Good Morning. It's Monday 1st August, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Leeds destroy Cagliari in eight goal thriller A crowd of almost 30,000 were on hand to witness an eight goal thriller as Leeds turned on the style, during their pre-season finale. Jesse Marsch's men spent most of the first half camped in the Cagliari half, but Leeds finishing was poor. It took a moment of absolute class from Rodrigo to break the deadlock. Roca's diagonal long ball found Kristiansen deep on the right. He sliced open the Cagliari defence with a pass to the edge of the area, which Rodrigo latched onto. The Spaniard twisted and turned to create the space to hammer the ball into the roof of the net from fifteen yards. Rodrigo grabbed another, just two minutes into the second half, after great work from Bamford. From that moment onwards, the floodgates opened. Bamford quickly made it three. Arronsen's through ball calved the visitor's defence in half, as the one time England forward latched onto the ball, making a beeline for the Cagliari goalmouth. Having not scored in 2022, Bamford could have been excused if he had fluffed his lines; instead, he showed the predatory instincts that made him a household name, not too long ago. At 3-0 up, and 40 minutes left on the clock, Leeds took their foot off the accelerator, and were duly punished The visitors delivered deadly strikes in the 66th, and 68th minutes to reduce the aggregate to one. After a few nervy moments, Leeds regained control of the match. Harrison linked up well with Struijk to provide Leeds' fourth, and Bamford's second with 20 minutes of the game remaining. The sought after winger was able to ride the challenge of a defender, before cutting the ball back to Bamford, who obliged from close distance. Bamford was instrumental in setting up Leeds fifth. He threaded a forward ball to Arronson. His strike looked to be heading for the goal, but with a hat trick on offer, Rodrigo couldn't resist poking the ball home from two yards. Koch scored Leeds sixth and final goal in the closing moments from a well executed free kick from Arronsen. please log in to view this image We're ready - Marsch Jesse Marsch has told Leeds fans that his squad is fit, strong, relatively healthy and more importantly, ready to go! The Leeds Manager was speaking following the 6-2 mauling of Serie B outfit Cagliari yesterday evening, which saw Rodrigo grab a hat trick, and Bamford register a brace; his first goals of 2022! "There are a lot of players on the bench that have worked really hard in pre-season and we thought about giving minutes," "But I think psychologically for that group to get a full 90 minutes and an intensive 90 minutes is important. "Now we can feel like we are going into the season fit, we’re strong, we’re relatively healthy and we’re ready to go. Still a lot of work to do but a positive step for sure." please log in to view this image Should we have kept Cresswell On the rare occasions Cagliari found themselves in the final third yesterday, the Leeds defence looked more than a little fragile. Whilst the performance will certainly be a shot in the arm, as they make their final preparations for the visit of Wolves. I can't help but consider whether Leeds did the right thing, sending Charlie Cresswell out on loan? The 19yo joined Millwall on a season long loan two weeks ago. He kept a clean sheet at the weekend over heavily fancied Stoke City, and scored both goals for the boys from Bermondsey. Whilst I'm sure Cressy will come back fitter and stronger next Summer, could he have broken into the Leeds starting line up this season? Needless to say, Lions Manager Gary Rowlett is absolutely delighted with the England U21 starlet:- “I just said to him: ‘It doesn’t get any better than that, does it?’ As a young player making his Millwall debut, he showed what he was all about," “I spoke to him Tuesday. He has worked incredibly hard and been excellent in pre-season, I just said: ‘I’ve been really impressed, you might have to be a little bit patient with the senior centre-halves we have got’. "Hutchy (Shaun Hutchinson) pulled out of training towards the end of the week, but it made the team selection easy – he went straight into the team. “It wasn’t just the goals – impressive as they were. He attacked both goals. It was the way he defended. He got a yellow card early in the second half but showed great control and great composure when to step in and when to come out with the ball. You saw his range of passing, I don’t think you’ve seen half of it today. “He’s played for Leeds and he’s played for England U21s, I don’t think it is any surprise – the quality he has got. It was a really, really good start.” please log in to view this image
A good weekend all around really. Cresswell MoM performance for the wall, plus a couple of goals. Also I know some wont be arsed but Jack Clarke scored for Sunderland, Shackelton had a decent game for the wall too and Nohan Kenneh was MoM for Hibs getting rave reviews. A good attacking performance from the lads last night with probably the starting side against Wolves all getting 90 minutes. Defensively it could be scary at times using a high line The rest of the squad played behind closed doors and got minutes in too with Greenwood, Summerville and Greenwood all finalising new contracts this week
Good Morning all from a sunny BaRDSEY what were the players ratings last nightplease What is the postion re LB and does PB look fit enough
When Cooper comes back, will he be an automatic starter? I'm becoming more and more impressed by Koch!!!
Morning all from an achey hungover wakey. Davy just saw me off at the train station and was good to see him. We started at 11AM in spoons at the train station. Made sure we found a pub for lunch. I can remember being still in olofs local at one in the morning. Thanks for the company olof and his mates a good bunch. Enjoyed it so much we went back after the game.
Because of the child like replies on here sometimes, if i ever have to refer to him i will just call him Robin Good morning all
Cresswell is ok where he is, I watched the Millwall game on Saturday and was impressed what I saw with the lad, he even started dishing out orders in the second half, he took a Stoke player out with a good tackle and they both slide off the pitch, a young ball boy gave Cresswell a little hug and he rubbed the lads head, yes they love I’m already……. he’s going to be better than Ben White, said it before an say it again.
Think Cressy is in the perfect place. he's going to get ample game time which will bring his game on even more. He's in a hostile place which will also bode well for his future. I've always said these young lads need regular first team football something he was only going to get in dribs and drabs here. you only improve yourself by playing the game and at a good level in the right environment ie facing a regular hostile crowd home and away. rather than warming a bench or playing Infront of one man and his dog in a slower paced game in the 23's. It's all up to him now to show us he want's that CB shirt at Leeds, he's done a pretty good job in showing that in his 1st game, but one game doesn't make a season. he now has to knuckle down and produce the goods on a regular basis and make a name for himself.
Hiya mate. Was gonna post some ratings but got home late and been working all day. Meslier - 7. Not much to do. Couldn't do much with the goals. Made a decent stop first half from a one v one. Kristensen - 7. Fans are gonna love him. Sustained a cut to the head after a challenge but soldiered on. Linked up really well with Aaronson as you'd expect after playing together at Salzburg. Never stopped running up and down that flank. Looks a superb signing. Koch - 7. Done for pace by the rapid #9 on more than one occasion as was Llorente but won his aerial battles and notched a header in injury time from an Aaronson set piece. Llorente - 6. Similar to Koch as above but without a goal. The pair look susceptible to pace. Steady performance. Struijk - 6. He's not the answer at LB. Handled it OK for the most part though and actually got forward a fair bit. Missed a couple of half chances from corners. Roca - 6. Mixed bag. Played some sublime long passes which are as good as KP any day but had a couple of iffy moments playing it shorter and put us under pressure a couple of times. That would cost us against decent opponents. Adams - 8. Was everywhere. Ran his heart out. Very neat and tidy in possession and broke up play well. No problem sitting in when the full backs bombed on. Was my man of the match and looks just what we need in the middle. Looks quick over 10 yards too. Harrison - 7. Lovely footwork on a few occasions. Set up Rodrigo's second. Hovered around a bit more centrally and thrived. Should be a bit more selfish in front of goal. Ridrigo - 8. Hard to criticise a player who scored a hat trick but he probably should have had far more. Always wanted that extra touch which slowed everything down then appeared to over compensate by blasting one first time over the bar with his wrong foot. He wasn't terrible but I was left frustrated by his hesitancy throughout. Aaronson - 8. U.S.A, U.S.A, U.S.A. I've been a bit nervy about him but having watched his movement, speed and control last night I think the lad could be the closest thing to Pablo since, well, Pablo. Never saw him stop running and harassing all game. Exciting to see how he performs week in week out. Bamford - 8. Captain for the evening. No signs of rustiness for me. Looked fully fit and up to speed. Involved in a heck of a lot of good stuff from us.
Great point here because we see countless great players who just cannot handle the crowd. The shirt becomes too big for them and sending our kids to hostile environments where the crowds are passionate can only be a good thing. Drameh at Cardiff worked for him and us
Wouldn't disagree with any of that Emu. Bamford will probably only last 60/70 mins on Saturday though as the PL is far more intense than yesterday's game.
Good afternoon all Solid performance yesterday against mediocre opponents, but you can only beat what's in front of you, and that we certainly did & did it well. for those that might not have seen any highlights yet (and i apologies if this has been posted already) heres the link. Very Very impressed by Aaronson tricky little bugger and others have said ran his socks off, could be the PL find of the season. Great to see Paddy looking Sharpe as well. Things actually looking as though their coming together. Five days to go and i can't wait.
