I'd do what Brighton did with Ben White and send Cresswell out on loan to get some experience. Llorente and Struijk together with Cooper back up and Koch back up for Phillips or even with him. There will be plenty of opportunities for all of them if Bielsa decides to play his preferred 3 at the back.
Problem there is most managers inc Bielsa know it's important to have 1 right and 1 left footer in at CB'S, Koch and Llorente are both right footers, so doubt that would be his first choice pairing
Harrisons form has dropped off since we shelled out near on £20m for him (£11m + 3 loan fees) seem to be having a bit of success with some of our loan players for a change: Poveda showing what he can do now with a goal and an assist last weekend and MoM performance. Kiko still showing Spain International performances every week and for a relegation battled team. Davies with another MoM performance for Bournemouth and rave reviews about him from Parker. Bogusz is without doubt the league player of the year so far with 3 great goals and 5 assists. McCalmont is an ever present Costa is now doing a job for Valencia at long last Caprile also doing well and keeping clean sheets. Thats where it ends though as Edmondson, Kun etc are not even on the field much
Now that Bielsa is glowing about Struijk at LB I see it being Struijk and Llorente, Bielsa will love the fact Struijk can cover the left side when the LB gets caught out of position
Joffy pulled out of the England squad to get right again. He felt some discomfort in his last game, not injured but not right. I reckon he prefers being in Bielsas eyeline….
Players on the sort yourself out before Xmas and prove you deserve to be here. Tyler Roberts Jamie Shackelton Adam Forshaw. (Great start) Pointless adding the likes of Koch, Firpo or even Rodrigo because you will be whistling in the wind. But ould Klich be on that list?
Leeds United goalkeeper coach Marcos Abad has signed a new contract at the club until 2025. He joined in 2017
Some Italian guy on twitter with 144k followers is saying we have made contact with Forest about the availability of Brennan Johnson a 20 year old winger/AM. I'm assuming this is one for the future if true
Lots of talk about this kid for a few months and another who is out of contract which is upsetting Forest, but other clubs including in Italy, Germany and Spain chasing him too?
Never understood this thing between Orta and Abad, because Abad is a coach but for some reason specialised in keeping, yet is the smallest guy at the club. He has however spotted a few keepers recently that could save him after Felix and Rachubka. Remember too that we got rid of the England U21 keeper, BPF, Cooper Skerry, Kiko had problems but now sorted being back in Spain at Abads old club Elche. He also found Caprile, Meslier, Dani Van Den Hueval and Kleasson
Can't say I've been overly impressed by any of his performances for us. Gets stuck in, just about sums Koch up so far.
one game as a dm towards the end of last season he played well. Nice footballer, not a great defender from what I’ve seen… which is unfortunate given his position.
Koch is very hit and miss. He's either the best player on the pitch or the worst. There's no in-between.
Gotta be honest - Koch hasn't had a real chance to impress us yet, has he? He was brought in at the same time as Llorente, & presumably the same recruitment criteria was used, so there must be something there that hasn't had the chance to flourish yet. I hope.
he-played 17 times for us last season, far too early to write off a player settling into a unique and new team in a new country. I too hope he comes good, I can see a footballer in him, he just doesn’t look like a ‘natural’ defender to me - based on his performances for us. I only point this out when I hear people saying we’ve missed him or he’d be first choice for them etc… because I wonder what they’re basing that on.
Same here, I hope he comes good but we already have good in Struijk and Llorente, I feel Cresswell will also jump ahead of Koch for the time being. If Koch gets fit we might feel differently about where he is in terms of the pecking order a year from now but he’d never get in ahead of Cooper, Struijk or Llorente at the moment.
Think we all need to remember that Germany is one of the powerhouse International nations in football and if they continually pick Robin Koch then hes better than we give him credit for. We bought 3 Internationals and now 4 that summer and 3 are still being selected and play a different role to the role they play here. Koch has missed over half a season and Bielsa actually picked him for the start of this season where he got injured. Too soon to write him off
