The Opposition View: Leeds United

Last updated : 28 September 2011 By Jim Bonner

Are you happy with the start to the season?

Yes and no. There was a lot of pessimism around the club before the season started and especially after the disappointing opening day defeat at St. Mary's. Since then, we have put in some decent showings and probably should be a little higher in the table. We've ended up losing games we should have picked up points from. Having said that, we possibly didn't deserve our two recent wins prior to the Brighton game.

Were you happy with Leeds' transfer deals during the summer and are you expecting any emergency loans to come in?

Again, there wasn't a great feeling around the club over the summer, with a lot of fans unhappy with the lack of ambition in the transfer market. Andy Lonergan has proved to be a very solid signing to replace Kasper Schmeichel, however. Andy Keogh has proved a useful asset and hopefully Danny Pugh will have the same impact. We've yet to see enough of the Finnish duo Mikael Forssell and Mika Varynen.

Obviously the departure of Max Gradel caused further unrest given he was one of our biggest assets. As for emergency loans, I'm not sure really. We seriously need to address our defence but whether we can successfully do this before January I'm not so sure.

What do Leeds fans think of Michael Brown since his move to Elland Road?

He hasn't really set Elland Road alight, as yet. He's shown some useful qualities but he's not really the answer I feel. He'll have bits to play over the course of the season but ideally he won't be used as a regular starter if we have serious promotion ambitions.

What are the biggest strengths of this current Leeds side?

Same as last year! We score goals. Ross McCormack has stepped up to the plate superbly so far this season - leading the Championship goalscoring table. He's netted in his previous six league matches and is finally showing us what we half-expected following his move from Cardiff. With the emergence of Adam Clayton in the midfield along with Robert Snodgrass and Jonny Howson, we're capable of giving chances to our goalscorers as well as chipping in themselves.

And what are the main weaknesses of this team?

Same as last year! We concede goals. A hideous amount of goals. We've barely kept clean sheets over the past season and a half! Be it individual errors or poor work as a unit, we give the opponents chances and it puts a lot of pressure on the attackers to bail us out. I would be surprised if Portsmouth don't score at the weekend - much like I was not surprised we threw away our 2-0 half-time lead down at Brighton last Friday night.

Pompey and Leeds are two of the dirtiest teams in the Championship so far this season so do you think there will be bookings galore and perhaps a red card in this game?

There may well be. Despite leading the fouls chart last season, we didn't pick up a huge number of red cards. This year we're losing players like nobody's business. Having said that, some of the decisions have been questionable to say the least. We've been a bit unlucky with our red cards I'd say and I don't think we're particularly dirty. We do concede quite a lot of fouls, though, so obviously there is a chance of some cards being dished out.

Predict the outcome of the game.

I'll be confident and say 3-1 Leeds.