Agreed about those players being the future but for me Tyler is in there as well. Playing 90+ games by 22 years old is a positive and not a negative in my view. Of course I fully take your point about performances in those games and agree with your assessment that his contributions need to improve. I've also got this nagging feeling that all those injury problems affected his development more than we realise. Let's see where he is at the end of the season, if he lasts that long
He looks short of confidence and should not be bielsa gives all his players full support its his strength. Maybe tyler just does not have the mental strength to step up.
The game wasn't as quick back then either. Jack was picked for England because Ramsey knew that he wouldn't trust Bobby Moore so would always mop up behind. I'm a bit young to have seen Jack play live but I also reckon you might be doing him a bit of a disservice too. He was lanky. Us lanky ****ers always look slower than we are. That's how we get ya.
Salah just made Luke Shaw dizzy for 90 minutes. Shaw hadn't a clue what was going on and he has been talked about as one of the best full backs in Europe during the Euros. Maybe Firpo didn't do as bad as some might think against Liverpool. Salah is doing that to plenty of good defenders over the last few years.
Said it before and its all over youtube that Barcelona put Junior Firpo at RB in the champions league against PSG to stop Mbappe and the frenchy never got past hime once all game. Its there for anyone to see that Firpo is a baller and just needs to settle under Bielsa
I think that’s a possibility… it’s hard to say. He had a lot of injury problems and has been asked to turn from a teenage striker to an AM. He’s learning on the job… he has the footballing ability in my view, but whether he has it between the ears, is another matter. The PL is an unforgiving place, do we have the luxury of giving him more time? The fans have largely lost patience… how much does MB have? I’d actually like him to succeed for a number of reasons. Firstly, I think a lot of the negativity is down to the knee-taking stuff. That is completely inconsequential to me, he can do and think what he wants as far as I’m concerned. But I don’t like the undertone that if he doesn't set the world on fire, he’s going to get slated. He goes out on the pitch knowing that people are looking for him to fail. So I’d like him to shut them up. But first and foremost I’m a Leeds fan. I want every player picked to do well. If they don’t it’s the manager’s choice whether to play them again. As long as they try they’re fine by me. And I’m happy to criticise individual performances, just as I’m happy to say if I don’t think certain players are up to it and give my reasons… but I’m not into witch hunts. So I don’t like the glee with which people lay into him, as I wouldn’t with any player. So I’ll defend him and Cooper and whoever else is scapegoat of the month. Objectively I’m fine with him in the squad, but his position (if he’s now an AM) is one where the squad as a whole needs strengthening.
I too would like nothing better than having a kid who has been with us almost 4 years and cost us £4m to be saving us tens of millions of pounds. Really want him to succeed and he may at some stage but we are in a position where a small squad needs to perform especially when half a dozen first teamers are out. Tyler has had plenty of opportunities to grab his chance and in fact has had 93 attempts and has scored 5 goals and 3 assists in 3 seasons. I remember one very good performance in our promotion season and at most he may have had 3 decent games that season. But we talk about every player after every match. We get upset if Cooper has a bad game or Klich or Dallas or Harrison and Dan James, many slagged of Firpo who has only had a few games to learn Bielsaball and all those other players have had big highs as well. We all see Harrison on form almost ripping teams apart and scoring over 6 goals per season, we see Klich in almost double figures each season, we see Dallas taking over Pablos mantle scoring goals we await Dan James, we slagged off Rodrigo even though he scores goals unlike Roberts. Lets just face facts. Tyler Roberts hasnt done anything to make fans confident that he will ever do anything. Whereas everyone else slagged off has done it and you know will do it again. Not being unfair on Roberts hes been unfair on us fans
Hand on heart, I've never raised my voice to criticise him at ER. However, if I did, it's unlikely you'd be able to pick out my voice from the cacophony of abuse directed at him from our area (and perhaps the whole stadium for all I know). I also note that you have provided no contra-argument to my points, therefore I think it's safe to assume that I'm correct.
Very good points. But what percentage of fans adopt these approaches? The majority? A minority? Who knows? Simple answer - no-one knows! However, there's more to it than that. These 'independent' scribblers are also responsible for the data going into the graphics provided by their news outlets. The same people who, week after week, tell us that we'll be lining up 4-4-2, 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, 3-5-2 etc. The same people often tell us that we'll be lining up 4-1-4-1 when we face 2 strikers, or 3-3-1-3, 3-3-31 or 3-1-3-3 when only facing one striker. Basically, they know nothing about Leeds, & prove it regularly. Give me fans' impressions every day. They know who should be doing what, so their impressions of individual performance carry far more weight for me than many of the clowns who profess to be journalists. I exclude the YEP reporters, although I took a long time to take to Hay's replacement, and of course, Hay himself (although I can tell you now that he might not be so aligned to our wavelength if we were playing Hearts!
Sorry WJ, I thought you would have noted from my earlier comments that Bielsa would have been happy with Tyler because of his work off the ball. Seems as though those around you didn't notice or appreciate any of that. Maybe you all thought we played Struijk in midfield by himself after Joffy came on and yet still dominated possession ? You know that vital last third of the game when we might have been picked off on the break whilst pushing for an equaliser. Never looked like happening though did it ? Happy to report zero dissenting voices about Tyler from my side of the ground. Everyone seemed pleased with his contribution and the effort he'd put in to help the team. Also very well received at the final whistle when he came over to applaud the fans.
Watched the penalty celebrations last night and the funniest bit was Roberts saw the ball bounce in front if the goal while all the players chased Rodrigo to the corner, and Roberts attempted to smash the ball into the empty net but missed as skyed it. He was a foot off the goal line and missed
