Seems Phil Hay agrees with my assessment that playing Klich out of position and taking Hernandez off (for Roberts) were mistakes. Bielsa himself conceded he got the structure of the team wrong, although he didn't go into detail. Obviously the pitch being so rain sodden didn't help either but as soon as I saw our team sheet a defeat seemed the most likely outcome. Just can't get that Hernandez substitution out of my head though...we'd already lost a midfielder by replacing Shackleton for Poveda, so taking Hernandez off for Roberts just seemed a step too far and so it proved. Roberts had a little dribble lost the ball and we were totally exposed to the counter attack just 9 mins after the change was made and game over. Not blaming Roberts, he should have come on for Bamford that's all. Ok time to try and move on...but Struijk surely has to start on Saturday with Klich going back to his usual position. Nah it's still to soon, why didn't he replace Hernandez with Struijk and move Klich further forward ? Fresh legs in defensive midfield and keep the same structure/shape which was causing Leicester problems. I'm blaming Wakey...all his fault for banging on about Shackleton getting a chance
Agree Struijk to start but was you not taking note how poor Pablo was first half? Him and Shackleton were easily the worst two on the pitch. I’m feeling those annoyed over pablos substitution are basing it on him hitting the post and nothing else
Phil Hay can’t even get transfer news right (which is his job) so I doubt Bielsa will take any notice of his ‘tactical’ input.
Agreed about Pablo's poor performance. It was replacing him with Roberts which was more my problem. Second half we only played 2 in midfield so expecting Tyler to be positionally aware enough was a step too far in that formation....Struijk for Pablo would have been better and Tyler for Bamford. Also Maddison had just come on for Leicester so putting Struijk up against him would have hopefully stopped the counter attacks better. Instead Maddison was up against Klick who was probably tiring a little by that point.
Don't be like that, watching football can hopefully get us through this next period. The Masters even coincides with the International break so it's all "good" (for the crazy world we now live in).
It wasn’t so much that Shackleton was poor as invisible. Still only young, plenty of time to develop.
Just had a call from God and we were discussing the lockdown and he said Forgive them for they know not what they do
On the Pablo thing... again.... Pablo is not much different than he ever has been. He has always lost posession alot. The reason that he gives the ball away so often is that he is usually looking for THE pass that opens the game up. He is always ambitious and brave with the ball trying to commit defenders before squeezing the ball through the smallest of gaps in order to eliminate that defender from that particular phase. Most pro footballers can play the easy option and keep posession but the true game changers will always look for the opportunity to open it up. Not many have the ability to see and also execute the passes. Those that do it consistently are world class. Pablo was free. He can do it occasionally. When it comes off it wins the game. I'm not sure we have anyone else with that ability. Closest I have seen was the Raphinha pass against Villa.
Agree on pablo’s pass completion and the general reasons for it. However, brilliant as he is, he has always had days where he looks his age and can’t make a simple 10 yard pass. He was terrible first half, but improved in the second and didn’t look too tired... ... however, bielsa has consistently given him and Roberts 45-60 mins and swapped them. Presumably based on fatigue.
The game bypassed Shackleton but those calling for struijk May be overlooking that bielsa pulled him in the villa game because of the mobility of the opposition. Jamie shak came on and played great with klich in that game. On that basis why would he consider struijk over Shackleton against a side of Leicester’s mobility?
I seem to be in the minority in that I didn’t think klich was terrible. Some uncharacteristic misplaced passes in the first half but his usual industrious self. Our centre halves were all over the shop and didn’t know whether to stick or twist, Leicester got tight on our fullbacks and wingers and stopped the outballs and fed on a mix of some forced but often unforced errors as we panicked. Least that’s what I saw.
When Bielsa subbed off Struijk he brought Shackelton on and moved Klich into the QB role. It worked against Villa, it was gash against the foxes. anyone else seen the Premier League owners rich list, where Radz comes in at No18 and No1 to 17 every owners is counted in billions. 20 is Burnley
