Good Morning. It's Friday 17th July, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Below par Leeds grind out a win A below par Leeds Utd scrapped their way to within a point of automatic promotion last night, bringing 16 years of hurt finally to an end. The Whites are now five points clear of West Brom, and six ahead of Brentford with only two games to go. If either West Brom fail to win at Huddersfield this evening, or Brentford don't get maximum points at Stoke on Saturday, Leeds will be declared Champions, Champions of Euro.... the Championship - WACCOC. The Tykes gave blood sweat and tears, in what has been described as their best performance of the season by far. Unfortunately for Gerhard Strubers side, they were not clinical enough in front of goal. The only goal of the game came against the run of play in the 28th minute. Barnsley's inswinging corner was met by the diving head of Danish centre back Mads Andersen. Fortunately for Leeds, his free header was narrowly wide. Leeds resulting goal kick found Klich, who released Bamford on the right hand side of the Barnsley penalty area. He skipped a challenge before beautifully cutting the ball back. Pressure from Costa was enough of a distraction for centre back Michael Sollbauer to turn the ball into his own net. Leeds continued to ride their luck for the next hour, though they could have extended their lead on several occasions after breaching the Barnsley defence. With the amount of times Leeds have dominated matches this season, but were undone by a solitary shot on target, Leeds were due a bit of luck, its just a shame that the win has more or less guaranteed third tier football for Barnsley next season. Marcelo Bielsa's post match reaction Barnsley boss Gerhard Struber: "We played so well against a massive opponent. It's so frustrating. "We have played at our level these past few games, but our issue is taking top chances and being clinical. "The whole team was so brave, but the conviction in the last pass was not at the right level." Leeds boss Marcelo Bielsa: "Even if in the first half we didn’t have a big impact we could control the match to create some chances. In the second half we couldn’t control the match and it was difficult for us to defend. It's a team in attack had a lot of players that can unbalance the match. In the match progressed they added more offensive players and removed defensive players. We organised ourselves to try resolve the adaptation we had to resolve. But it was difficult for us to defend well and we didn’t attack well in particular". "Until the situation is mathematically resolved we can not talk about promotion. "We (coaches) will not watch the West Brom or Brentford games. We focus on ourselves." Leeds in talks with Pool over exciting left back Leeds are in talks with Liverpool regarding their highly rated defender Yasser Larouci. The 19yo Algerian left back signed for Klopp's team back in 2017 from French outfit Le Havre, and although he has not seen any first team action, mainly due to the form of Andy Robertson and Trent Alexander-Arnold, he is highly thought of by the Liverpool Management. Alex Inglethorpe, head of Liverpool’s academy said, “Yasser’s natural ability going forward is eye-catching.” Athletic Journalist James Pearce wrote: “Algeria-born Larouci, who was signed from Le Havre in 2017, is now set to leave Liverpool this summer after entering the final year of his contract and turning down an extension. The 19-year-old’s agent has informed the club that he wants to move on in search of regular first-team football. “Discussions have already been held with a number of clubs, including Leeds United and Brentford.” Leeds journalist Phil Hay confirmed the interest but commented that the valuation was an issue for Leeds. please log in to view this image
Morning all... I am just relieved we held on for the three points and "might" only need one more. We missed Phillips in the middle, it just shows how important he is to this particular squad, a bit scary as well how half the team gets rearranged for the sake of one missing player. Phillips and now Costa both injured, Pablo looking very annoyed about being subbed, a very poor show against the team at the bottom, we were just not at the races yesterday but we still battled hard and came away with the points, that is all that will be remembered. We need a slip up from one of the other two tonight, the Derby game is coming round too quick and although I was confident yesterday has put the fear back into me, I would hate to be needing a point on the last game of the season
We did miss Phillips. Bielsa always says that he wants two players for each position. Unfortunately the other guy who can play in that role is Forshaw. I'd like to see Shackleton given a start in place of Phillips next game, he has looked sharp when he has come on. Maybe play Klich in Phillips role and Shak further forward.
Morning all sit back and relax it's pressure on the other two now. We are six clear of Brentford and five up on West Brom. There is only six points to play for it is in the bag. Marcelo will unveil his master plan of rearranging the whole team for Derby and smash them (joking). He saw that white was confused and Ayling was out of his position and surely it must just come down to who plays defensive mid sunday. We have less days rest than the others at the top. How has this been deemed as fair. West brom play tonight so get the most days off i think it stinks.
Morning all. Agree totally on the Philips thing. Glad he didn't get injured four games ago. If I remember rightly, weren't we poor a while back when he served his three game suspension? Anyway as pointed out by Matt, we were due a scrappy win having had the points nicked on us a few times. Have to say, not sleeping well and ecstatic at end to the season. What a wonderful distraction to the other ****e so many are having to deall with. Oh, and I nearly forgot, Villa blew probably their last chance of survival in last five minutes last night
Morning all. Nerves are shredded after last night, praying that one of WBA and Brentford slip up beofre the Derby game. Eire - we were playing ****e for a couple of games before his ban. Dreadful at home to the Wendies (lost 2-0) and then away at QPR (lost 1-0).
Very scary indeed Rich No cover for Phillips was always a risk which could have hurt us badly in the end, without KP & Pablo we are just an ordinary team.
I felt physically sick & drained throughout the game, for once I didn't enjoy my dinner afterwards as my stomach was so churned up
Also usually go straight off to sleep & snore my head off, last night I was restless & took hours to drop off Leeds United still get to me even after a victory
Without being too graphic 64, I got the ****s after the match, I put it down to stress.(and not a dodgy ale)
Morning all. First off a big well done to Barnsley. By far one of the best teams I've seen is play this season. I know other teams have made it hard for us but normally by putting 10 men behind the ball. Barnsley came at us and played us at our own game and it very nearly worked for them. They deserve a lot of credit. Phillips being out was the first problem in formation. Facing 3 forwards was the second. Im not trying to turn this into a Barnsley love in but a lot of our problems were coming from having to change formation to counter the changes they were making. We looked disjointed and confused. I think i would be right in saying that we have not played that group of players or formations under Bielsa before. Fair play to Barnsley but well done to our lads. Although poor by our standards a good battling display.
Apart from the 3 points the best thing about last night was we found ourselves a new player. Struijk considering his lack of game time and experience was a revelation. After his one error, dawdling in possession just after coming on, he really got to grips with the task, made countless tackles, won everything in the air and used the ball simply and well including a great pass through for Alioski which nearly resulted in a goal. In contrast Klich and Dallas were off the pace and really struggled at times as Barnsley threw bodies forward. Clearly we needed more energy in midfield and Shackleton should have come on earlier but I guess we had to be aware of using all our subs too early. With Phillips still out and Costa likely to join him on the sidelines Bielsa has some problems to solve before Sunday. If we allow Derby the same amount of possession in our half of the pitch it's unlikely to end well for us.
