Good Morning. It's Monday 17th January, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Harrison hat-trick destroys Hammers Leeds produced their best performance of their injury ravaged season, as justice was served at the London Stadium, in front of 60,000 shell shocked fans. Having been defeated in controversial circumstances seven days prior, Leeds were keen to avenge the injustice, and deservedly took an early lead. Ayling's long ball found Raphinha deep on the right wing. He tee'd up Klich on the edge of the area, but his first time effort was well saved by Fabiański. Forshaw retrieved the loose ball, and rolled it back to Harrison, who blasted the ball through a sea of Claret and Blue to take a 10th minute lead. West Ham struck back twelve minutes before half-time, as Bowen headed them level from a corner. The scoreline would only remain level for a few minutes, as the visitors retook the lead from a corner of their own. Ayling's flick-on was bundled in from closer range by Harrison as the Whites took an unlikely lead at the break. The hosts took advantage of Leeds poor start to the second half, and drew level o 52 minutes. Pablo Fornals was given the time and space to weave his way into the Leeds penalty area before slotting the ball past the despairing diving of Meslier. Leeds have now conceded 13 times before the 46th - 60th minute, five more than any other team. In reply, Leeds have scored four! Leeds were not to be denied. With an hour on the clock, Raphinha sliced open West Hams defence with an inch perfect pass to Harrison. Alert to the danger, Fabiański rushed out to try and deny the Leeds winger of his first ever hat-trick, but to no avail. He clipped the ball past the on rushing keeper to send the 5000 travelling fans delirious with joy. Both teams had goals chalked off in the second half for offside, though Leeds fans will feel aggrieved that Klich's effort was disallowed, as Rodrigo was not interfering with play. Bowen missed a guilt edged effort to draw level, in the dying seconds, but Bielsa's men more than deserved their three points. please log in to view this image Leeds are 9 points clear of the drop zone. Can they afford to wait until the Summer transfer window opens? Injuries to Forshaw and Firpo took the edge off their astounding victory yesterday, and although Rodrigo looks to be on the mend, he will find it difficult to replicate Forshaw's contributions in defensive midfield. With Phillips sidelined until March, Forshaw was showing he was more than an adequate replacement for the England midfielder. The hamstring injury will be assessed today, but we shouldn't expect the 30yo to be back in action anytime soon! Firpo too tweaked his hamstring, though without a replacement, Dallas will have to cover, which if this happens, will weaken the Leeds midfield further. The other option would be to play Harrison at left back, and allow James to occupy left wing. Leeds are now nine points clear of the drop zone. Will the hierarchy gamble that they do not need to add to the squad until the Summer? There are two weeks of the transfer window remaining. If survival is the only thing that matters this season, do they need to bring players in this month? please log in to view this image VAR was right to rule it out - Clattenburg Former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg has insisted that VAR was right to rule out Klich's goal yesterday at the London Stadium. Whilst Social Media lit up with Leeds fans complaining about what they saw as an injustice, Clattenburg turned to his column in the Daily Mail to give his thoughts:- “Leeds thought they had made it 4-2 until VAR brought it back to 3-2 and the officials were right to do so,” he said. “When Mateusz Klich smashed his shot towards goal, Rodrigo was standing in an offside position. The ball hit him on its way in, and so it was a clear offence. “It isn’t a subjective decision, it is black and white and VAR was right to rule it out.” please log in to view this image
Clattenburg is right, but as debated yesterday, it’s not really what the law is there for. It was accidental, it didn’t impede any defender, it made no difference to the ball going in. You’d like to think they’d have some exceptions to the rules, but maybe they reckon the offside laws are complicated enough already! Whichever, luckily it didn’t effect the result, and that league table looks so much better this morning, as I imagine are everyone’s spirits - the performance was confidence inspiring.. energetic and vibrant with some slick passing. Haven’t got many players left though!
Morning all The offside was correct, it was just extremely unfortunate and how the letter of the law works. Assuming no more injuries I’d have Dallas in at LB and Ayling RB Struijk and Llorente CBs Koch the DM with Rodrigo and Klich in front of him. Harrison has cemented his place wide left freezing out James for now when Bamford does return. Yesterday might be the most important win of the season, in London, against a high flyer, away from home, Harrison will be on a high, a true turning point game. We just need three points against Newcastle then the international break will be a welcome arrival to get a few more players nearing a return. Also of note, a few bottom teams are playing each other this week, a chance for a serious gap to be opened or closed for a few In regards to transfers, Bielsa seemed concerned as to what happens when your injuries return when questioned after the game on Sky. He has such a loyalty to the players that have got us to the PL. I’ve been happy and amazed with Forshaw but come on, a Hamstring now, it’s time to replace him and call it a day. We need a CM this window but we all knew that already
Morning all. Still buzzing. I think Hjelde is perfect cover for Firpo, Llorente is back so Bill RB and Dallas MF. I took great pleasure in watching the West Ham fans on YouTube whinging and moaning. Imagine if we had even close to a full squad to choose from.
I think Hjelde gives us options at left back. He has slotted in superbly and looks like he has been playing this level for years. That allows Dallas back in midfield as Ayling can now go to right back if we play a back 4. That leaves Koch, Dallas and Rodrigo as central midfielders with Klich and Bate backing up. I think we can cope without bringing someone in but I'd love another body in midfield and possibly a striker on loan. If the value isn't there I think we have enough of a buffer to wait until summer. When summer comes, the 8 and 10 positions need an overhaul though. It's not been good enough this season. We can't afford to not strengthen in there for next year. We probably need two or three to leave.
Good morning all And what a wonderful morning it is especially if your a Leeds fan, still buzzing after yesterday, as for me it was not just about the result, but about the performance & commitment from the side, which was so reminiscent of last season. And as for Leo Hjelde, what a find looked so confident and accomplished from that performance, going to be another Pascal Struijk me thinks, only downer another two injuries, hopefully forshaw & firpo will be back soon.
Good morning all A major concern if Forshaw & Firpo could be long-term injuries, though it does seem we have cover for Junior with the surprise arrival of Leo Hjelde. Our squad numbers are diminishing game by game, you couldn't write it folks! Time for a couple of loan signings to bolster our squad, certain players can't be rested due to all our injuries. Feel really sorry for Klich as for the first time in ages he struck his shot sweetly only for the ball to graze Rodrigo who knew nothing about it to be fair Brilliant hattrick for Jack, loved his dinked third goal, last season he'd have hit the ball straight at the keeper, class finish. Now we have an unexpected nine points cushion, onwards & onwards to increasing our points total v the barcodes on Saturday.
As I was watching the game I was chatting on a WhatsApp group and there was a West Ham fan. When Bowen was offside for their disallowed equaliser, I said, "I'm surprised that was disallowed, he wasn't interfering any more than he was last week." He replied, "yes mate, I agree." I had to explain that I was being fkn sarcastic. Not one West Ham fan I spoke to last week agreed that the penalty decision was a travesty. The closest I got was, "you win some you lose some," "we've had so many of them go against us," and the best one, "They even themselves out over the season." It just fkn did and I'm glad they're crying into their jellied eels
Morning all There was no justice yesterday otherwise the Klich goal would have stood. I looked at the tv angle over the goal line and for me Rodrigo was on side when the ball was struck, worst case he was level. Not even interfering with play, but since when is level classed as offside, when the rules of the game state level is on? Last weeks injustice stood and was wrong on every level but WHU got away with it justice would have been to let Klichs stand! A fantastic performance though and young Hjelde looks like being at least as good prospect as Cresswell because he can also play LB. we have defensive options again with Struijk back as he can play LB, LCB and DM. We have Llorente back at CB, Ayling back at RB and have Koch and Hjelde to play around with too. It shows how much we need Phillips back when Bielsa admits that he had to share the workload out between Klich, Bate and Rodrigo to try and stop Rice and Lanzini. Rice was massive for them and ran the show which wouldn't have happened had Kalvin been back. But clearly shows we need at least one midfielder
There's no international break as such. The PL have free weekend (29th Jan) which was intended to give players a 2 week break at the end of January. Controversially though there are South American WC qualifiers rearranged for that weekend so Raphinha will have 2 games for Brazil on the 27th Jan & 1st Feb. However because of our FA Cup exit we now also have another free weekend on the 5th Feb. It remains to be seen what the PL will do about all the postponed fixtures but there is obviously some potential for rearranging games during the above period.
Rodrigo was level with the last defender but unfortunately the goalkeeper and the other defenders were all further away from goal so he was offside. Horrible outcome to a wonderful goal.
Keep looking at the table and a couple of things stand out: Wins = 11th Losses = 12th Goals for = 13th Actual Pos = 15th Brentford who are above Leeds have 2 more losses than us so in some respects we are sitting in a false position due to the number of defensive injuries we had earlier. Since defenders started coming back our fortunes have changed and we show a false goal negative difference which was done against the top teams with a weakened defence. We do deserve to be at least 2 places better off in my opinion.
One big positive this season is that some of the kids have been thrown in at the deep end. Some of them have took to it easily. Gelhardt, Cresswell, Hjelde, Struijk all look first team ready. The likes of Shackleton, Dramah, Bate, Summerville look promising but not ready yet. We've learnt alot about our 23's this year and probably earlier than expected.
What is slightly annoying is you can see Rodrigo furious with Raphinha not passing to him, if he’d just looked around and got out of the way instead.
Morning all, Great win yesterday. I will repeat what i said after the Burnley win, can everyone stop talking about relegation now and start looking up? Three points off 10th with a game in hand. We are two points off palace and everyone is raving about them while we are supposedly ****. With these new injuries we should be moving for Swift this week without fail.
Emu mentions 4 of the 23s who have broken through, I would say thats a massive result for the club and Orta. With regard to the others Emu mentioned Drameh had a brilliant debut for Cardiff so even if that turns out to be his level it will still show a huge profit for the club
Shame that Bielsa only gives them a chance when there are no other options though. It's the same with Struijk last season.
