Whichever way you look at it Bielsa is in the top three Leeds managers of all time. He has his own way of doing things - same as Revie and Wilko did. He makes mistakes - same as the other two did. For what he’s done for the club since arriving he’s surely allowed a bit of slack over what was admittedly a disastrous opening game against a far more expensively assembled team. So when you criticise his methods Wakey are you saying he’s effectively finished as a coach because he’s past his sell-by date? Or the players no longer respect him? What is it you’d like to see happen? As you know, he won’t be changing anytime soon. So I presume you’d like to see a change of manager - if so, who would you like that to be? In fact is there anyone else who could replicate what Bielsa has done and imo will continue to do? Personally I don’t think there is. Not just aimed at you btw Wakey - I just fail to understand the constant criticism of the current regime. After just one piss poor game. Enlighten me
Even if we could have got one of the top managers, he would have demanded a transfer war chest and would have replaced almost everyone. Phillips would have gone in week one and maybe Viera retained. Bielsa is unique and di this job on a shoestring budget and has improved every player. Morinuo destroys players who are worth tons of cash. And all these managers demand are huge.Bielsa demands things for his players and to improve their surroundings and improve their health. Different gravy and nobody should ever have a go. Have a look at who you would want to replace him in the Prem now? Only Pep could domit but would need loads of cash. Tuchel would need loads of cash one game and meltdown asnusual
The knee jerk reactions are just that. Everyone looks forward to the new season then gets hit with a disappointing result and performance. It’s human nature. re bielsa. The thing is his strengths are also his weaknesses. He has a unstinting belief in a style of play and set of values on how to achieve it and how fit players have to be to execute it, what their body fat must be etc etc. It’s this ‘on the spectrum’ attention to detail that makes him unique and each cog of the wheel has to function for his teams to perform. if he didn’t have that he would be just another manager. But that very same set of beliefs tells him that Phillips isn’t ready to play and Koch is the right option at dm for the Man u game. 95% of Leeds fans saw the team sheet and thought wtf. You have to take the rough with the smooth. He isn’t perfect, when wakey or some guy in Twitter gets infuriated with how stubborn he is, they’re right. I do too. But if he wasn’t stubborn and a bit dingbats we’d probably still be mid table in the championship. we’re lucky to have him
I've read the threads since the game but didn't see it. I watched extended highlights and a couple of videos analysing how Ole beat Bielsa. It's simple, Pogba, Fernandez and McTominay dominated the midfield. Only Bamford was available to press so Manure could play from the back which meant that the FB could push on, which meant that we were overpowered and outnumbered in midfield. That wasn't the biggest problem though. The biggest problem we faced was that Pogba had a worldy and we just didn't have the players to compete with that. Fernandez finishing was superb too. If we had Philips in MF with Dallas and Llorente at the back they wouldn't have had the space they had and those balls straight down the middle wouldn't have been so easy. When you've got World Class players playing at that kind of level you're always going to struggle. As for strengthening. We upgraded from Alioski. Llorente, Koch and Rodrigo should hopefully contribute more, we may see Forshaw back and our crop of U23s have had another year of Bielsaball. There's so much doom and gloom! Who expected ANYTHING frommthe first game at a packed Old Trafford? I thought not. Chin up
Wasn’t expecting a win but didn’t want the absolute drubbing we got either. Alioski knew the system so although Firpo will be an improvement he may take time to bed in. We’ve also lost Berardi and Pablo so unless Drameh, Geldhardt, Summerville and Greenwood are really on the verge of being ready it could be argued that the squad is weaker
I hate to be negative and perhaps too early to say but I think we've gone from one left back who looks good going forward but struggles to defend to a new left back who looks going forward but struggles to defend, hope I'm totally wrong.
He will be given a chance and like you say it's early days and it'll take time to get used to Bielsa ball, but he does look lost at times. I noticed this even in pre season. I suppose we're all desperate for him to succeed and because of his Barce connections you would hope he'd hit the ground running. Time as they say will tell.
One other thing we forget about Bielsa is the fact he saves the club millions each season. We know he prefers to improve existing players, rather than go into the transfer market and spend on better players for the sake of it. Kerching for the club, but remember he runs with around 10 fewer first team players than any other club in the Premier League and even in the Championship. Even at £15k per week thats a saving of another £8m in wages each year, and we are now in the 4th year
Alioski took a good couple of seasons to be “Okay” at times in the LB position. Annoyingly his best run of performances was probably the last 4-5 games he played for us. I can see Dallas covering the position a good few times until Firpo finds his feet. I’ve said all along that we’re relying on a lots of “If’s” this season if we wish to equal last seasons finishing position not alone exceed it. A win on Saturday half of us will be saying I told you so, a draw some will be saying it’s an improvement on last week and first points on the board, a defeat and we’re not going to be in a happy place. I’m probably on the fence as to whether we’re weaker or stronger this season, for me it depends on how good or not the U23s are. Either way, we haven’t strengthened enough and it would have been nice to have answers. You look at the fees being asked for Noa and Nandes, they’re both smaller fees than Rodrigo was. Bielsa only wants players better than we have, so have we no money left or does Bielsa seriously believe Klich and Forshaw are better than Nandes or that Costa, Poveda and even Harrison are better than Noa? All very confusing
Agree with most of that Rich I would add that with regard to the LB position the young kid Hjelder on his way from Celtic is actually a first team player up there. So he will arrive as a 23 to replace Davies and Huggins, but will cover Firpo too which leaves Dallas available for Elsewhere. I believe we will see a couple more players arrive, even if one is O’Brian. Lots of overpriced players out there and hoping Orta is waiting to pounce when prices drop near the end of the window. Things change fast in football, Rangers win the lot in Scotland so Ryan Kent staying and Rangers lose out and now lost £20m in Champions League money need to sell players ….
he played left back on loan but is primarily a cb I think doc, so is potentially cover for both positions. But my gut is at 18 he’ll initially be replacement for Casey in the 23s
Sorry for not taking part last night but i had a self assembly job on. I certainly stirred a debate up but that's a good thing. I am still waiting for some players to come in. Is firpo going to be the answer at left back?. I honestly do believe we will struggle without new players and that includes u23s stepping up. As for Bielsa his fitness coaching speaks for itself and his man management respectful. But he is too rigid as was proved first game. I thought this was a forum where debate and different views are welcome. Long may it be that way and i enjoy reading your replies to my views. One thing in our favour is no European games to tire out our smaller squad. Will Bielsa use cup games to try out different players and formations. His past form tells me yes leading to an early exit. In his head he set us up to win those cup games but football is played by men on a pitch. He's a great man and deserves his accolades. We need rads and the 49ers to step in and make some signings and upgrade this squad. We can off load players like Costa and Klich and maybe Forshaw who needs to be loaned out. Healthy debate is just that and for anyone who disagrees with me..... You are wrong.
