But for a good save he'd have scored. Like yourself Doc, I've been watching him with the under 23s, but this was a step up and playing against men. But he showed that he could mix it.
Even throughout social media week in and week out fans have been calling for Gelhardt to start after seeing and hearing his rave reviews in the U23s. I don’t think he has actually surprised anyone when it comes to Leeds fans, it’s more a relief he finally got 30 minutes under his belt. I heard Michael Dawson who was commenting on the game say Gelhardt might be a new name to a few in the Premier League but he has played against him when he was at Wigan and he along with a few others knew he was going to be special. I guess we just trust Bielsa with the slower than we wanted introduction but it was a huge positive on what was very nearly a dire Saturday
It’s a theory. Here’s an alternative one. maybe he signed James thinking he could also play 10… and didn’t want to take Raph our best attacking player out of his best position? maybe his introduction of gelhardt which was a tactical swap for klich was perfectly timed… 25-30 mins against a tiring defence. It’s great that joffy got some time and delivered. But not too sure where this gelhardt replacing Roberts stuff comes from… bielsa has been largely playing Roberts as a midfielder/link player. In fact in the second half when klich went off he was arguably our only midfielder! Our most dominant part of the game was with both players on the pitch. Gelhardt’s chance in the last minute came from a beautifully weighted ball from Roberts. Roberts can be a frustrating player, but jeez the slating of him is relentless. Gelhardt is really competing with paddy and Rodrigo for a lone striking position which is why he’s found opportunities limited until now. He’s shown yesterday that he’s capable of making the step up, which is brilliant, but let’s not overload the expectations on him.
it’s true he mixes them up, because he likes that versatility and wants players to develop skill sets and be fluid, but he seems to see gelhardt as a striker. I think everybody trumps Roberts in the fans eyes
Maybe Radz should mix it up a bit and let Doc pick the team, we may score a few more goals if Gelhardt starts
here you go: meslier Dramah hjelde cresswell firpo Phillips Raphinha bogusz Summerville Greenwood Gelhardt not a bad side to be fair
Afternoon all. There's so much to go through regarding what's been written on here and what actually happened on the pitch at ER that I'll have to deal with it one point at a time. In no particular order then; Marcelo's inability to change ? We played 4-4-bloody two FFS...I'd say that was a radical shift from anything we've seen in the last three seasons. Struijk & Klich played as two central midfielders with Rodrigo & Dan James as the front pair. Of course it wasn't rigid but at no point did anyone play as a holding midfielder, we went 2 against 2 with the Wolves midfield pair and it worked as we dominated the game from the first whistle. Now I would expect uniformed pundits to get things wrong about Bielsa, but when our own fans can't appreciate how we've tactically adjusted and still crticise Bielsa's inflexability it really takes the biscuit.
More about the 4-4-2 and.... Yep you guessed it Tyler Roberts. Roberts came on at HT and played as one of the front two, he did ok but we still didn't look like breaking down an obdurate Wolves defence. Marcelo, to his credit (again) could see this and so brought Geldhart on (I'll say more about Joffy later as this is about Tyler). Roberts then showed great tactical awareness to go and play as part of that midfield 2 with Struijk. It's side before self remember and Tyler along with Dallas, James, Shackleton, Struijk etc were all hugely important as we continued to dominate the game but now with 5 attackers on the pitch. Often you see a team bring additional strikers on but then lose the supply line to the front, not yesterday and that was vital in enabling the late equaliser. Bielsa will have been absolutely delighted with Robert's 45 mins and rightly so. He closed down, made important tackles, was tactically aware of the shape and still managed to get forward into the box to pose a threat and engage defenders. In other news...Roberts misplaced 2 passes into touch and therefore got slaughtered by certain sections of the fanbase.
With only 2 in central midfield the distances between players would be greater I guess. Not sure if we made a significant amount of longer passes but we certainly played differently to when Kalvin is part of a three man midfield.
that’s all very well Jammy, but of more importance to the fan base, did he champion adversity and do any black power salutes?
Not sure if there will have been room in the dugout now there's 9 subs ? Let's just say he did or at least wanted to
