Match Day Thread Brighton V Leeds Utd Match Thread

And you clearly have never heard of the term 'total football'. Everyone but the 'keeper was a square peg.

Look at Pep's team. Can you determine who the square pegs are? Almost all of them is the answer! Take Foden, for instance. Any idea what his position is? Nope? Well, you're in good company. Pep doesn't know either & has often stated this, hence him playing all over the place. Brilliantly.

 

Spot on, matey. Our 'triangles' were most efficient on the wing when we were overloading, but can you remember the last time we used overloading? We might have tried, but I can't remember it being used this season. Well, not effectively or noticeably. Yesterday was all long ball, just like Brighton forced us to do. How many times did we play out of the back? I can't remember it happening once, tbh. So the question with the horrible answer is: 'did Brighton boss us, or did we set out to play in that manner. I think they bossed us. End of. Move on.

 

Forshaw is settling back in nicely, he is getting through lots of work, always available in space, distributes simple but effective balls around the pitch.
To be fair to the lad I think some people criticise (and they have a right to give there views) but I doubt if they have played the game at a descent standard, and no …playing for Dog & Duck on a Sunday morning does not come under that category.

 

Not calling for his head but a feeling we need some early direction. What is the best way forward in January, sign Bielsa targets and he might not be here in the summer? It hasn't mattered so much in previous seasons but we have a serious risk of relegation. Is Bielsa willing to stay if we go down and get us back up? Is he off no matter what, signing a player because you want to become better and play PL football is out the window if you're trying to sign someone in January whilst being in a relegation dog fight and having a coach who is off in a few months and rumours flying around that you're best two players might be off.

Something just all feels wrong at the moment

 

Overlaps aren't there - on the left Firpo can't do it / hasn't the pace and IMO the midfield are nervous about that so they don't do what they're supposed to do. Harrison is misfiring full stop. On the right, we haven't settled there so the overlaps aren't happening. KP providing that accurate, quick, diagonal ball is also absent.

 

Teams that might struggle against our style of play just need to line up with two forwards. They know this will mean we lose probably the countries best defensive midfield player who effectively becomes an average CB

When Kalvin is asked to drop into the back line we look disjointed, Like Doc said he is our QB who directs the play, take him out the game and we're a mess. Worse still it doesn't work as we really should have been 3-4 goals down that first half

 

You can't compare any of our players to the best players in the World (like Citeh). We have players who have certain strengths at certain things they can and cannot do, and should deviant away from this.

We are not a Barca of old, or a Brazil, we're Leeds, and our squad has limited ability. We have looked unbalanced at times by not playing players in their positions, creating holes everywhere in the pitch.

 

Nothing getting past that arm

 

And yet we got promoted with these square pegs. And made everyone love us with them last season.

I think Snr Bielsa knows a helluva lot more about the capabilities of his players than any of us do. Seen any transfer requests go in for players not being able to show their talents in their 'round hole' performances? Nope, not one. They're all just trying their best to be part of this historic passage of time for us.

Another thing - Bielsaball does not follow convention one whit. So your idea of a square peg might be a round peg to player, manager, or both. Ever asked a player if he has a problem being a 'square peg? Ever heard a player complain? Nope. Just stupid fans who think they know better than our expert coaching team. Spoiler alert - they haven't a clue. Nor do they have a clue in knowing what has been asked of the player by Bielsa, which is a fundamental when considering performances.

 

We spent 5 times more than other teams

We bought in

Casilla 50k a week
Harrison 2m plus wages
Costa 15m
Augustin 18m
Meslier 5m
Nketiah 2m plus wages
Douglas 30k a week

 

Lot of outgoings too during those 2 seasons-
Vieira
Clarke (loaned back)
Pontus
Saiz
Peacock Farrell
Roofe

We invested no doubt, but we never really replaced Wood the season before either, so was the minimum required to compete.

 

Always seems to be certain type of fan who whinges the most when things aren't going as well as they could be.

Might have a rant about it later.

 

I’m guessing it’s the type of fan that doesn’t / you don’t agree with

 

Not at all, nothing wrong with having different views on tactics, team selections etc.

 

Go on, you know you want to...."nothing wrong with having different views on tactics, team selections etc" But.....

 

Perhaps you can fill in the deliberate omitting of the last sentence Eric ?

 

Perhaps just leaving the thought hanging in the imagination makes its lack of definition more ominous and menacing?

 

I’ll wait to see what type of fan you mean then