Good Morning. It's Tuesday 25th February, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road. Will hand injury keep Casilla sidelined? Unsubstantiated rumours are doing the rounds on social media that Kiko Casilla picked up a hand injury during the 1-0 win over Reading last weekend. Although Bielsa is yet to confirm the injury, pictures of the former Real Madrid shot stopper have been released on social media showing the Spaniard with a wrist brace, and two fingers taped together. Obviously this means that Casilla is not match fit, yet many assume that he picked up the injury in the first half. Meslier spent half time undergoing an extensive warm up, with coaches emerging from the tunnel with instructions; however Bielsa decided not to make the swap. We know that the the Frenchman has a clause in his contract that if he plays 10 first team games or more (and Leeds get promoted) the loan agreed becomes permanent, with a fee of just over 5m being agreed between the two clubs! please log in to view this image Will dead leg sideline Phillips It has been confirmed that the injury Kelvin Phillips picked up last weekend against the Royals is not as serious as first thought. The 24yo suffered a dead leg during a tussle midway through the first half. Although he tried to run it off, his restrictive moment caused Bielsa to bring him off. Former footballer, now pundit, Darren Bent explains that the injury, although painful is not too serious:- “Dead legs were always the worst, for the first day you’re thinking to yourself: ‘I can’t walk here, I’m never going to be able to play, I’m not going to be ready!’ After day two, if you go on the bike, it does ease up fairly quickly. “Obviously when you do first do it, you’re like: ‘That’s it, I’m out for a week, I can’t play with this.’ As you take your anti-inflammatories, get yourself moving, get on the bike, it does ease up. You’ve got to ice it, get it down.” please log in to view this image Saints backed out of Adams transfer after deal agreed Leeds United agreed a £19m deal to bring Che Adams to Elland Road in the January transfer window, only for Southampton to then change their minds. The news came from former player, now pundit Michael Brown who supposedly has close connections to Elland Road following his three year tenure in West Yorkshire. Leeds held extensive talks with the Premier League club about a loan-to-buy deal for Adams before Southampton blocked him moving last month following a late U-turn. “Che Adams was agreed, I think at £17million, then Southampton said, ‘can you increase that bid’? “Adams wanted to go [to Leeds], then the price went up £2million more. Leeds met that, it was agreed [at £19m], and then the Southampton manager stepped in and said, ‘Do you know what? I want to keep him’. “Adams had contributed to the team, the manager got stronger at Southampton, regarding their results, and Adams obviously stayed where he was so Leeds probably missed out on that nine that they wanted.” please log in to view this image
What's that Kiko signing an autograph book ------------------- oh just a minute isn't that Bielsa's arm Morning everyone
Morning all. That was actually Kiko signing a new contract for five years doubling his wages. The Adams thing is a huge pity. Would have been great to have him sitting on the bench for rest of season
“Dead legs were always the worst, for the first day you’re thinking to yourself: ‘I can’t walk here, I’m never going to be able to play, I’m not going to be ready!’ After day two, if you go on the bike, it does ease up fairly quickly. “Obviously when you do first do it, you’re like: ‘That’s it, I’m out for a week, I can’t play with this.’ As you take your anti-inflammatories, get yourself moving, get on the bike, it does ease up. You’ve got to ice it, get it down.” It's just a dead leg ffs. I'm sure we all had that when we played - it goes after 24 hours max. I'm convinced most modern day players are hypochondriacs.
On the rare occasions where he's had a run of games you can see he's a quality player. Absolutely top class in this division imo. Unfortunately his Leeds career has been stop/start. Hopefully he can play a big part between now and the end of the season.
Morning all, maybe as it’s a Wednesday game and he has that extra day Phillips will be ready to play. If Kiko played on for 45 minutes you’d imagine he’d be okay too. Did anyone else see how Meslier celebrated our goal on Saturday? It’s doing the rounds on social media, it was good to see, he was celebrating like it was a cup final
If I were promoted to Manager overnight (unlikely I know), with Phillips injured, and no other player able to do a good enough job in defensive midfield, I'd switch to a 4-4-2 formation, with Ayling / Costa overlapping on the left, and Dallas / Harrison doing the same on the right. I rate shackleton, I know he's come back from injury, but that was 3 weeks ago. He's a young lad and should be naturally fit. I don't see Bamford as a one man attacking machine, especially when he is outnumbered 5 to 1. He needs somebody to feed off, and hopefully big Kev is the man. Sod the backtracking unless its a set piece or corner, I want to see movement in the box. I want to see both Costa and Harrison cut in from their wing position and have the option of a sideways pass to Hernandez / Shackleton, or overlapping run from Ayling and Dallas. --------------------Meslier---------------------- Ayling------Cooper------White------Dallas Costa - Hernandez- Shackleton-Harrison ------------Augustin------Bamford------------
It's not in Bielsa or the majority of top coaches mentality to play 4-4-2 so won't happen Leaving Klich out is a strange omission please log in to view this image
talented lad, great touch... shame he picked up that nettle rash - they really need to trim the borders at Thorpe Arch
