We are our own worst enemy.......then again, do we ever have easy games against Millwall. We can hammer teams like Norwich, Sheff U and WBA by playing brilliant football where it all comes together, and every player plays for each other. When it comes to lower half teams, especially around the relegation area we tend to play below par and the games are harder..........Could it be an overconfidence issue where they think they'll win easy? This wasn't even a game of 2 halves, it was 1 half split into two; if it wasn't for Pablo the last few games, and most of season we wouldn't be in 2nd position. Pablo has really stepped up a couple of gears and levels since Saiz left, and yes, we do miss Saiz and is going to be very hard to replace with someone of equal status. If Pablo doesn't get Players player, Clubs player, Fans player and Tea Lady's Player of year award I'll show my arrse in Harrods. Pablo is 2 strides and 2 minutes ahead of the players, and after all this time, some of the players still haven't worked him out. I predicted 3-1 win to us cos BPF was playing, I went close, thanks only to an arguable penalty. Kiko returns next week thank God. Our defence was in disarray for quite a few patches, and Jansson didn't help with his play acting and getting upset. Walls first goal was down to a few players at fault, ball watchers. BPF hugging the inside post.....out of position. In the highlights, look where Ayling, Phillips and Jansson are. They all seemed to think the ball was going out, but the player crossed and their number 8, who had enough space to drive a Chieftain Tank through nodded it home for their first. Jansson runs away from the player, but not so much at fault, Ayling can see the player and doesn't move across to cover him, and Phillips is ambling along like a Sunday afternoon stroll with no one around him. Number 8 was Phillips man. Even the commentators mentioned Phillips out of position. Their penalty is arguable, but why does Cooper have to go so far across to make a tackle inside area. Where was Ayling, where was Phillips?.....both out of position and caught lagging............Look how many Wall players were on our right side unmarked. The player had time to stop for tea and crumpets while he decided who to pass it too. Our penalty. I've said a few times, Bamford is too slow, too calm and lacks pace, it showed when he missed the penalty.....He gets a 1 just for stepping onto pitch, he was rubbish and a waste of space all game. Roberts has yet to live up to the performance of his WBA game, don't think he will. He'll play alright occasionally, but nothing to shout about. Hopefully Forshaw has done enough to regain his place, be it replacing Phillips or Roberts. We need, and miss Forshaws drives forward, he makes defences back pedal. We clawed a win, thanks to Pablo once again. We got to play better, much better if we want to seal second spot. Biggest positive, we didn't give up clawing. 3 1/2 mins of highlights Bielsa post match comments......no heart attack. Pablo post match interview Post match pint comments from 3 supporters. It's that kid again with a nice haircut......The kids love doing these vlogs. Leeds fans v Millwall
Fair enough comments in my opinion. Phillips is too laid back at times. We started badly and so slow but i get slated for staing the obvious. Thanks for the highlights once again.
If anyone was out of position for the first goal it was Alioski, what is he doing as left back trying to tackle out on their left wing, Aylings side? They then popped the ball into the vacant left back position. He got caught out in the same way in these highlights just before when BPF made decent save.
This is where being at the game and seeing stuff that's not on the tv kicks in. Alioski & Harrison regularly switch roles, depending on who's best placed. On this occasion, Alioski was in midfielder mode & tracked his man over on to the other wing. Correctly. Harrison then dropped back into LB mode. Correctly. Harrison then failed to cut out the cross. Incorrectly. Cooper covered his man. Correctly. Pontus stood behind Cooper ball-watching. Incorrectly. Lad ran in behind the back of sleeping Pontus to score. Correctly. Pontus blamed everyone but himself (as usual). Incorrectly. Jury out on BPF. I honestly cannot assess if he was on the ball or not (if you'll pardon the pun). Btw, I've seen on here someone (guess who?) accuse Phillips of being out of position for the first goal. Game I watched he was correctly getting stuck in doing his job in midfield when the long ball to the opposite wing was launched, taking him & the rest of the midfield out.
Cheers WJ. You're right, you do miss those nuances of a game when watching on TV, which is why I kind of tried to qualify with 'If anyone was out of position'. What I meant was I was struggling to see how the goal was down to poor positioning of Phillips.
Ok Mr SMarty pants, where should've Bpf and Phillips been? The fact they scored showed Bpf way out of position, and Phillips was meandering, marking no one. So where should they have been?
The point is you blame bpf and Phillips for everything, as has been pointed out on here several times by plenty of people, Forshaw or Casilla makes a mistake? Doesn’t get a mention. But hey i’lll humour you. The first goal Jansson was ball watching and Ayling had line of sight on the guy and could have got back to help him. Phillips is tracking to pick up any midfield runners but was never going to get to the scorer. BPF’s positioning was fine. Covering near post as he’s meant to do. About 10 seconds later in your highlights you can see the Millwall keeper take up a similar position to a guy hitting the byline towards the edge of the box in the move that led to our penalty. Sheff Utds 2nd at the weekend? Similar attacking position, keeper in same position. Watch the highlights of our game against the blades the other week... we have similar attacking positions several times... their keepers position is the same as bpf’s.
I think it might have been better if we showed some get up and go from the start of the game. Millwall are junk and just ran through us. Its happenened so many times that i blame all the defence and the midfield. We are just so easy and need to get some bite back. Pontus was notcat the races and showed a petulant attitude as another poster noted he is never to blame. Why did klich not track back as hes done before. We were asleep and apart from pablos class would have lost. To get the winning goal and see brizzle had won made the day. Five wins ive heard said will do it. Unbeaten i think in last seven will do it.
Watched it a few times and I agree with this in regards to positions. Literally a second before the cross comes in Phillips looks over his shoulder checking nobody is making a run on him. He did everything you’d expect, if he’d have teared in like a rocket he couldn’t have done anything, he was marshalling the area he is supposed to. If anything I’d blame Pontus but I’d prefer to say it was a well worked goal, their second chance in the highlights was also very well worked and controlled from a long goal kick, sometimes you just have to admit the opposition attack played well and scored through their creativity rather than finger pointing at our own.
Do you think if they didn't make serious, and costly mistakes then they wouldn't get criticised. Not interested in other keepers mistakes, and just cos another keeper takes up a similar position doesn't mean BPF was right. BPF was obviously in wrong position cos the player scored. Had BPF positioned himself correctly, he would've been able to come out, jump and collect the ball; that's the idea, that's why he's keeper, he's there to do a job..............Penalty wasn't his fault though. You'll see in the highlights that BPF had to run across his goal (once he realised the ball was going over his head) to try and stop Thompsons header. Why did he have to run across the face of his goal if he wasn't caught out of position? I said way way back that BPF's bad positioning is going to be costly, he hasn't let me down, it's also why Bielsa replaced him with Kiko, you have noticed that, haven't you? Phillips is a local Yorkshire lad, most worship him based on emotion rather than his abilities. Phillips wasn't marking anyone when Millwall scored their first goal, do you find that unusual while the other team are attacking our goal. He was casually strolling back towards our goal and got caught out of position. "Phillips was tracking to pick up any midfield runners"...... Ben Thompson is a midfielder. Watch the highlights again, the camera is behind Phillips, he's meandering. Yes, he has a quick look over his shoulder, but also looks at Thompson, and makes no effort to cut him off. Had Phillips not been meandering, and running like he should be doing, he'll have been in a position to cover Thompson and challenge him, but he was caught out of position. He also slowed up (from meandering) before Thompson scored, then raised his arm as if to say "what just happened"...........You do know what meandering means I suppose...maybe not. Jansson was the one running towards the goal to cover it. Both Ayling and Phillips were caught ball watching and out of position. Ayling knew Thompson was there, but he didn't come across to cover Thompson either, he did make an effort after realising the ball was reaching Thompson, hence why Thompson had enough room to drive a Chieftain Tank through. Both Forshaw and Kiko make mistakes, all players do. Forshaw drives forward with the ball causing the defence to back peddle, that's an impact, Phillips thinks driving forward is putting his car in first gear and moving off, same gear he plays at. Kiko replaced BPF cos BPF was making too many mistakes, if he hadn't been then Bielsa wouldn't have replaced him, would he. You and the usual suspects.....
Kalvin Phillips been near on first pick alongside Alioski whenever he has been available so it seems MB doesn’t see the shortcomings in his game that you do. Possibly MB doesn’t have an irrational dislike of him that you do.
Every coach has put Phillips into the starting squad, Bielsa who is a world class one (without a shadow of a doubt) obviously feels the same towards him
If only we'd appointed AdolfLover as our manager. The trio of him, Antenucci & Adryan would have swept all asunder & we'd have won the Champions League for years on end now. Perhaps Captain Jackboot is available to tutor Bielsa in how to coach? It's clearly needed. Or is it just that Bollockhead has been thinking it's April Fools Day for the last few years? Perhaps that's what meds do to you (if you don't take them).
Christ! What a ****ing ****er. The only set of stats that will reflect this nonsense is the stats he makes up himself. Phillips has played every game from the start of the season, with 2 exceptions - the 3 games he missed after his red against Florist, plus the game after his return from the ban. Forshaw's first start was against Florist (coincidentally) on October 27th. Prior to that he came on as sub 7 times & was an unused sub once. If that makes him Bielsa's preference, he's got a funny way of showing it! 8 opportunities to pick him before Phillips. He didn't! Not once. Can someone reply to this so Bollockhead can read it? Can't wait for his response. Wonder what sh1te he'll come up with to try to defend the nonsense he's spouted. One thing's for sure - he won't admit he's wrong. Prolly Phillip's fault for stealing Forshaw's jersey & sneaking onto the pitch without Bielsa knowing. So go ahead, Captain Jackboot, let's hear it. Show us how we've failed to keep up (with your fantasy world, clearly!).
Phillips actually started the season, only Alioski has made more appearances Forshaw replaced Phillips when he was banned
Thanks WJ. I couldn’t remember the stats. The only other time I seem to remember Forshaw playing regularly was when KP covered as centre back during injury to one of Cooper or Pontus.
