I've always rated Nketiah. He offers something different, and he's a predator. 10m for a young English striker is peanuts.
Morning campers. Not sure what to expect from Watford today as haven't seen them play this season yet. They've beaten Norwich (a) and Villa (h) so obviously they have some ability. However they failed to score away at Spurs and Brighton and also drew a blank at home to Wolves. Bookies make us odds on for a home win, let's hope they're right.
Wolves aren't a bad team pal. They may have lost 4, but only conceded 5 all season. It will be end to end. Sarr is their danger man, he's scored 4 this term, and has a 7.39 rating, higher than any of our players on WhoScored.
Surely not? I’d at least give Gelhardt a couple of first team games first. In the U23s he has scored some cracking goals, he has a great finish and he knows where the net is. It’s exactly what we are missing. Within 25 yards of the goal and scoring with a well hit shot usually unstoppable and obviously on target, does it really change that much from U23 to first team? He is ready to feature, Bielsa needs to stop with his favourite Roberts before it’s too late
Bielsa doesn’t, won’t, will never, not even consider doing different. It’s his way, if it’s not working it’s still his way with a shuffle. If we signed Nketiah in January he’d spend another 8 weeks learning Bielsa ball again and then he’d sit on the bench watching Tyler Roberts get in ahead of him
Roberts cannot be deaf to the crys of fans wanting him out and Joffy in, so its really up to him now to go out and prove his worth. But this week Bielsa said he was sorry he had failed with Costa and Poveda and Casey and Huggins because he wanted them to succeed. Roberts really is now in the target and Bielsa will chop him at some stage….. unless he delivers
Mentioned Bogusz in last weeks weekender but he as just won goal of ghe month again as he also won it last month too. Maybe we should think about him coming back home in January?
Yes. It's a massive leap. The size of the leap cannot be over emphasised. You saw him against Fulhams 2nd string? They didn't give him an inch to move. Bullied him, closed off avenues, outmuscled him and shut off any space he tried to get in to. That was against Fulhams reserve defenders. The same Fulham that finished in the relegation zone last year. The teams he would have to face now would be a significant step up from that. The 23's is nowhere near the level required. To be honest, if we are not using Gelhardt, Greenwood, Dramah etc I would have liked them to go out on loan to the Championship and play at that level for a season. If they impress there then use them next season.
I think we can all agree we wasted a shed load of chances again, but yet again we were the best team by far and we didnt easenup this week. Thought everyone had a good game but boy how did Dallas miss at least 4: Klich 3: Rodrigo 1 Dan James 3 Raphinha 2…… never ending stream if great play botched at the end. But we won and hope we can now settle down.
It was bound to happen sooner or later. Leeds fans go to watch Pablo and his new club. This from Pablo’s wife
Kalvin Phillips’ new Leeds contract will make sure there’s no bad blood if he ever leaves please log in to view this image By Phil Hay Oct 2 Kalvin Phillips, they say, is the player at Leeds United who Marcelo Bielsa would allow his daughters to marry. The notion is hypothetical — Phillips is already spoken for — but a remark like that might be the ultimate show of affection from a man who gets close to very few people. Bielsa likes to drive Phillips hard, badgering him about weight targets and keeping the pedal down, but Phillips is his boy — the “teacher’s pet” as Patrick Bamford once said. It was Phillips whom Bielsa phoned after the 2018-19 season finished, for reasons that were unclear. Phillips missed the call and it went to voicemail, leaving him in the dark. Perhaps Bielsa thought his time as head coach was up. Perhaps he knew that Phillips was in two minds about his own next step. Whatever his motivation, at that moment Bielsa wanted to talk. Both of them had a decision to make that summer. For Bielsa, it was a straightforward choice between giving the Championship another crack or going home to Rosario. For Phillips, there was the more complicated weigh-up of leaving for Aston Villa and the Premier League or signing a new contract at Elland Road. The midfielder is assured that he did the right thing by staying with Leeds but those are easy conclusions to draw with hindsight. In that close season, and by his admission, his mind was full of questions. Would Leeds get promoted? Would his stock be as high in 12 months? If he said no to Villa and the Premier League, would the Premier League come for him again? Victor Orta put ended the transfer talk by telling Phillips that if he felt undecided, Leeds were not prepared to sell him. They would only cash in if his head was elsewhere. In the background, though, Bielsa sought an unequivocal promise. A half-committed Phillips was no use to him, he said. A half-committed Phillips would be playing in the under-23s. He wanted Phillips in all his power and glory or not at all and Phillips rejecting Villa gave him his answer. As Bielsa said on Thursday, the average player would have taken that move. Money and profile are seductive. But in that process, he learned something about Phillips’ personality. Bielsa tries hard to understand what he is looking at, without unnecessary bias. He can look at Phillips’ situation passionately and dispassionately and because of that, he can speak about the midfielder’s future without treading on landmines or upsetting anyone. Phillips has been threatening to outgrow Leeds for a couple of years now and clubs outside the absolute elite either manage these situations or let them run away from them. Bielsa saw this with Javi Martinez at Athletic Bilbao. Martinez was another of his projects, a player Athletic would have kept forever. But in came Bayern Munich and Martinez left. That was 2012 and that is how the world works today. Manchester United was a non-starter. Alan Smith taught people never to say never but Phillips will know the story of Smith’s defection inside out. It is perfectly obvious that poison still exists on that front, almost 20 years later. There are other players at Leeds who look at Phillips and gush at his development. They know his trajectory has gone past the point where he is anything other than Champions League material. They are proud of him and ambitious for him. It is one thing that jumps out whenever you ask the club about Phillips. There is no fear around him, no guilt-tripping and no wistful regret about what might happen in future windows. He is here for now and Leeds are delighted about that because the partnership with him has been a dream. If and when he goes, there need not be any bad blood. There are ways in which it could be good for everyone. As Bielsa said on Thursday, Phillips will know what to do.
Re U23’s, the step up is pace and physicality. Some players can adapt and some can’t, for those that can it usually takes a while to adjust although there’s always exceptions. Player I heard from said they were totally goosed after an hour on their debut… probably part nervous energy but they said the pace of the game was a real eye-opener.
