 thrashing they gave us at Elland Road in November, so we might go to Vicarage Road on the final day of the season needing a similar scoreline in our favour to redress the balance.

Warnock told Sky Sports “We're not good enough for automatic, let's not kid ourselves. We've just got to preserve, improve the squad, and give yourself the best chance we can to get in the play-offs. I still think anybody's capable of that in the top half of the division.” I’m not sure what effect comments like that will have on the players we’ve already got, but at least the manager is still working hard to reshape his squad while January is still with us.

But today’s activity has consisted in trimming the squad of players that aren’t in Warnock’s plans. He’s  ended Tate’s loan from Swansea, after the central defender had fallen out of favour after a bright start at Elland Road. In December Warnock was singing his praises, saying he was a good influence on young Tom Lees, but he’s made only two appearances since Christmas, with Pearce and even Peltier selected ahead of him.

And Dominic Poleon has been made available for another loan spell, even though he’s impressed during his seven first team appearances so far. It’s all the more surprising when Leeds are so obviously lacking in width, with Thomas having been recalled by parent club WBA and new signing Hall failing to be selected on Saturday. We can only hope that Colin manages to get another quality wide player in soon.

And as if we needed any more bad news, a scan has shown the extent of the ankle injury sustained by Adam Drury in the FA Cup win at Birmingham. Warnock said "News is not good on Adam. He's had a scan and it's very similar to what Ross McCormack did at Cardiff. He could be a couple of months which is a blow when he's just got back into the team. I'm disappointed for him." Leeds have a much better shape with a proper left-back in playing in that position, so this is another area where Neil will have to find someone pretty soon.

Warnock says he still wants two or three players to add to his current squad with pace in attacking options his main priority. The Yorkshire Post are saying that we’re after yet another ex-Portsmouth player in the shape of  32-year-old striker Aruna Dindane, who is a free agent after recently leaving Qatar-based Al-Sailiya Sport Club. He has been capped 67 times by the Ivory Coast, and scored a Premier League hat-trick for Pompey back in 2009.

OK, I’ll do my best to get excited about him. The way the transfer window usually works is that most of the deals go through on the final day, but is it going to be worth holding our breath?

 

Photo: Action Images



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