I do love the consistency of Captain Jackboot's mis-reads & misinterpretations. NOT! Times to get back on the meds, matey. There are plenty of fingers to get pointed before you get to even consider Phillips' actions. If you know what you're talking about, that is! Sadly, he doesn't. And proves it here week in, week out.
The players are getting anxious and booing fans will only magnify it more. Who said the home team has the advantage..
Yes and atmosphere was flat from the start especially for a derby game. It's almost as if we were suffering from a hangover from the Arsenal game and all the plaudits we had.
I think we as fans can’t help feel the wheels are coming off and we’re not going to do it, deja vu, this creeps through to the players that make them a bit more edgy. On top of that the press like Phil Hay and Whelan are slamming Kiko saying the players have lost confidence in him, Bamford misses more sitters and it all mounts on the players shoulders. This is where Rads, Orta and Bielsa need to step up to the plate. Bielsa needs presenting a list of players that he’d be happy to virtually throw straight in. Give the fans something exciting to focus on, get the players thinking “wow he is going to make a difference”. We’re half way through January, it’s no use getting in a new player who Bielsa will take 4-5 weeks to mould. We have 7 games in February, we need a signing that can settle in a week and hit the ground running.
I just left in disgust at cheapo rads. 11 days and still no one signed we ran out of options yesterday. The cupboard dear posters is bare. Forshaw is finished and Pablo is past doing full games. This is what I thought would happen. Meslier needs to be promoted to first choice. It was the most boring game of football since Blackwell days. Bielsa has no plan B. How could he all we have left is crocks and kids.
Perhaps you should take a leaf out of 1964's book...for balance he always posts a list of positives and negatives. So on this occasion I've taken the liberty of compiling one on your behalf; Negatives; EVERYTHING Positives; F*** ALL Would that be fair in your opinion ?
Bielsa must rotate the squad. I want to see Berardi start next game, and Shackleton. Roberts start number 10 role I'd like to see Klich rested. Perhaps Dallas to start at left back
I think Roberts is injured *again* and it is all easy with hindsight. If Klich was dropped for Shackleton, Cooper dropped for Berardi, Kiko for Messlier and we lost or Berardi was sent off everyone would have said why change a team that got us top of the table and looked so good against Arsenal. We're creating chances, we are not putting them away, we have had unfortunate keeper errors. Personally I think it is confidence more than anything else, allowing us to reach the middle of January with the one striker is poor, they knew Nketiah was probably going to be recalled, they knew we were not using Clarke so get someone else in. Tyler Roberts and Forshaw are far too injury prone, you can throw Pablo into that bracket too. When you compare what Phillips and Klich do to Forshaw and Roberts and then you compare the amount of games they are available or not it is another area that I think needs fixing
Well that didn't go as we hoped for please log in to view this image Said to my Leeds pals around me with 25 minutes to go "I'd take a draw" which sounds a daft thing to say when we are playing at ER. Positives We were in control in the first half even though we lacked urgency. We created good chances. Kalvin Phillips. Jack Harrison sublime control at times. Hernandez is back! Negatives Missed chances, how many did we sky wide or over the bar. Bamford powder-puff shooting & appalling headers. Harrison miss from six yards, an open goal. Costa so poor. Casilla beaten at his near post. Cooper & Alioski also caught out for the Owls first goal. Ayling done by Reach who finds Nuhiu with three defenders around him ball watching Beilsa's team selection. Why play Dallas in midfield, surely Pablo & Shackleton could have mustered 45 minutes each. Clean sheets gone out with the washing since Dallas vacated his wing-back role. Dallas should have gone to LB if that change was necessary Bielsa's substitutions Alioski on for Douglas....really ! Alioski is not a defender, caught out of position three times in the 35 minutes he was on, hasn't got the positional sense to play that role. Why bring on a 19 yo kid who is wet behind the ears & is clearly not ready for championship football. Owls have two strikers on the bench, one that gave us hell at Hillsborough & punished us yesterday. We have no alternative upfront. Dallas looked crocked at the end. First defeat at ER since August v Swansea. Ratings 4 Casilla 6 Ayling 7 White 6 Cooper 6 Douglas 8 Phillips MOTM 5 Costa 5 Dallas 6 Klich 7 Harrison 5 Bamford Subs 5 Hernandez 4 Alioski 5 Stevens
A big shame Dallas is probably injuered as I would have liked to see him back in at LB but sadly it is not Bielsas way. If he is crocked the bonus will be that he doesn't get selected in a position someone like Shackleton or Pablo could play better. Bielsa is not going to drop Ayling, he seems to feel Douglas and Alisoki are the two to contest LB I think although Dallas looks like possibly missing the next game, the balance will be far better him being absent than playing in the middle. I think Pablo would have replaced Costa against QPR anyway so now we have the option of both Shackleton and Pablo featuring
Good balanced report 1964. Particularly enjoyed reading your observations. It's probably no coincidence that our seven game winning streak started and continued with both Douglas ansd Alioski unavailable. To be fair to Douglas I thought he did very well first half but maybe his lack of match fitness started to show. Pablo is wasted in my opinion dropping deep to start attacks, we need him higher up where his trickery and vision can really hurt teams. You're right about some of the missed chances as well...anything on target on a couple of occassions would surely have resulted in a goal. Certainly not all bad though...much to consider for Bielsa.
Well what can you say about that performance, disjointed is one of the kinder words,even so we should have been 3 up by the hour, even though I haven't seen it back Bamford's second chance looked a push and a penalty, Sheff Wed were a poor team, which makes it even worse, they worked hard and most of any of their chances was created by us giving the ball away far to often. Kiko - 5- We're now seeing the Kiko of old, which is not good, he had very little to do but his distribution, what he is acclaimed for was poor yesterday and for some reason very slow at getting the ball away. Should never have been beaten at the near post for the first goal, very poor keeping. Ayling-6 Another mixture of the good and the bad from Ayling, part of his problem for me is his passion, his will to win,when he gets forward he forgets he is a defender too, which causes holes defensively Cooper- 6 Same as Ayling, what frustrates is his poor play on the simple things, once yesterday he took the ball down, left their forward for dead with his touch, carried it forward with nice tight control, only to whack it out wide to the right straight to a defender, he'd done the hard work. White - 7 I thought it was a better performance than his league games since Boro, was partly at fault for the second but did well otherwise, some great interceptions, reads the game well. Douglas 5 Had a decent first half an hour but hasn't the pace to get back and his passing wasn't as good as it should be, which we were told was one of his stronger points Phillips - 8 Battled all game, looked weaker when Klich went off, having to cover more ground, which left him out of position a couple of times. Dallas- 5 - Like the lad but he's no CM player, lost possession a few times with taking the wrong option on the pass. Klich 7.5 Most of what we created came from him, he wasn't offside for the disallowed goal, we looked a lot worse when he was bewilderingly substituted Costa 3 He just doesn't do it for me, he's weak, gets taken off the ball far too easily, can't tackle, he marks his defender, never seems to look for space to lose his man, he's been a real disappointment, hopefully Shackleton will be fully fit soon and is given the position Harrison 7- Has a lovely first touch but lets himself down at times with the final ball, should have scored, first half especially he was finding himself plenty of space only not to get the ball, must have been very frustrating for him. Bamford 5 Feel sorry for him, imo he's being asked to do too much, he doesn't stop running, asked to get back to cover corners up and down a lot, always chasing, he should have buried the chance from the one good thing Costa did , his second chance he was fouled, noticed from my lofty position yesterday how often he tried to lose his marker, pointing to where he wanted the ball putting but not getting the pass, you could see the frustration on his face. He needs more help, not a signing i was excited about but I will never slag a player who puts in the effort and he certainly does that, his natural game is not the one we play. Infact, I'd say there are few around who could play for 90 minutes the way we want a striker to play. Subs Alioski 2 - Woeful performance both offensively and defensively Hernandez 6. Tried hard to motivate and played some nice passes out wide only for them to come to nothing. Looked a little off the pace but to be expected. Stevens 3 from the few cameo displays he doesn't look ready to me. Poor substitutions from Bielsa yesterday, non made sense.
