Good Morning. It's Tuesday 22nd December, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher leapt to the defence of Leeds Utd on Monday night football The former Manchester Utd and Liverpool legends not only defended Bielsa's style of play but (Neville) said the way Leeds play reminds him of Barcelona sides of the past. Their remarks infuriated fans from other clubs who took to social media questioning how a team with such a poor defensive record can receive such praise? Gary Neville was quoted as saying “I’ve watched four games from Leeds United this season,” “How can we watch what we saw yesterday… the game against Man City was one of the best 45 minutes I’ve seen in the last 10 years working at Sky… that yesterday was breathtaking. “I haven’t got anything to bad to say about them. They’ve just come up from the Championship and they’re a breath of fresh air.” Carragher quipped, “I love watching them.” please log in to view this image Cooper set for spell on sidelines Leeds will hear the extent of Liam Cooper's injury later today. The Scotland International was substituted with 20 minutes remaining from the Old Trafford mauling on Sunday afternoon. Cooper was visibly in pain, limping heavily to the touchline, where he was substituted. Leeds festive fixtures have been kind to them. Burnley travel to Elland Road this Sunday, followed by a trip to the Hawthorns two days later. Bielsa's men must pick up at least four points from the available six to keep distance between themselves and the Premiership trap door. Diego Llorente rejoins the first team for training today following the injury the Spanish International picked up late on in the defeat at Stamford Bridge. The muscular sprain was different to the injury he picked up on International duty, which kept him sidelined until early December. We can guesstimate that the Leeds skipper will be out of action between 2-4 weeks. The answer may be to promote either Cresswell or Casey from the U23's? The England youngsters was fantastic during their 7-1 demolition of Fulham yesterday! Thoughts? please log in to view this image
Morning, Important to have Llorente back to counter Burnley's agricultural football and aerial threat. Cresswell and Casey were already on the bench as CB cover as 9 substitutes now allowed. Having said that I wouldn't mind seeing Phillips partnering Llorente at CB, Ayling back to RB and Struijk DM (starting to look more than capable in that position) with Dallas LB. Lots of cover with all players able to play in multiple positions (Davis, Shackleton etc) Obviously these players are inexperienced but it's a long term project. Keep picking up points from teams in the bottom half and we'll be fine. Even just one win from the next two games and it will be 20 points from 16 games (on course for 48 points this season - more than enough) Time to look at the bigger picture instead of overanalysing defeats to multimillion pound established teams. Think where we were as little as four years ago and enjoy where we are now, and how much better we will become.
Morning all.... No point investing in the U23s if needs must and we ignore them. Cresswell or Casey on the bench, I’d imagine we’ll see Ayling CB with Struijk alongside him. Apart from Struijk alongside Ayling you know Bielsa won’t make any other changes, to be fair, there are not a lot more options open to him. Maybe Dallas at LB and Shackleton at RB but I doubt it.
Llorente in for Cooper. That should be the only change for Burnley. It's a different game. They will come to defend and stifle. Hope to get set pieces against us. We shouldn't get exposed the same as against Chelsea and scum. We need the creative players for this one.
Love the idea of Ayling back at RB and Dallas back at LB, but on Cresswell and Casey playing together in this match maybe not. The idea is good because they are a formidable duo and probably the best CB pairing in Prem2. However I can see Wood and Barnes bullying them around giving them a “welcome to the big league” time. However it may also be the making of them and showcase what they can do? Our aim is to stay above the relegation zone and not worry about getting tonked by top 6 sides, and we’ve played 4 or 5 of them already and at least got one point. Chelsea squad valued at £450m V Leeds squad £127m. Have a look at Man Utd squad valuation when a CB costs £85m a AM £95m and thats just 2 of them. They have players on £250k per week or £13m per year or top player earns £30kpwk. Liverpool always pay top money in wages and have spent serious cash in the transfer market for that squad. Man City squad also costs zillions and even Leicester squad is worth 3 times ours. We pick up points outside of top 8 clubs and we will be well comfortable
We stay up and we spend another £100m on 3 new players and all of a sudden we are a comfortable mid table Prem team. Do the same in season 3 and we will have almost replaced every player that got us out of the Championship and now doing battle for 10th to 7th places at worst. It takes a lot more cash to get into the top 6. We just need to get behind Bielsa and hope he can keep us up this season
After watching a bit of the U23 I hope he's looking at Cresswell because the kid looked good in the air. That alone would help us. The next 2 games could be the difference between whether we struggle or not this year, 6 points and we'd be comfortably mid table. MOT
Morning all, Llorente being back is good news. For me he should play alongside Struijk in the middle letting Ayling and Dallas revert to lb & rb respectively. This will give us much needed height in the middle, give us back the forward runsc of Ayling and give confidence to whoever plays in front of Dallas, enabling them to concentrate on being defensive and not have to worry about Alioski.
Cresswell looked like a good player in the U23 game, but still quite short, the stats say he is only 1.83m - 6 foot, Casey is a couple of inches taller or 50mm. To me that seems on the small side for CB's, or am I getting too concerned about our perceived set piece frailties?
Not sure Bielsa will risk Llorente again as he wanted him to play a couple of 23 matches before bringing him back, but got rushed straight back in and we saw him straight out again. So I expect him on the bench. Struijk can play LCB so expect him with Ayling, but who knows with Bielsa. Murderball will probably be Wednesday this week and where Bielsa will make team selection
Oli Casey (20) has been a big part of the U23 squad for a while now and has played alongside Pascal Struijk before young Charlie Cresswell came up from the U18s. Young Charlie is only just had his 18th birthday and is still growing. Casey is older and a bit taller. Cresswell is the better baller and reads the game great and he scores goals. Both play football and do mazy runs out of defence and can ping cross-field balls. So all our CBs now all versions of Ben White
Funny enough I did check their height on Wiki yesterday and saw they were a bit short for a CB pairing. I then Googled to see what kind of average height gains a male could have after 18 years of age, it said zero
Liverpool U23 coach on Bielsa on TalkSport... Talking about Bielsa, O’Neil said, “I like him. He’s a fascinating guy. Every coach I speak to is fascinated about him, the top guys speak very highly of him. “He’s out there inventing his own way. “I do think the way Leeds go about some of the games… I know they’re going to lose. “You go to Man United and go man-to-man against a team with better players, you’re going to lose. “I think they’ll get enough points to survive so it will be job done this season. I think they’ll stay up and that’s the aim for Leeds.”
Leif Davis was the only player to come off after 45 minutes for the u23s yesterday suggesting he is in contention for a first team place.
Another one going to make it and this kid has captained the U18s and the U23s in one game. https://www.leedsunited.com/news/academy/27500/charlie-allen-signs-professional-terms
