Good Morning. It's Tuesday 18th October, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Leeds monitoring McKennie Leeds are among a host of top flight clubs monitoring midfielder Weston McKennie. The versatile 24yo plays for Juventus, initially joining them on loan (in 2020), before making the move permanent a year later. In 64 appearances, he's netted 8 times. Juve have not had the best starts to their campaign. After 10 games, they find themselves in 10th spot, ten points off the pace. McKennie is currently out of favour at the Allianz Stadium, and are believed to be open to offers. Chelsea, Manchester United, Spurs, Borussia Dortmund, Atletico Madrid and Aston Villa are also credited with an interest in the USA International. please log in to view this image Raphinha continues to struggle Former Leeds ace Raphinha has been slammed by the Spanish press following another dismay performance for Barcelona. Following a brief honeymoon period, the 25yo has really struggled to make an impact for the Catalan giants, and was well below par during Sunday's El Classico, which Rel Madrid won 3-1. With just one goal, and one assist in nine appearances, the Brazilian is at risk of dropping down the pecking order, which could effect this chances of going to the World Cup next month. According to Spanish news outlet 'AS':- "Another of his matches to forget. The problem is that he’s already had a few, which raises more than one question regarding his signing. He did not leave on any occasion from the right wing, and he hardly helped in the pressure. Either he takes a step forward or the Brazilian can start to stick to the bench more frequently." please log in to view this image Gallagher talks through key decisions Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher believes Chris Kavanagh made the right decision by ruling out Patrick Bamford's goal during the opening stages of the second half. Speaking on Sky Sports ref watch, Gallagher was convinced that Bamford 'quite clearly pushes him' (Gabriel), which resulted in Arsenal winning a free kick “I thought it was a foul, when you see it, it is hard to say it is not a foul. The interesting thing is he [Bamford] has pointed to his chest there, to say it’s not handball I think he said to the referee. You see there he quite clearly pushes him, without VAR that would not have been given.” The second contentious matter was the penalty decision. Gallagher once again believes Kavanagh made the right decision in awarding the spot kick, and explains why the Gunners were not awarded a free kick when Kristensen wandered offside “This is the first one I talked about, I think it is handball. Not given on the field, but given by VAR. If the VAR wasn’t in play, it would not have been given. The referee’s decision would’ve been play on but you see quite clearly, it’s not just that his arm has hit the ball, but he’s moved towards it. Penalty for me.” “He {Kristensen] is offside in the build-up, but I think it goes on too long. The ball goes back, gets recycled, they talk about second phase, they talk about re-setting up, it takes too long so they don’t go back that far. It didn’t lead directly to the penalty but there has to be a point where they say reset.” The final incident occurred in injury time when Gabriel kicks out at Bamford following a tussle in the penalty box. It's quite obvious that Paddy knocks the Arsenal defender to the ground in the build up. Leeds fans can't argue too much about this one, and Gallagher agree's:- “I think it did, it’s a really interesting incident because the referee doesn’t give anything.” “If you watch the assistant, he says to him I think he’s kicked out violently, so it’s got to be a penalty as well because the ball is in play. He gives a penalty and a red card, but you see quite clearly that he [Bamford] has committed a foul.” “You then see the leg come up, it’s petulant, it’s unsporting but it’s not violent. When he goes to the TV monitor, VAR has said to have a look at it. I think ultimately the right decision has been made. I would also say without that, Arsenal could’ve possibly lost two points if that penalty had been scored and they would’ve certainly lost a player for three matches.” please log in to view this image Rodrigo - My bad Rodrigo has taken to social media to apologise for his kamikaze error on Sunday, which resulted in Arsenal scoring the only goal of the game. He spoke of learning by his mistakes, which, if he were a developmental player, perhaps he could be excused, but as a 31 yo Spanish International, entering the twilight of his career, surely is inexcusable. "Many times the learning process is given through the error. My bad yesterday. Looking forward to the next one." please log in to view this image
Morning all. Nothing more to say on Arsenal game. Points thrown away but next two games were always going to be huge so roll on Leicester. We’ll learn a lot about Jesses team in next five days. I expect three points which will probably leave us in a similar position to our present one
I don’t always agree with Gallagher but can’t argue with his assessment of the various incidents. I felt that rod (and raph) when he was here were both guilty of trying ‘stuff’ in risky areas. I’m not sure he’ll learn but credit for holding his hand up. Time to move on and get behind all the players. interesting re raph at Barca. The Rennes fans felt he was inconsistent, some of us here felt he was inconsistent and people get blinded by the good days. He was great for us on the whole but I don’t think he’s ever going to be a player that does it week in week out.
There are no easy games in the PL, be interesting to see with playing Thursday and Sunday if he feels the need to rotate. Gut says he won’t- but Leicester have had an extra day’s rest and we play a physical demanding game. Have to be targeting 4 points from these two. Lose on thursday and Sunday becomes massive.
Agreed. I think most fans felt we were great on Sunday and maybe building a bit of momentum. We need two similar performance and not lapse back into a second palace half performance
Doesn't matter who we play be it Arsenal or Leicester, if we can't at least hit the target when shooting we are always going to struggle Know matter how much we dominate a game, so i for one won't be expecting wins, just grateful when we do, and i guess i will feel this way till we get a recognised striker. Morning all and yes still pi**** off from Sunday, if you haven't already guessed from my post above.
Morning all we robbed barca with raphinha. How many times did he try stuff /fancy moves or hit the post with us. He is 25? Looks like we made a great sale. Same with mr leeds sold at the right time. Pity we can't sell rodrigo but who would have him?. Looking at the money burnley got for wood what would bamford fetch?.
Probably not a lot as he'd be third choice with most clubs. Kind of irrelevant as its a new striker we need. Anyone worthwhile likely costs upwards of 50m and daft wages these days. Were simply not in that league
Interesting take on the kicking out. It's usually the doing it full stop that gets you sent off. Seen red cards for similar, petulant or not. “I think it did, it’s a really interesting incident because the referee doesn’t give anything.” “If you watch the assistant, he says to him I think he’s kicked out violently, so it’s got to be a penalty as well because the ball is in play. He gives a penalty and a red card, but you see quite clearly that he [Bamford] has committed a foul.” “You then see the leg come up, it’s petulant, it’s unsporting but it’s not violent. When he goes to the TV monitor, VAR has said to have a look at it. I think ultimately the right decision has been made. I would also say without that, Arsenal could’ve possibly lost two points if that penalty had been scored and they would’ve certainly lost a player for three matches.”
Did Dermot Gallagher mention the pull back/shirt tug on Bamford when going clean through with the Arsenal defender already on a yellow card ? Thought not.
fair point jamster I was dealing with the decisions he covered not the ones he didn’t. You see refs play advantage and then go back and give yellows for other fouls. Never seen them do it for this. No reason not to though. On this occasion saliba’s yellow would have been irrelevant as it would have been straight red. I guess the argument is it can’t have been much of a tug if he didn’t go down. But dish a few reds out for this sort of thing and there’d be no need for strikers to go to ground… and maybe the defenders would think twice next time.
I thought the defender had Bamford in a passionate clinch for the disallowed goal on the original cross. Apparently that was consensual so didn't matter to VAR.
In this league to survive a team needs goals and as Everton, Bournemouth, Forest haven't got a goal scorer it must help us. However other teams who are competing with Leeds near the bottom have strikers: Brentford have Toney with 8 goals from 10 games. Fulham have Mitrovic with 7 from 9 Leicester have Maddison with 5 from 9 plus Vardy and Daka. Brighton have Trossard with 5 from 9. Leeds have Rodrigo with 4 from 8 Palace have Zaha with 4 from 8 Newcastle have Almeiron with 4 from 10 We are just going to have to accept that Leeds need goals from whoever but we need them before the world cup
Afternoon all As has already been pointed out, Rapha had long spells of inconsistency. The early signs of his and Phillips departure is that their replacements are better suited in a non Bielsa team.
If he didn't have inconsistent spells, he'd have been worth over 100m and Barca wouldn't have been able to afford him. Mind you, he probably wouldn't have come to us in the first place. By the way, he played a huge huge part in keeping us up last season
