Welcome to today’s daily Leeds United comment column, time to drop Jermaine.
When yesterdays DC looked at the tightening promotion race and suggested that subject to an improvement in our away form the automatic promotion race was still ours to keep it did so assuming we still had in form goal-scorers to call on. If someone suggested one of our strikers would play in the next 10 games and only find the net in one of those then the calculations change and our chances of getting in the play-offs, never mind going straight up, hang by a thread. Yet you suggest we drop the striker with those stats in the last 10 games and all hell is likely to let loose. Well sod it, I am and I’m not going to bat an eyelid doing so. Drop Beckford to the bench for the betterment of the promotion drive.
As documented throughout the month of January Beckford is leaving us come season end. Since that news broke we have had 10 league games, we have a record in those games of won 2, drew 5, lost 3. Despite Becchio hitting a purple patch in recent games of goals and assists we have scored only 12 goals in that run and the reason is clear, Beckford isn’t scoring. The two he got against Colchester United, a penalty and a scuffer constitute the height of his contribution. When some strikers have a dry run at least they work hard (Becchio before his goal spree the stand out example) but when Beckford doesn’t score he doesn’t do anything. Since he handed in his transfer request it is almost like he needn’t bother.
Some of this issue is a problem of Grayson’s making, his ridiculous touting of Beckford as a potential PL player with its accompanying rallying call to the lad to shoot us into the CCC is looking very hollow at the minute. The only legacy Beckford seems to be leaving is to re-enforce the lack of a plan B when he isn’t at the races. The chances are still being created, but they are just being squandered even more royally than we have got used to in the last 3 seasons. For Beckford to take his foot off the gas at this time smacks of a selfish indulgence the support should have tired of by now, but more importantly so should the management.
How much longer can we tolerate this state of affairs? Well for me not a minute more. The time has come to think rationally and start to pick a forward line that works hard and has a stake in the promotion prize sort. Maybe Grella and his clear technique or maybe Kandol, a willing worker if not the most consistent or maybe even Robinson, who whilst lazy like Beckford does at least possess a decent shot from outside the box. Snodgrass could play up there, maybe up front is what McSheffrey needs to blossom at this level, even Naylor has experience of leading the line, it’s not that we don’t possess the options, it’s a refusal to bite that bullet.
Dropping Beckford to the bench could also do Jermaine some good as well. Firstly it will be good practice for whichever PL or CCC stumps up the over inflated wages for next season. It might also provoke him into reminding us what he can do when he occasionally puts his mind to it. The jolt of going from the focus of attention at Old Trafford (not you note the star player who was someone else called Howson) and the centre of the world at White Hart Lane (note gain not the best player, that was Ankergran) to the bench at home to Brentford will have some positive effect, it certainly can’t make him any less productive than he has been recently. A petulant, annoyed and blinkered Beckford, if that’s being benched produces, is better than the indifferent one we have now.
In the end we all know Beckford is predominately a confidence player and a flat-track bully proberbly no better than the level he is at. There are no more flat-tracks in L1 this season, just teams we have to beat to gain promotion. We can’t carry indulgence anymore, all 11 players have to be physically busting a gut on the field and mentally focused on the club (something it is impossible for Beckford to do given the circumstances he and his agent created). Grayson and to a lesser extent Bates took a gamble when turning down Newcastle United’s money that Beckford would scattergun L1 into submission, it has backfired badly, all he is doing is scatter gunning away the chances he gets. It might get used a lot over the years in Leeds United discussions but it has never been truer, Side before Self needed for the rest of the season and that means benching Beckford.
