Player of the year 2011/12

So the season is coming to a close and it's time to reflect on what was good and what was, well, not good.

I'll make four blogs over the coming days and in each I'll give an "award" to Player of the year, Young player of the year, Game of the year and Goal of the year.

I'll start out with player of the year, I had three guys in mind, Snoddy, Clayton and Ross McCormack. In the end I decided that my player of the year was Rossy.

The reason to pick him was that I fear where we had been without his many goals, and I also felt that he's been a great performer after a very tough first season at Elland Road. I actually predicted in August that he'd have a great season, so I'm quite pleased to have been right.

Many people feared that Ross would be a massive flop in Leeds and even though I think that many have Snoddy as their player of the year, I stand by Ross. We all knew that Snoddy would be great again this season, but Ross' form has taken alot of us by surprise (a very pleasent one).

So Mr.McCormack, congrats on being my player of the year (and sign that damn contract soon!!).

Luciano Becchios season

I spent way to much time on Twitter (@kimleeds if interested), and on there I became aware that many people blame Becchio for our bad season.
I will be the first to admit that Becchio hasn't had the kind of season we all hoped/expected, but I do however feel it's harsh for people to blame him and for people to want him to leave Leeds this summer.

The pre-season was ruined by an injury and after that he struggled to refind the shape that got him 19 league goals last year, yet he has still managed to get 10 goals in 22 starts (and 14 sub apperences). I feel Luciano was rushed back to action by Simon Grayson, a manager under presure who knew that Lucianos goals could be the difference between him keeping or losing his job.

Another problem for Luciano have been the sales of first Beckford, and perhaps more important Maxi Gradel, he had a wonderful connection with those two and he hasn't quite found that with Ross McCormack yet, I think it's because Ross is more all over the place and his style of play doesn't compliment Luciano's qualities.

Simon Grayson might have been criticised for his all out attack formations, but one thing is for sure, playing with the ball and passing it through midfield was better for Luciano then NW's long ball English 80's kick and rush style football.

I have no doubt that next season will be better, NW will get a few players in that he believes in and he'll not allow us to play the game the way we do this season, so I am pretty sure that Luciano will be back to his best next season and remind us all why we loved him so during his four years at Elland Road.

We'll face an exciting summer and I hope that NW will be able to asemble a good team for next season that will allow us to challenge for promotion instead of challeging for 10th place - and I KNOW that we'll see the real Luciano again come August.

Marching On Together!