Good Morning. It's Tuesday 11th February, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road. Jansson opens up about his time at ER Ahead of tonight's crunch game at Griffin Park, former Leeds favourite Pontus Jansson has been speaking to the Press about his time at Leeds. “If you look at the Arsenal game [in the FA Cup], I was there at the Emirates and Leeds played fantastic. It was the same against QPR, when they lost 1-0. They were good enough to win so sometimes it is just small things. “Maybe not so much in this time of year – I think this time of year I was flying, playing really good – but around March and the beginning of April, especially after the international break, I felt really tired. “Maybe that was because I became a father and maybe I was not sleeping as well, but you would have to ask every individual to get a true answer. Towards the end of last season I felt more mentally tired than physically tired. Maybe it is a common thing and this year it is happening the same as last year for them, but it is difficult to say.” “I grew a lot last season, the things that I learned from him and we learned as a team, they are things I will take with me for the rest of my life. I learned so much: how to take care of your body; how well-trained you have to be to play in such a good team; how you have to be on the pitch both physically and mentally; how to learn to read the game, so many things that you could learn from. He also had bad sides – every person has a bad side – but there are so many things I learned from Bielsa.” Asked if he feels misunderstood, Jansson replied “Yeah, but that’s an easy thing to do, especially nowadays with social media because it is so easy to find one bad thing about a player and you can spread it around the country and around the world. “I have done some bad things on the pitch, like the Aston Villa incident, but that is just how I am. On the pitch maybe I am not the best person but off the pitch I am always respectful. Maybe it has changed a little bit over the years. When I came three years ago, I needed to come into the league and make myself a name but now, four years later, I am more taking care of my teammates as a captain and trying to help them perform well than looking to myself.” “If I could choose the top two teams to go up, I’d choose us and them [Leeds], of course,” Jansson says. “I still have Leeds on my heart – that does not change just because I left. I will love Leeds until I die, and the same with Brentford. But I’d be lying if I said I don’t want Leeds to lose every game now, because I want us to pass them in the table. “I still have a lot of friends in the team, I talk to the owner and some of the staff, so I want the best for them, but it is difficult when you are fighting against them for the top two spots.” please log in to view this image Bielsa's Pre Match Press Conference Danny Murphy - Leeds have lost their intensity Soccer Pundit Danny Murphy has been talking to talkSport about Leeds current predicament, and believes it is likely for the second half of the season to replicate itself this term. “They’ve done it again, haven’t they,” he said. “They’ve had this tremendous run, got that lead and then they just get pulled back. I think that’s partly to do with the intensity they play at.” “I’ve got a feeling Fulham will do it now with West Brom, and the rest will fight it out in the play-offs which is a lottery isn’t it.” I believe Murphy speaks a lot of sense when he talks about intensity. That has nothing to do with the players fitness. Clearly Leeds have one of the fittest squads in the league, but when was the last time you saw Leeds chase down an opposition player to get the ball back having just lost it? How many times in the last 6 weeks have we seen opposition players make surging 50-60 yard runs without being intercepted? It's the intensity that is going to make the difference who's going to get to the 50/50 balls or gain that vital half a yard. For me, that is what Leeds have lost since mid December. please log in to view this image
Morning all.. I’m a little bewildered why everyone is looking for answers to our slump in results and pointing in totally the wrong direction. Missing clear cut chances in front of goal and mistakes by our keeper, that’s all there is to it (in my opinion ). Cut out the keeper errors and put away some of those easy chances which we still create and it’s a different story. The poor results have had an effect on confidence, that’s evident but I don’t understand why we’re looking for hidden answers and blaming it all on obscure reasons. Pontus was good for us, he will sow seeds of doubt for obvious reasons, I wouldn’t expect less, he wants to win promotion and get one over on the team that sold him, you can’t blame him for that. Possession stats say the opposition has seen little of the ball, I’m sorry Ellandback but for me that rules out intensity dropping. You can’t complain intensity is dropping then knock Bielsa for not playing two unfit players in Poveda and Augustin from the start
Morning all, Danny Murphy more often than not talks a lot of sense and I happen to think he's right on this occasion too.
Big Sam on talksport this morning saying that they key area isn't necessarily a lack of taking chances but at the other end. He says we have gone from having the best defensive record in England to not being able to keep a clean sheet. If some of those defeats had been draws then we still would have been picking up points instead of being dragged back. Tend to agree. I think everybody in the world can see we have a keeper problem and a striker problem apart from those at Leeds United.
Imagine travelling over 400 miles (all round trip) to see your beloved team get battered ? Wouldn't be the first time, won't be the last time. Many lower league teams often suffer these type of defeats on their journeys At least I'm supporting Leeds please log in to view this image You never know Leeds United may just surprise me I truly hope so!
And some of those games have been against those knocking around the playoffs, instead of a draw and no points gained on us we’ve gifted a few the three
Pontus should have a easy comeback game! Lets hope & pray one of our useless crosses hits the big man & our 2nd highest scorer OG scores another goal off his backside please log in to view this image
Today is the day we get back on track, I feel a positive week ahead, safe journey Leon and Heidi and anyone else travelling
1. The not scoring and leaking soft goals are interlinked, one creates more pressure on the other. 2. We made very few individual defensive errors at the start of the season. We are making them regularly now. Same happened after Christmas last year. 3. People talked about our great defence at the start of the season. We had a great record but we don’t have great defenders. Our defence are good footballers who had very little defending to do. They press high to win the ball back quickly and do that part very well. But traditional ‘defending’? 4. compounding point 3. Is just our style of play ...with the players we commit forward we are really vulnerable in transition - doesn’t matter how good the defenders are if outnumbered . So if our passing isn’t on it... or if the opposition manage to disrupt it, we’re always going to be vulnerable. 5. Mental/physical fatigue leading to small individual performance drop offs and errors of judgement? Controversial to some but there is evidence to support it. so no one reason, a bunch of inter-connected factors in my opinion
5. I am beginning to agree with this should not be the case with professionals however imo this is down to having too small a squad of quality players and not being prepared to ring the changes One compounds the other and players are becoming stale and demoralised Afraid I have to blame the management for this
Driving the last 30 miles of my journey back home in gale force freezing icy conditions in the early hours around 2am should be fun too please log in to view this image
it doesn't take much 2p and it has nothing to do with the professionalism or effort of the players. Hand on my heart as a fan, you can never accuse this team of not busting a gut for the cause... it's a management issue. I've said previously that there is a big question mark over sustainability of the bielsa method... there are great strengths to the small squad concept but do it's weaknesses get exposed over a long season? Great coach but great manager? Prove me wrong please MB... starting tonight. Even off form/fatigued, we still create enough to beat the teams in this division, if we can take a few chances and cut out the errors all is not lost.
I think it has a lot to do with all the small cogs making the big one turn, if one cog isn't turning it kills our game. I bang on about it but Alioski and Harrison are such a poor pairing on the left when it comes to losing the ball and defending the space they leave. If they are not losing the ball they are putting in poor crosses and both getting caught forward. Throw in Phillips missing for three games and having 3-4 players playing out of position it doesn't help. When either of our right or left sided attacks break down it is up to Cooper or White to cover that side and Phillips slot in. I hope we play Douglas at LB today, White and Cooper at CB and Ayling RB I'll even accept Dallas at LB and I'm sure we'll see things improve tonight. Phillips returning will mean less pressure on Klich, I just hope Bielsa doesn't play Douglas at LB and feel obliged to put Dallas in the middle somewhere, Dallas needs to be out wide or on the bench with Alisoki, not a bad pair to bring on if you need fresh legs running at them for the last 30 minutes
Good morning everyone I fear for tonight, I think it’s a game that will inevitably decide our season, lose and we can forget top two, win & our season will be back on track. One things for sure if Brentford do win, they are consistent enough to go all the way for top two, with possibly Fulham as you can never write them off with Mitrovic, also WBA seem to have got their mojo back, wish we had, but you never know beginning with tonight, Christ I really hope so.
I don't share the above thoughts, tonight is important but not season defining. Last year we stopped creating chances, at the Moment its not finishing along with some soft goals conceded. I remain positive, just need one of Bamford/Agustin and or Hernandez/Klich to start scoring. Games are on tiny %'s and its not gone our way. I predict a strong run over the next 5-6 games.....C'mon the whites
I agree on the tiny % but not that it’s different to last year... we never stopped dominating the stats - as bielsa kept reminding us. We topped the expected goals league. We started giving soft goals away and missing chances.
Realy wished i share your optimism as every club goes on a bad run and comes out the other side,unfortunately Leeds for what ever reason can't seem to do this, have you ever known Leeds to turn around a poor run to achieve their ultimate objective ? well i'm old and i can't think of a time (not in the last 50 years ) even in our promotion winning year from league 1,we were miles clear & the season ended just soon enough for us to get over the line.when we won the old first division title we had the one thing necessary consistency. & it's constistancy that get's you to your objective so much easier.
