Good Morning. It's Monday 16th August, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Leeds don't learn their lesson from last season Leeds got off to the worst possible start at Old Trafford on Saturday lunchtime, delivering a performance reminiscent of the Hockaday era! The floodgates began to open in the second half after Luke Ayling cancelled out Bruno Fernandez's 30th minute strike. The Leeds right back unleashed a missile into the top left hand corner from 25 yards leaving De Gea totally stranded. Unfortunately for the Whites, Ayling's wonder strike triggered retribution from the men in Red, as Manchester Utd went a second half rampage. Even the introduction of 13m signing Junior Firpo did little to stem the tide, wayward finishing from Solskjær's men saved Leeds from further embarrassment! Was it acceptable - No! Was it expected - Most definitely! Leeds inept performances in pre season have caught up with them! please log in to view this image Post Match comments from Bielsa Nobody likes to lose, but what did Leeds expect. If you play a team that is better than you, you have to change the way you play to make it more difficult for them. Playing exactly the same way week in, week out was always going to end on a sour note. Are there signs that all is not well at Elland Road? There are two comments Bielsa made that may give us a clue! His first was with BT Sports upon the conclusion of the game :- "To have lost the way we lost can't be described as just a blip." The second observation was when Popey asked how close Phillips was to starting? The Argentine replied: 'Kalvin's always in consideration to be a starter, but his lack of preparation hindered him'. Thoughts? Could Leeds resurrect Nandez deal Following the collapse of the deal to bring Nahitan Nandez to the San Siro, Leeds could once again be in the frame to bring him to Elland Road. The Whites have been pursuing the 25yo all Summer, but he made it clear that his proffered destination was Inter. The deal collapsed after an initial loan deal could not be agreed between his present employers Cagliari and Simone Inzaghi's team. Cagliari want €5 million, whilst Inter are only prepared to pay €3m. This has prompted Nandez to go on strike! If both teams are unable to work out their differences, could Leeds swoop in to steal the Uruguayan, especially if they are amiable to loaning him to us first? please log in to view this image
Morning all The media and pundits have started painting a picture of despair and we’re only one game into the season. They did this after every game we let in a goal last season n the early days. They all had to eat their words and some even apologised. Lets not start wrist slashing and slagging players off or even have a go at Bielsa. Lets just keep our powder dry and see how things progress. Bielsa will never change so pointless telling him hes wrong and needs to change. Hes pedantic and anal and he will resolve whatever needs sorting in his own way. After that result it was predictable that the lazy media would bring back stories of Cantwell, Nandez, O’Brian, Kent and everyone else linked with us. Just see what happens this week and next
Morning all… The result - I think it was different to last season, last season we played okay and individual errors cost us. This season we were pure and simply poor in comparison. Bielsa Blip comment - I’m unsure, is he just saying they’re miles ahead? This could well be Bielsas last season, disillusioned with the way money rules football, realising he’s took us as far as he can with the funds he has. Truth is I couldn’t see Bielsa feeling comfortable spending £100m on a player if he could? Bielsa Philips - Bielsa is simply being too methodical and set in his ways. Man Utds England contingent were ready, Shaw ran the show at times. Philips was only given 11 days out. It’s not like Philips doesn’t know what Bielsa expects. I could be barking up the wrong tree but I’m wondering if Bielsa doesn’t consider England’s training schedule stern enough.
Bamford Spurs Interest…. Is anyone concerned Paddy might ask for a move with the imminent departure of Kane? I don’t believe it will happen but I’d not rule it out, specially if he misses a couple of sitters and costs us points on Saturday and the fans start giving him stick. How terrible would it be? What price would cushion the blow? I think we’d comfortably get £60m for him, I’d be tempted to say roll the dice at £80m and play Rodrigo up top. With the funds Noa and Nahitan?
Morning all, Something definitely went wrong with our pre season preparations. We simply weren’t ready fitness-wise - which is so unusual for a Bielsa team. It still looked like we were in ‘building up fitness’ mode, as though we were a week behind schedule, which has a knock on effect on passing accuracy, on-field organisation etc. With having lesser players, superior fitness bridges the gap. It’s inexcusable not to be ready from the off. Declan Rice played for West Ham, and played well - why not Phillips? Surely they were both at the same levels of fitness. Doesn’t make sense. Having said all that I’m sure we’ll have a good season, especially when Llorente and Phillips are back and our fitness levels get back to being better than everyone else, but it’s baffling why we appear to be one or two weeks behind.
Good morning all fellow sufferers this morning Well I kept my mouth shut, after that rather inept/embarrassing performance for fear of what I might say. I have now had time to gather my thoughts, and came up with two positives 1. it was one less than last year & two, thank god it was a weakened team that we faced, otherwise it could have been a record score line from a season opener. My worry is it just shoes how much we missed Lorrente, because it seems to me, like last season, when he’s not playing (along with Calvin) we ship goals. Also concerning was our lack of a threat in attack, if it wasn’t for Luke’s screamer, we could have still been playing and not scored, I know it was still a very good Man Utd team we were up against, and I will be surprised if they put up a performance like that again, as I felt we gave them the freedom of the park, to do pretty much do as they liked. Bielsa will sort this out (but I wish he was not in the position to have to) and it will be a totally different performance against Everton on Saturday.
I think Paddy has a new deal waiting to be signed and on Phillips I remember last season when Phillips went straight back in after suspension or injury and Bielsa said that Phillips is always in good condition and ready to go. So I do believe Bielsa feels the England regime is crap and remember all players have to do bleep test and have fat checks done upon returning. Maybe Bielsa not happy with his condition after so many weeks.
Morning all, I think Saturday highlighted that we have yet to fix last seasons biggest problem - Phillips doesn't play and Bielsa moves too many players around to fix the problem. Koch, a cb playing in midfield. Rodrigo, a striker playing in midfield. Both were not good enough in the positions they were asked to play. To me Rodrigo does not work hard enough in midfield, especially against the better sides. We may be able to carry passengers against the likes of Burnley or Watford say but not against the top teams.
Doesn't really matter if other England players played for their clubs, the appropriate question is would any of those same players been picked by Bielsa if they were at our club, and given his comments regarding Kalvin, the answer to that is probably not. At the end of the day, with Bielsa being here for his 4th year now, we know that on occasion we will get trounced and be made to look ordinary, it's just disappointing that it happened on the first day of this season and was against the scum. Bielsa style of play and his quirks get questioned every time we suffer a setback, as happened with all the away games at WBA and Forest in his first season, Hull and Forest and Cardiff in the Championship winning team, Arsenal and Chelsea last season. Whilst I can accept that we shouldn't just accept everything on blind faith, Bielsa has been good for us over a 3 year period, with blips along the way. We know he doesn't need the money, so if he didn't have faith in the club, the players and his own ability, then he could easily walk away, but he obviously believes that he can still bring enjoyment to all us Leeds fans. Yes Saturday was embarrassing, even more so given who we played, and thus it has allowed all the usual media suspects to raise their heads from the sewers to try and sew doubt into the enjoyment and relative success the club has seen over the last few years. Of course being Leeds fans, there is no in between, we are either world beaters or not fit to play Sunday League football and whilst everyone is hurting at present, I have always said that we are not as good as some fans want us to believe, neither are we overall collectively as bad as the performance we gave on Saturday.
Personally think it would be terrible for us if we lose Bamford with the hard work he does. No one can replicate or replace that, Rodrigo doesn’t work hard enough as a 10 so wouldn’t as a 9 either.
I know it doesn't matter players playing for England, I was merely pointing out that it's ironic that the two players who were partying together, one was benched and the other who played his side lost. (I don't know if Ben White played well or not)
No one is in doubt about Bamfords work rate, but I do wonder if it hinders his goal scoring instincts.
Wasn't aimed at anyone in particular Shaks, a few people on here have said the same thing before you mentioned that, ie the number of scum players that played on Saturday and at the Euro's. I was just pointing out that because other managers are happy to play those players, doesn't mean Bielsa would if they had been available for him to pick. Obviously we all have our own thoughts about whether Bielsa is too obsessive or not over situations like that
I understand where you are coming from. On a different note I keep hearing from supporters that we should beat Everton and Burnley, but as you well know these aren't teams to have a bad day against. I'm expecting two tough encounters which could end up with us losing three on the trot and then the natives will really be worried.
Yeah, it probably does to be honest but if he doesn’t put that work in then we’re a different team and play a different way and I don’t think Bielsa is changing the way he plays anytime soon. I think if we sold Bamford Bielsa would walk.
Well said pal. We went from being the fittest club in the Prem, to lacklustre in two months, and being outrun by most of our competition that in all honestly all looked sharper than Leeds
We have been here before and this has been said many times before too, but we are at heart still a Championship team. bielsa took the decision to make this team have a spine of championship players at its core, just to make sure everyone was still part of the project. Bielsa didnt want get rid of players and replace with expensive mercenaries who would likely get us relegated straight back down, as happens constantly. Bielsa had a plan to gradually improve the squad and so he is. So the facts are and will remain for a while yet, that we are in the main a championship squad on the up, which at times will prove that they are man for man not as good as the opposition. As Aski says we will have another good season and will have some great results, but we dont have enough quality players to cover for so many players having a bad day. I watched Man City face a new look Spurs side and Nuno did what Bielsa did last season. He worked out that City leave themselves wide open at the back if attacked on the break at pace. spurs should have scored 4 but crap finishing and no Kane. So far Leeds, Villa, Arsenal, Man City and more decent teams on zero points. Man City will win the league again or come close alone with Chelsea, Liverpool and Man Utd. We cannot compete on a man for man basis with the quality of players or the prices paid for these players. We just need to accept the battering and move on to more reasonable battles
We would not need Banford if we signed two good midfielders. Then we could get a striker who is just that.
Perhaps el loco has hammered them in pre season and the players are just worn out. Pre season games and man utd game we looked so tired.
