Good Morning. It's Monday 15th February, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Aubameyang highlights Leeds frailties A Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang hat-trick, completed in the opening stages of the second half was enough to give the Gunners three valuable points, leap frogging the Whites into the top 10 of the Premiership. It was a day that Illan Meslier will want to forget. The 20yo was beaten at his near post after just 13mins. The scoreline was doubled five minutes before half time. The former Lorient shot stopper spent too long deciding who to distribute the ball to, and was tackled by Bukayo Saka. The England youngster took advantage of Meslier's out stretched leg, ending up rolling around the penalty area like he'd been shot. This was nothing more than Arsenal deserved. Minutes earlier VAR had overturned an Arsenal penalty when Cooper was given the benefit of the doubt that he out muscled Aubameyang in the area. The decision could have easily gone against the Scot as many saw the incident as clumsy. VAR didn't save Meslier, and Aubameyang made no mistake from 12 yards. Three minutes later, Arsenal stretched their lead to three when Hector Bellerin scored his first goal for two years for the North London side. A heavily defended Leeds penalty area was breached once again after good work from Saka. The Spanish right back once again beat Meslier at his near post. Two minutes into the second half, Arsenal made it four. Second half substitute Costa was dispossessed by Smith-Rowe. The youngster found Aubameyang on the back post, heading the ball into the empty net. After scoring three goals in seven minutes, it was Leeds turn to go on the offensive. Struijk netted his first goal for the club following a Raphinha corner. This was followed by 11 minutes later when Costa scored from twelve yards, after great link up play between Raphinha and Roberts. Arsenal missed a couple of guilt edged opportunities to extend their scoreline in the second half, though it was a comfortable win for the North London Club. Post match reactions from the Emirates Leeds Manager Marcelo Bielsa Arsenal Manager Mikel Arteta Do Leeds need to change the way they play? Four at Arsenal, three at Spurs, six at Old Trafford, three at Chelea, four at Anfield! Is it time that Marcelo Bielsa change tact against the top clubs in the Premiership. This weekend we saw West Brom hold Manchester Utd to a 1-1 draw. Do they have superior players - No! Is it a change of tactic - Yes! Whats more important? Style of play or points? Recently several Sports journalists have attacked the Argentine's tactics, saying Leeds will not improve as a team, unless they are willing to adopt change against certain teams! Agree? please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
Good to have you back El. We were always going to lose that one without Philips and in London. I wasn't keen on el locos changes either, but they appear to have been effective at some level. We scored two in London, couldn't have done that in a while and the team was 80% the championship winning side. Take that into account and he's still working miracles and the building process will continue
Morning all, Welcome back Ell.. So while there is a lot of criticism for Meslier on social media I personally think the blame for this one is all on Bielsa. Now we are all ion agreement that he will know more about football than the rest of us put together ever will but that does not make him free from criticism. I make that point because there is a section of social media who will come after you if you try and criticise him. Why just because Phillips was missing was there a need to move 3-4 players around? This seems like a 10 pound solution to a 5 pound problem. After weeks of upheaval our defence had finally become settled and was looking good. All of a sudden our best RB was switched to CB and one of our most impressive CB's was moved to a position we all know he struggles in. This meant playing a CM at RB in his first ever Prem start. Chuck in an erratic Alioski at LB. Does any of that sound like a good idea? This created the problems that forced Meslier into a lot of errors, most costly. The young keeper is under orders to play out from the back. His main outlets are normally Phillips and Ayling at RB. Suddenly these are not there for him. He needs time to pick out the ball to play. Arsenal were clearly under orders to pressure him and their tactics worked. The fault, this week, lies firmly with Bielsa.
Some other talking points. Costa- Very much at fault for their fourth as he was once again lightweight on the ball. However, after that I think he ha the best spell of football since the first 3-4 games of the season. That's the Costa we want to see. Bamford penalty- Anywhere else on the pitch it is given as a foul. Cedric made no attempt to play the ball and for me it was a penalty. What were the ref and VAR doing? Stuart Atwell could not point to the spot quick enough for the two Arsenal penalty shouts. Is the problem our players do not shout and scream at the ref like so many other clubs do? Imagine if that had been Cavani fouled for the Scum, the ref would have had 11 players around him until he gave the penalty. I know there is no way to be sure but if it had been given and converted then at 4-3 Arsenals arse would have fallen out and I believe we wold have gone on to draw and maybe even win,. That is the impression my Arsenal supporting mates gave me as well. They were expecting us to get a draw at 4-2.
Arsenal exposed a flaw in our system, they're not the first to do it but you need hard work and very good discipline. When our defenders had the ball they closed us down and cut out most options. Mesliers out ball is left or right wing but both were marked so he was stuck. The way around it is doing what Luiz did, carry the ball forward. We didn't do that. It was in London where, for some reason, we don't play as well, Philips would have made a difference and there were some positives in the 2nd half. I'm not going to read too much into it. Manure couldn't beat West Brom and Everton were turned over by Fulham so it could have been worse.
Morning all.. 1) Bielsa has to take part blame for the result. The guy is a genius and he is also very stubborn and set in his ways. Whilst I can side with him on don’t change the way we play, it frustrates me that he continues to make the same mistakes when either trying to accommodate a player or replace Phillips. 2) At the start of the season or should I say the end of last, I felt we needed a better Keeper than Meslier. A few games in I’ve changed my stance, give him this season for the experience and the chance to improve. 3) Rodrigo out, Shackleton, Costa, Huggins and Roberts selected ahead of Pablo, why did we not allow him to leave? Why was Huggins played out of position? 4) Hats off to Roberts, he was the best player on the pitch for us second half.
My god, I have just seen a twitter post showing the Cooper penalty shout by an Arsenal fan claiming there is an agenda against them because it was over ruled. FML their fans are embarrassing. Even the photo he has used to make his point shows Saka falling before the alleged contact he claims was a penalty. So cringeworthy.
Welcome back Ell Firstly no other way to start than to say Meslier was at fault for the 3 of the goals. Bielsa was at fault for all 4 in my opinion as we would have been better leaving everyone where they were and replacing Phillips another way. Even if that meant playing Jack Jenkins from the 23s as thats the role he plays, how much worse could the first half have been? A great fightback in the 2nd half and pleased for Roberts who I have critiqued all season, but his last 3 U23 outings have shown progress which I also highlighted. Well done him and he almost created 2 goals if only Shacks had finished one move off. Pleased also for Costa who after his disaster after coming on fought back and bossed things on the right as well as scoring a great goal. Niall Huggins did ok for his debut but sorry we didnt get to see him do his party piece for the fans who haven't seen him yet. Felt sorry for Gelhardt missing out again because of how the match played out, but sure he’ll get on the pitch soon. Maybe he will play for the 23s today because I believe Sam Greenwood is injured. So we are still 14 points away from the relegation fight and I hope we can put things to bed in the next 2 games as its possible we could take all 6 points, and also take nothing. We should have beaten Wolves last time and Im sure Saints will have a player wanting to show why Bielsa wanted to buy him last Summer. Maybe Bamford could show Danny Ings why he should play for England ahead of him The Bielsa criticism is all bollox generated by useless pundits, stupid ex players and a crap media, so its all white noise to me
Welcome back great leader. Must say i agree with this post in full. Meslier i never saw cooper put an arm around him at any stage. Bad captain for me is that and who was meant to be marking the guy with the free header. Thought Alioski was better than the kid that came on at left back. I was very critical of the subs but it worked out for Bielsa (after costas blunder of course).
A bad weekend all round for French goalkeepers as Lloris was as bad as Meslier. Lloris is the French National keeper and was shown up badly by City and Meslier is French U21 version hoping to take over from Lloris at some stage. The problem with being a keeper is you make a mistake and you always get punished. Bamford makes mistakes in front of goal but because he scores some of his chances hes a hero, maybe we should keep a count of the goals stopped by Keepers to give them an accurate stat to show how good or bad they are?
Welcome back Elland. Hope you're on the mend. I made the point that I didn't think we could beat the top six, only to be told not to be so negative. A part from beating Leicester, I just can't see us getting many if any points from the top six.
First of all welcome back Ell, now you have had a rest, been skiving again, now pull your socks up and get your flock posting like you do.......ok!! When young Huggins came on Wakey he was put into MF, Dallas went to LB, so it was musical chairs again player wise, sorry Amigo it was a big fck up from the first whistle and all points have been covered in previous posts, so pointless repeating, but after saying that do you think Mr. Arteta did his tactical homework, maybe spoke to his teacher Mr. Pep and the rest is history, i wouldnt mind Arteta at LS11 when Bielsa decides to go back home.
This tactical outmanoeuvring business is a smokescreen. As others have said, press high against us, cut out the out-balls short and wide and we’ll just keep giving the ball back to you. We have a team of light weight pygmies who are always going to get out jumped and outmuscled if tightly marked when the keeper goes longer. And meslier, generally a good shot stopper is simply not a natural ball player. we know all this, it’s hardly surprising opposition managers know it too. The only surprise is they don’t all do it. It depends on how well coached and capable their teams are to carry it out... and how fit they are to keep it up. By the way it happens sometimes when Phillips plays too... eg Burnley game... but it’s less likely to happen. I don’t think we currently have the personnel to consistently counter this effectively if it’s done well.
Have we been relegated or something? We lost to a team expected to finish Top 6 minimum with four of our five most valuable players missing, shame but not the end of the world for a newly promoted side. Onwards and upwards
