The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Mon 12th Aug)

Good Morning. It's Monday 12th August, and here are the Leeds Utd headlines


It only takes one shot on target

Nottingham Forest's scrappy equaliser twelve minutes from time knocked Leeds of the top pirch leaving both fans and players frustrated at not being able to keep Forests only shot on target from crossing the goal line.

Before we critique the game in depth, I think it's important to have a look at the Championship's top clubs and how they fared in all disciplines.

Tackles

1 Hull City 31
2 Cardiff City 27
3 Blackburn Rovers 23
4 Leeds United 21
= Middlesbrough 21
6 Bristol City 19
= Sheffield Wednesday 19
8 Wigan Athletic 16

Aerial success

1 Cardiff City 67%
2 Birmingham City 65%
3 Barnsley 61%
4 Reading 60%
5 QPR 58%
6 Swansea City 56%
7 Brentford 55%
8 Millwall 55%

Second week in a row Leeds have not featured in aerial success!

Passing accuracy %

1 West Bromwich Albion 88%
2 Fulham 83%
= Reading 83%
4 Derby County 81%
5 Leeds United 80%
= QPR 80%
= Stoke City 80%
8 Barnsley 78%
= Bristol City 78%

Possession

1 West Bromwich Albion 72%
2 Leeds United 68%
3 Barnsley 64%
= Reading 64%
5 Luton Town 63%
= QPR 63%
7 Fulham 60%
8 Derby County 59%

Shots on target

1 Sheffield Wednesday 7
2 Wigan Athletic 6
3 Bristol City 5
= Hull City 5
= Middlesbrough 5
= Preston North End 5
= QPR 5

Leeds had 4 shots on target

Total shots

1 Derby County 17
= QPR 17
3 Cardiff City 16
= Preston North End 16
= Sheffield Wednesday 16
6 Hull City 14
=Leeds United 14
= Middlesbrough 14

Although Leeds did not fare too well with shots on target or aerial success, they are the only Championship club to feature in four of the disciplines! What do you read into the stats?

Is Nketiah the answer

Apart from the magnificent role Harrison is playing on the left wing, who else is conjuring up opportunities for Bamford? The chances Bamford had, he was in the right place at the right time, he struck the post and narrowly missed a lob. For those of you saying that Bamford is not good enough, if this were the case, why is he predicted to be the highest goal scorer in the Championship (behind Mitrovic) with the Bookies? Will Bielsa play both Bamford and Nketiah together?

Meanwhile Gunners boss Unai Emery has been speaking to the press about Eddie Nketiah and how he wants his young starlet to play 90 minutes every week (every Sunday apparently).

“With Eddie Nketiah, my first decision was not to let him leave,” “But after he spoke with me and [considering] the possibility of how many matches he is going to play with us, I said to him I could give him a lot of minutes this year but maybe he can improve more playing regularly 90 minutes each Sunday with Leeds. "Our objective with him is: 'play and come back here, we want to be with you in the future.' “It's the same with other young players.”

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Is Bielsa becoming too transparent?

Long before 11.30 on Saturday Morning when the Leeds team was revealed, I'm sure most of us would have placed good money on Bielsa keeping the same team that beat Bristol City on the opening game of the season. Why? Bielsa never changes a winning team! Surely, its easier to play against a side, when you already know who you are going to be playing against? Do we have a strong enough squad that it doesn't matter if our opposition know how we are going to line up?

I remember reading David O'Leary's 'Leeds United on trial, and despite my hatred for the guy for his (alleged) dealing with agents costing the club millions; one thing he said that made a lot of sense was saying sometimes the pretty football won't work, and you have to dig deep and show a gritty resolve'! Do Leeds have the players to 'mix it' when they need to in order to close a game out? I s Bielsa too transparent?

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Morning Elland and all. Rushing out at moment but some excellent points there for debate.

 

Good morning everyone
Fook knows,but the bookies won't be taking my money on that bet,i personally think he's had long enough to learn where the net is on the football field. And i'm Still hurting after dropping those two points.I apologise to those of us still thinking eventually he will start scoring for fun,i wish i had your faith.
not usually into player bashing,but would Norwich have got promoted under a misfiring Pukki
We need to sort this out & the quicker the better. BTW a great performance from the team again, with only just the one important thing missing atm.

 

Morning all.

As with league tables, I don't think we can read too much into the stats after only two games although I bet the Wendies are getting excited already.

Does Bielsa ever play with two out-and-out strikers ? Can't see him changing that, although Bamford seemed to be playing wide on the right a lot of the time against Forest, maybe Bielsa is molding him into a new role he does like his players to be able to play in more than one position (I'm being sarcastic before anyone asks). Would like to see Nketiah get some decent game time against Salford tomorrow and if he looks up to scratch hope Bielsa won't be afraid to drop Bamford if he can't start bagging some goals.

Sticking with a winning side is not being transparent it's being consistent, but I like the way Bielsa is not announcing his side until the morning of the match instead of two days early. Hope he sticks with this.

 

One of the things that happened last season was, other teams learned how to play us during second half of season, and it took its toll.

I think one of Bielsa's flaws is the fact he doesn't change a winning team, but who would. What Bielsa didn't learn is some teams need certain type of players to play against them to stop predictability, and to counter certain mids, defenders and strikers, or, shift a few players to other positions they can play..........mix it up occasionally.

We saw last season that playing the same players with the same tactics against every team didn't work.

I'm still trying to work out if the players took it upon themselves to play regular long ball passing, or was it Bielsa's instructions.

Bamford being Championships second top scorer, can't see it. I think he'll eventually be replaced by a player who takes his opportunities, and let's be honest, we need one. We can't keep relying on our attacking mids to score.

While Harrison is not playing bad, I don't think he's playing brilliantly either. He's still trying to take on too many players instead of getting the ball crossed or to a better positioned player, when he loses the ball, it brings our attack to a halt.......

 

Morning tumbles.
Not sure if you noticed, but Forest had just 3 corners on Sat - 1st 2 were free headers that Dawson headed over and the 3rd they scored from. You are going to concede lots of goals from set peices this season!!!

 

Good morning Matt & all

No chance of doing well in the aerial duels department

Are Reading still passing the ball in their own half

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two losses out of two suggests they are!

 

Morning all

Pre season Bielsa used Bamford and Roofe and did it a couple of times last season. I suspect he will use Fast Eddie and Bamford at some stage but probably not just yet although I am backing Eddie to be an upgrade on Roofe.

As far as those stats go especially on challenging crosses, if your play stops crosses coming in surely thats great defence when only a couple of corners are allowed and attacking play snuffed out? Check out the stats as a combined average over 2 games for a different picture and keep doing that and find a more accurate slant. Bamford has scored 1 in 2 so lets leave him alone until he becomes a problem. His play and positioning is much better and he works his ass off.

 

Good Morning to Matt and co from a slightly sunny Bardsey
Unfortunately I missed the game as my lovely wife Moe collapsed I was at home at the time so I rand for an ambulance .She was out for about 15 minutes which seemed like the longest I have ever prayed and endured She finally came too when the paramedics phone rang and it seemed to wake her.She was taken to Jimmies and as luck would have it the doctor at our practise was in charge and so I asked for her.She said that she had just simply shut down as a result of stress and that she needed to rest for a while some hope there!She then got onto me and said she believed that I had neither cancer nor TB but because my heart was so weak it was failing to remove fluid round my lung well anything is better than cancer to me.I sad I had had lots of tests last week and that I was going on Thursday to dicuss the findings but I would certainly tell them about her observations
Now To the highlights which I saw I thought that Bamford got himself into some really good positions but he lacks CONFIDENCEand he should know as a classical pianist that the only way to get this is to practise hours a day going one on one with the keeper so can beat him in his sleep
I still think that Bogusz will be inspirational when he gets in the team a natural goal scorer if I ever saw one
Finally well done Dan James we missed a good one there

 

Glad you got the all clear Mike and hope Moe gets sorted out soon. Sounds like a lot of bed rest required. Remember last year we were asking Shaks and Eire if they knew much about the Crusaders winger Gavin Whyte because we were looking at him? Well it seems he knocked back a move to Leeds to get more first team football so went to Oxford Utd. He had a great season and was snapped up by Warnock for Cardiff and it seems he's doing the business. last season he played 47 games for Oxford and scored 9 which is pretty good for a midfielder/winger. Another one that could haunt us this season?

 

Doc it seems the ones we miss are the ones we should get Thank you for your good wishesMike

 

Wow Mike, your family are certainly having your fair share of health issues. As Doc says, lots of rest and good luck with it

 

Morning Mike
Please pass on our best wishes & a speedy recovery to Moe, from everyone on the forum

 

Thats seconded Look after each other and keep that fighting spirit about you mr 60!

 

Well said.I hope he does find his shooting boots but in this league you snooze, you lose. He gets in the right place but if you can't finish then not much good to us. Bielsa has options so rather he try them out now than leave it any longer.

 

1 goal in 2 games isn't a lot.You do talk some crap.

 

I'm not into player bashing either Southern, but even my patience is wearing thin with Bamford. Although some things of the other side of his game he did well. A part from the result, we played well enough IMO. There will be games that the ball will go in and not hit the bar and penos will be given. It's only two games in, but every game is going to be over analysed from now until the end of the season.

 

Cheers TC, I'll pass that information onto Bielsa

 

I'd never heard Doc

 

Thinking of you and your wife Leeds60. Hope things works out for you both. All my best wishes.