This is what gets me, Bielsa inherited a not very good championship team and turned them into a top championship team. He didn’t have time to do anything other than work with what he had. Give him money and he spunks it
Meslier, White, Raphinha, Bamford have all been good signings. Rodrigo, Harrison, James, Koch, Llorente all should be good enough but are too hit and miss. The rest have not been good.
I’d actually say only Dallas can be proud of his efforts this season. Koch and Forshaw have also showed some decent stuff. Meslier may have saved us a few goals but he’s definitely contributed to conceding a few as well. Bad at the near post and horrendous distribution for a GK that plays in a team that play out from the back.
Yep Meslier has started to drop in form recently but as a 21 year old who has faced more shots than anyone else (except De Gea) I think he has done OK.
He’s a very good young keeper, who has a bit to learn on his distribution and positioning at times… he’s a very good shot stopper but makes the odd mistake like all keepers. People talk about the saves he makes but that’s more a reflection of the amount of shots we concede. If we’ve conceded the most goals this season then making the most number of saves would be expected. There are ranking systems for keepers that take into account the difficulty of each ‘save’/opportunity… it’s a kind of expected saves… like an xg for keepers. These things are always flawed but give an indication. Meslier was middle of the pack last year… but near the bottom this year… suggesting a dip in form. https://the18.com/en/soccer-entertainment/epl-goalie-rankings-2020
But remember Meslier was back up for Bielsas first choice Kiko so we were very fortunate at the time but relying solely on a 21 year old keeper when he needs taking out the firing line is another mistake. Yes he makes some great saves but he does a fair bit wrong too. We just think he’s better than he is because we’re comparing him to the dross keepers we’ve had before him Bamford has had one good season, he misses a serious amount of chances, we all said we need better, we thought we had it when Rodrigo arrived. Bamford is living in our minds on last seasons form. I’m not saying he is a bad signing but I’d not be sorry if he left for £20m when the new guy comes in.
Another game where most players ratings are a 3. Some 4s and a couple of over generous 5s. Can't believe that we have 11 internationals on the books (OK, 6 are domestic internationals) and they're still so piss poor.
Bielsa - It was a fair defeat. The difference should have been smaller, however. Not so much due to how we played, but because of the goals we could have scored. "We need to defend better. We need to make the opponents feel more worried when they have the ball, attack without defending poorly and defend without it preventing us from attacking." On Leeds' survival hopes: "I always have confidence in what I can do." Pity the rest of us don't.
Woodwork hit twice Struijk misses a sitter Dallas misses an open goal At least one penalty should have been awarded maybe two Rodrigo wide open 3 times and mo pass Yes we can complain but we had at least 6 goals there if we had taken them. This isnt all about Bielsa being bad, this is Bielsa refusing players in January and playing square pegs when he didnt have to. This is about stubbornness and not having a big enough squad and refusing to play Gelhardt ahead of Roberts and James. A big self inflicted wound
That's what we are going to rely on unfortunately....we aren't going to get ourselves out of it looking at these displays. 20 goals in 5 games is enough to realise that
