Match Day Thread Vs Leeds (H)

Playing for a move?

 

Alisson couldn't do much for the goals, all well taken. Looked a tad overweight imo.

Trent, surely not fit or tired from the England sh!t shows. Barely got up and down and wasn't involved much at all. Quality header og nearly

Gomez, the kid has been sh!t since the virus restart, needs dropping.

Van Dijk, also been too relaxed of late, but we can't drop him. He needs to come good.

Robertson did OK, don't think he and Mane had very good communication though, very little link up play.

Henderson and Wijnaldum both did nothing. Hid all game

Keita started really well, but that lasted about 5 minutes, then hid.

Mane got involved, but was very slow on the ball and indecisive.

Firmino same as Mane and the guy needs to be more clinical. He is lucky we afford anyone. Werner would have kicked him out the team instantly.

Salah was on it all game. Only reason we won.

Subs did nothing. Jones to blame for their 3rd as he could clearly see the guy going into the box and didn't track. However I thought on the all he was the best midfielder for us. Calm and spread it around well.

 

Well, we are

 

Hardly.

 

I made a point of watching Gini particularly for 5 - 10 minutes. He won the ball back 4 times (and gave it away again once) during that time. The commentators were so busy waffling that they never mentioned his name once.
My point is that down the years this has been the fate of many players who fulfil that role (Hendo being another) - that the work they do goes largely unnoticed unless they do something spectacular, good or bad.
Someone is taking notice though, otherwise there wouldn't even be talk of him going to Spain.

 

Right - I'm off for a few days.
See y'all for next game. Take care.

 

Not to ****in' Barca! How will they afford him? They're seriously, seriously bust. They'll try and distabalise him, for sure, and they'll try to get him for under £80m, and in their usual instalments. Hope FSG have the bollocks to say no, simply no. I know we have to buy to sell, and Mo is a better loss than Mane, but as that team looks atm, we need both to make any sort of challenge, imo.

 

I thought Leeds first goal was absolutely superb, first and second touches excellent. Second was obviously a disaster for VvD, anything but that touch.
Third was a smart finish too. Leeds will score plenty this season and won't be anywhere near relegation. They will concede plenty aswell but this is a
Bielsa team. They will entertain all season long. Looking forward to them playing Citeh, Chelsea etc.

 

Enjoy your break and stay safe.

 

match review:

imbalanced team selection led to midfield being bypassed almost every time. All pushing forward at once.

fairly indifferent forward line in terms of decisive action, mane and firmino didnt fire and salah had no idea what to do with a final ball despite having two penalties to help him out.

defense very poor under long ball and they dropped off creating even more space for Leeds. 2 goals coughed up from poor decision making. Worse there was no defensive line as gomez followed Bamford out of the line constantly.

 

xG was 3.4 - 0.6

Scoreline massively flattered Leeds

They just got lucky

 

They had 52% possession so while I agree that we were wasteful and they were not, I personally don’t think that it flattered them that much

 

They had no other chances than what they scored.

If Van Dijk clears the ball in any other direction and his second goal isn't wrongly disallowed then it's easily 5-2. Then take any of the other great chances we had and it's 6-2.

 

True, they had 4 chances and scored 3 of them...and we should have scored more. Yes. But they played well and gave us a real fright when few expected much of them...I don’t think that the result flattered them...I think that it didn’t flatter us much.

 

It's a win to kick start the season, shouldn't have to score 4 at Anfield to ensure 3 points but the desire to keep getting in front was good and we didn't run out of ideas - the attacking intent was ok.

If Firmino would just keep his finishing simple and stop trying to look like Ronaldinho everytime he's through he'd score a **** load more than he does. Was fuming with that attempted finish on 80 - that's for when you're 3-0 up, not 3-3.

 

I think we'll see Matip start the next game, Gomez has had a few chances to sort himself out.

 

Don't think there's a bigger supporter of Jo Go on here than I, but his head has not been right since that City debacle back in June. Also proves we need another CB to replace Lovren. Oh, and good pass as it was from Phillips, Trent gets beat by the ball over his shoulder again. He's a wing back, not a full back. Just saying. Nonetheless, our front three, especially away, can rip any defence apart when they click.

 

Not sure you can come to that conclusion after one game. Remember last season when Norwich beat city 3-2 in the third game of the season and some were gushing over how Norwich could be in with a chance for Europe

 

I'm a big fan of Gomez too. He's much better than Matip and should keep his spot imo, especially with the pace Chelsea have up front. Plus, it's one game and one "mistake"!

"mistake" - Trent could equally be blame but I'd prefer to applaud a fantastic goal tbh. If we are blaming Gomez and looking to drop him, why not vent the same anger towards VVD for his (very obvious) mistake?