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The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Wednesday 23rd October)

Discussion in 'Leeds United' started by ellandback, Oct 23, 2019.

  1. ellandback

    ellandback Well-Known Member
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    perfect1.jpg
    Good Morning. It's Wednesday 23rd October, and here are the Leeds Utd headlines

    Nketiah rescues a point at Deepdale

    Leeds came from behind to grab a point three minutes from time against the Lilywhites at Deepdale last night.

    The goal was no more than Leeds deserved having already had twenty shots at goal with just two on target!

    Bo surprise that the goal was scored by Eddie Nketiah who had only been on the field for 9 minutes when he guided his looping header across goal out of reach from both keeper and defenders.

    After the game Arsenal and England star Ian Wright sent Phil Hay a two word tweet. It just said 'START HIM'.

    Whilst the Gunners legend echoed the thoughts of most Leeds fans it would be fair to say that although Bielsa has transformed the team from mid table obscurity to promotion favourites, his unwillingness to rotate the team and change tactics have cost the Whites multiple points so far this season.

    Would it be fair to say that opposition teams have an advantage over Leeds knowing their formation and who will be playing?

    How many dangerous free kicks or set pieces did Leeds not get anywhere near to; not just tonight, but over the season?

    I look back over recent games, and there are two points that I would make!

    i) We are exerting more energy than our opponents

    ii) The players are not fluent, even though they play the same style of play week in, week out!

    iii) We are not controlling the midfield

    Do you agree?

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    Bielsa's post match interview



    Whelan - two points dropped

    Soccer pundit Noel Whelan has blasted Bielsa for not making the Nketiah substitution earlier!

    He told BBC Radio Leeds: "He should've made the substitutions a lot sooner. No disrespect to Preston - I know they've got a great home record - but I look back on the chances once again and we're just squandering them again. We can't do that week in, week out."

    Bielsa was quizzed on this very subject during his post match press conference. This is how he responded:-

    “Bamford is a player who helps to organise the team. The match was not a tight match. We didn’t have one player who wasn’t playing well. It was difficult to make a change because they were playing well, all of them,”

    “I was waiting for the decision to put Nketiah in the field. I was waiting for Bamford to slow his play, but after they scored, their goal made me decide to change. Maybe the change could have been before. It’s a possibility. At that moment, before they scored, I thought I needed to keep the structure of the match because we were playing better.”

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    Alioski rips into referee

    Gjanni Alioski couldn't hide his disappointment last night having thought Leeds were due a penalty in the dying moments of last nights game!

    "I've said this before," "We fight against the team that we play and against the referees. It's unbelievable that the referees don't help us sometimes, because it's a clear penalty.

    "It's unbelievable how they don't see it. There are four referees on the pitch and nobody sees it. We can't say it's the referees, but what we need is that they know that we play high-intensity, and sometimes the other teams need to do fouls and they need to help us."

    Has the Macedonian International risked getting into trouble with the FA over his comments?

    Does the fact that Bielsa refuses to criticise referees over blatant decisions that go against Leeds, make it easier for the officials not to give decisions in their favour?

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    #1
  2. Doc

    Doc Well-Known Member

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    There's a reason Noel Whelan wasn't invited to the legends party.... fkg big mouth
     
    #2
  3. Nickwhite68

    Nickwhite68 Well-Known Member

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    Bielsa Deffo lost the plot not one player was playing well. Eddie should have been on at half time no excuses. Don't know how others saw the game but it was as poor a game as I've seen in ages, Preston were poor but we just do not have a clue there is absolutely no creativity without Hernandez in the team. Casilla dropped a bollock again for the goal, comes flying out for every 50/50 normally set off to clear the ball when it was 60/40 in his favour then decided to turn and run back into his area, should have binned him in the summer he's a joke.
    Saturday a massive game for bielsa now some fans now starting to turn on Bamford time to show this genius that we keep hearing about. I won't hold my breath.
     
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  4. Mr Wolves-White

    Mr Wolves-White Well-Known Member

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    Last night was nothing but a shambles. You start to wonder what they are practicing on the training pitch cos it ain't shooting by the looks of it.

    Whelan is right it is 2 points dropped and LL is right the score should have been higher in our favour.

    Let's face it Bamford may be able to organise a team but at the end of the day he needs to score goals and he's not scored in 8 games. Eddie has got more goals now and has played a hell of a lot less mins him
     
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  5. milkyboy

    milkyboy Well-Known Member

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    apparently we were terrible, were over-run in midfield, but still should have won easily against the side with the best home record in the league?!

    I thought we weren't at our best but were clearly the better side and had a number of half chances and a few very good ones... Bamford's second half miss, that went for a throw in, was a shocker.

    Re Bielsa... he is a genius but it's a flawed genius. His record before us says that... and his record at Leeds shows that. His OCD is a strength and a weakness. Don't expect him to change guys!
     
    #5
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  6. bucks_is_leeds

    bucks_is_leeds Jonny big spuds
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    And he was never a legend <ok>

    Morning all
     
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  7. Eireleeds1

    Eireleeds1 Well-Known Member

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    Morning. Last night was rubbish just like Saturday. Unless Eddie gets a proper run, our seasons over. Not only can Bamford not score, which is what he's paid for, but none of the rest can either. Saturdays was a goalkeeping blunder
     
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  8. johhny757

    johhny757 Well-Known Member

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    This is the truth of it! I think he is doing the best that he can with what he has at his disposal. He has turned a mid team Championship side into a side who are up there challenging around the top. The players no doubt trust Bielsa and his style but I don't think he can get anymore out of them to be honest. They somehow need to find the belief and convert the chances coming our way or it's going to be another very frustrating season. I think we are lucky to have Bielsa and it will be a missed opportunity all around if we don't go up under him.
     
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  9. southernwhite

    southernwhite Well-Known Member

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    Morning all
    Well i am well pleased with a point against the side with the best home record in the league, however having said that we should have won it,poor finishing,poor free kicks & yes poor corners from Kalvin none of which carries any threat (although to be fair to KP that could be down to just very poor attacking prowess), we would have lost the game, so thank goodness for fast Eddie coming on & burying his header from the half chance.
    So the simple decision to make is if want to win games start Eddie, can't see anything wrong in playing Bamford at no10 and eddie as striker i am sure Bielsa could shuffle the pack to accommodate him, because if he doesn't were always gonna struggle .
    & what do they practice on the training field ? iv'e said it before we are probably the worst side in the league for corners/free kicks yet we get plenty of them particularly corners.
     
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  10. ristac

    ristac Well-Known Member
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    Morning all..

    I think we have to give some credit to the opposition, they had a plan and stuck to it, that didn’t make them better than us, it just made it a scrappy game. They were the home team, they are top 6 and they’d jump ahead of us if they’d won.

    Nobody has a right to three points in this division, we had the hardest match when comparing to WBA and Swansea and we came out best.

    For years we have had managers who pick teams based on the opposition, I’ve always said play to our strength and let the others worry about us. In the past we’ve worried about the opponents too often and finished bottom half.

    Yes some teams are managing to work us out but we’re still up there and we’re light in the middle with having to play Dallas and Costa but that’s not Bielsas fault, we all felt Costa would be better, I’m not saying he is awful but he certainly isn’t stand out.

    Bielsa announcing the team early shouldn’t make any difference, if Man City or Liverpool announced their team early and invited Bielsa to a training session to watch they’d still stuff us, what I’m saying is if you’re good enough it matters not.

    The squad we have isn’t good enough to play any other way, Bielsa has looked at what we have and moulded them into what they are capable of.

    In regards to the ref, I personally felt it was the best ref in a long time.

    Fingers crossed Eddie starts next time and I think we’ve got to move or drop Dallas and play with a number 10
     
    #10

  11. ristac

    ristac Well-Known Member
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    I made a purpose of watching KPs corners, they were excellent mate, three landed straight on the head of Bamford who squandered each one, he varied them too, a deep one to the back post area also found our man but again we did nothing with it. This isn’t unjust KP love, find some footage and watch them again, they were very good
     
    #11
  12. milkyboy

    milkyboy Well-Known Member

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    ... but did the ref bottle a penalty in injury time? Dunno haven’t seen a close up, but looked a good shout
     
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  13. Doc

    Doc Well-Known Member

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    Yes Bamford is failing on the goals front, but excelling as a lone striker bullying and dragging defenders around. I think Eddie has earned his start but I fear we will need to change tactics to fit him in because he cannot do what Bamford does.

    Dallas cannot do the midfield role and I would prefer him back in the RB role as he has done better than Ayling

    No10 role means we only have Costa, Roberts or Klich able to do it so why not try Costa there and play Eddie with Bamford

    Pablo hasn't been Pablo this season so we need to sort out the No10 role and the RW role as Pablo may not make it back to his top form at 34yo

    Forshaw to come back, Douglas is available and we have Shackelton to come in, Clarke can play right wing or as a striker too?

    bielsa said he has spent time sorting out set pieces as we dont score from corners and have conceded from set pieces. He can practice them all he wants but we only have Bamford and White on the pitch competing against big defenders in most teams. We have no Cooper at the moment either. This also means almost every cross from Costa and Harrison is cut out and not reaching Bamford or anyone else
     
    #13
  14. southernwhite

    southernwhite Well-Known Member

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    I just wanted to make the point that we carry no threat from them,hence the bracketed (poor attacking prowess) no doubt in my mind if Eddie was on the end of at least one of them, it would have nestled in the back of the net. which just goes to show we need a competent striker on from the start.
     
    #14
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  15. ellandback

    ellandback Well-Known Member
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    Morning Doc, whats the point of bamford doing this if there is not a strike partner to take advantage?

    When we attack, we are up against 10 men.

    When the opposition attacks, we have two defenders
     
    #15
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  16. ellandback

    ellandback Well-Known Member
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    Bielsa doesn't even need to sacrifice Bamford, just have him playing behind Nketiah. Yes, it would mean a change of formation, but he must be one of the only Managers in the entire league not to change his tactics / starting XI depending on who he plays.

    If it makes us lighter in midfield, our wing backs need to get more involved. Any opposition side in the Championship are going to be more concerned about keeping Nketiah AND Bamford quiet than running the midfield.

    I'd like our players to receive training how to deliver a free kick or a corner.

    I'd also like to see Casilla kick long now and again.
     
    #16
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  17. Doc

    Doc Well-Known Member

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    Bielsas style/tactics/methodology

    break out fast
    High press to get the ball back closer to opposition goal
    Have more possession as you win by having the ball more

    this way of playing is fantastic to watch and hard to play against
    Pochetino and Spurs
    Liverpool and Klopp
    Pep and Man City all play the same brand of football with slight variances but the difference with Leeds is we dont have the quality that those teams have, so we cant split defences as much and when we do we dont have the quality of striker

    So we either stick to what we know under Bielsa and hope some balls get through and we actually score. Or we go back to 4-4-2 and hope we dont start lumping it

    So for me we must stick with Bielsa and his OCD and it may well be that we end up not getting promotion again but that would be about the quality of our players. These same players with a different manager would be back to mid table
     
    #17
  18. ellandback

    ellandback Well-Known Member
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    [QUOTE="

    Re Bielsa... he is a genius but it's a flawed genius. His record before us says that... and his record at Leeds shows that. His OCD is a strength and a weakness. Don't expect him to change guys![/QUOTE]

    I have an idea

     
    #18
  19. Eireleeds1

    Eireleeds1 Well-Known Member

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    Here’s one for all the lovers of stats here
    21C8D711-8BDB-442C-882F-44FFBC6F8813.jpeg
     
    #19
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  20. ristac

    ristac Well-Known Member
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    Admitted Bamford has done nothing at corners but it would take a brave team to not put their tallest guy on him. I too want Eddie to start but with Cooper out and Berardi filling the void I do fear we’d be even less of a threat from them
     
    #20

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