You could be right because hes mobile and puts himself in the right place, BUT Jay Roy Grot coming in from the flanks would be even better, but Bielsa decided against Ekuban, Grot, Ideguchi and a couple more like Anita. Its almost like he decided who was woeth investing time in because he needed to change things fast, and he certainly has done that. Hoping Tyler Roberts can improve because he let himself down last night I think
Open minded to this one as last season I would have put Ekuban ahead of Roofe and Lassoga each and everytime, despite his lack of goals I felt he worried the opposition with his movement. Maybe Bielsa believes you can teach a goal scorer a different style of play but you can't teach a more skilful looking player where the back of the net is? What do I know, I'd have snapped off the hand that offered £8m for Roofe before the season kicked off, boy would I have pissed with that one had we done so.
Sorry LOL I’m with WJ, I think there is a player in there. Having said that, MB has taken the bull by the horns and is going for the here and nows not the maybes and I’m cool with that
Evening all, 24 hours since we last played, anyone else getting withdrawal symptoms? The next game feels like weeks away.
You both may well be right, but he just doesn't seem a natural goalscorer and I'm not sure you can coach that into someone.
Oh and don't be sorry Marcos, I know this sounds controversial but I read this forum because I'm actually interested in other people opinions (is that me banned)
Is Saiz a poor mans David Silva? I say this not as a criticism of Samu because he for me has been the engine thats created more chances than we’ve seen in years and in only 3 games. Do get frustrated at times when he jinks in and out of players, sublimely riding tackles and gets himself into prime position to score or make that killer pass... then mess it up. I get critical of him but then think he isnt a Prem player right now, we picked him up for peanuts and he delivers what he was bought for. Lots of comparisons though with his fellow Spaniard Silva except for the last bit, which makes one a top International and the other a Championship player. I’m sure Samu would love to improve and become an International, so lets hope he does.
Okay Doc, am I the only one getting fed up with your posts that nail it, leave some room for debate FFS
Shako - Just checked and Samu Saiz is a gigantic 174cm tall, or 5 foot 7 in old money. Hold your head up son....
Thought provoking from Phil Hay ..... Phil Hay: Say it quietly, but there’s potential for a lasting legacy beyond Bielsa at Leeds United There is a reluctance, almost a shyness, about Marcelo Bielsa when press conferences take a predictable turn and draw him into discussing the men who single him out as their keenest influence. Where Pep Guardiola credits part of his coaching acumen to Bielsa, Bielsa hears only self-deprecation distorting Guardiola’s own genius. “In any of his teams I’ve never seen any sign of my traits,” Bielsa says, though the Championship must be questioning how true that really is. Bielsa devotes himself to improving players, a raison d’etre stretching back 30 years. Any effect he has on the coaching fraternity is, apparently, unintentional if not quite open to debate. It is a quirk of the Argentinian’s career that he has mentored so many exceptional managers without actually mentoring them at all. Guardiola picks Bielsa’s brain but has never worked with him. Mauricio Pochettino was in Bielsa’s hands more than once as a player, long enough to digest his methods, but did not coach beneath him. Bielsa has overseen an accidental factory, a production line he created without thinking about it. And yet the appreciation of him is such that a letter written by Pochettino helped Bielsa qualify for a work permit from the Football Association in June. A glance at Bielsa’s backroom staff at Leeds United, the tight clique of lieutenants who bring everything together, shows how little thought he gives to nurturing what, in English terms, could be called the Anfield Bootroom. His assistants are staunchly loyal and professionally dedicated, South Americans who drop everything when Bielsa tips up in a different patch of Europe, but they hold the smallest of profiles and move around silently as Bielsa relocates. At no stage have his closest allies sought to branch out individually or use their close proximity to Bielsa to manage a club in their own right. When Bielsa quit Marseille, his staff departed en masse. When Lille lost patience with him, they all did likewise. One day it will end for Bielsa at Leeds and the same will happen. The staff around him came to be known in Argentina as the iron circle; difficult to bend when the going is good and inclined to stand fast when the wheels come off. There is a reason why Bielsa commands that loyalty. So many of the individuals who work for him are in the game because of him; opportunists in a healthy sense. Pablo Quiroga taught physical education and coached in amateur football before Bielsa enlisted him with Chile’s national team. Diego Reyes, more improbably, found a way into the sanctum by tipping up unannounced at Chile’s training complex and asking for work. He and Bielsa met then for the first time. Diego Flores joined the party at Marseille despite a fairly blank track record. Bielsa’s French translator, Salim Lamrani, is a highly-educated, multilingual academic but he is here through a kind stroke of fate: a Marseille supporter who warmed to Bielsa and succeeded in making Bielsa warm to him. In that company, Benoit Delaval – Leeds’ French fitness coach – stands out on the strength of 12 years spent in Lille’s medical department. Most if not all of that team are in situ for as long as Bielsa is in situ. They come as a package. Which leaves Carlos Corberan, the one existing coach who Bielsa chose to draft into his inner circle a month ago. Corberan, United’s Under-23s manager, had certain factors in his favour – fluent in Spanish but with a good grasp of English, a season already spent at Elland Road and evidence behind him of productive work with Leeds’ development squad – and, after sizing him up in the early days of pre-season, Bielsa asked him to join his bench. In that capacity he was absent from Leeds’ academy friendlies but Corberan returned to the dug-out for the Under-23s first league game against Coventry City on Monday night. Danny Schofield has been handling the development squad in the interim and the club have not officially re-defined Corberan’s role, though they say he is “integral to the first-team set-up” and will retain some responsibility for the transfer of academy players to Bielsa’s squad and continuity in the club’s style of football. Leeds went 4-1-4-1 against Coventry and committed to a high press. Bielsa, watching from the side of the pitch, would have been looking for that. All through the age groups an education is on offer. It was the question put most often to Bielsa’s players during the summer: how much do they hope to gain from the attention of a coach who Guardiola attributes some of his talent to? Even Pablo Hernandez, now 33 and with the most defined attributes a footballer could have, is talking about finding ways to evolve; of getting better in the twilight of his career. Bielsa aspires to that development. Nothing has been more obvious in the first two weeks of the season than his ethos of self-improvement. But farther down the line there is an opportunity for his management to rub off on a coach like Corberan and put Leeds in a position where Bielsa’s touch will not be lost the moment this cycle of his life ends; to encourage some form of legacy, as much as Bielsa would screw his face up at that word. Inspiring coaches was not his calling but he has acquired a reputation which appears to divide managers into two groups: those who were inspired by Bielsa, and those who should have been.
Read this earlier too WJ, there's a whole lot of momentum building around this project, much of it indirect and far afield. That in itself gives me hope that a corner has been turned, and that the shallow promise of last year's good start was completely different. It's up to both coach and players to deliver now, MOT.
Saiz is :1.64m 5foot five So shako is taller samu is probably a bit more nimble But can he hold two newkies at the same time?
IMO he was garbage and Bielsa knew that to, other wise he'd have used him. Let's just concentrate on the players who are in the team/squad...
Worth 45 seconds of your time .... Edit: Try this instead. Won't embed for some reason ... Edit #2: Bugger. Link doesn't work either. Try clicking 'watch on Facebook'. That works. Don't need to be on FB to watch it. (I think).
Thought provoking if you think about legacy corberan is the key thing for me as its not clear if he has become a new acolyte and will follow his master when he leaves. Or is he the man to step into the masters shoes and be his natural succesor?
I agree with WJ IN think Ekuban with a great deal of one on ones with the keeper could become a goal scorer.At the moment when he gets into a position with just him and the keeper he just bottles it and with heading practise we may have something there
