The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Friday 26th March)

I wish Phillips all the best in his England Career but honestly I have no interest now in international football.
From watching every England game to now just checking the scores unless its a Finals.
As long as everyone come back fit for Leeds United is all that matters to me
We know how good he is for Leeds, does it really matter what other people think.

 

For what it’s worth I also watched the game and was bored silly
Item of note
England has a population of 58 million or there abouts San Marino
About 35 thousand, and we could only score 5 goals, pointy beak should hang his head in shame
Let’s see what happens when we meet a proper football team

 

Would you actually notice if he changed things around? Perhaps he's changed it in 7 different ways already this season without you realising?

What we do seems to work for 90% plus of set pieces. Does this mean that we actually fail on individual errors from players, & not poor organisation? I personally think so, & Ayling is prominent in my thoughts on this subject.

I also have to say that it is HUGELY disrespectful to suggest that Bielsa is not improving us in areas that we are poor. Remember, the majority of the tools he has available are mid-Championship level. That's where you should address your criticisms.

 

Speaking as a Scot, I would much rather that KP has his laces tied together & was played in goal for england.

 

Like Ireland

 

That’s stretching things a bit far don’t you think

 

Elland

how many of our players would get into any of the teams in the top 8 of the Premier League. Maybe only Phillips and Raphinha and followed by Rodrigo and Llorente. We are a mile behind them in terms of top players so we shouldnt moan about Bielsa being not good enough

Bielsa is the only manager who could have dragged this Championship team to where it is

 

Or it could mean that the opposition get their delivery wrong for 90% of set pieces . Honestly we're a babyshambles at set pieces. Now some of that is physicality of the players... we pick smaller mobile ball players, so it's just a quid pro quo that we get out jumped and out muscled (we seemed less vulnerable with Struijk in the side), but it's alarming how often there's a free header where someone doesn't need to jump... Or even kicks it in from the edge of the six yard box as per fulham.

Bielsa is trying different things... they obviously instructed Meslier to come for more a while back... but he picks the players - if it is too many individual mistakes maybe he's asking too much or needs to consider approaches that they can master... or pick someone else. Maybe he just considers it an acceptable risk level and that conceding at set pieces is an occupational hazaed for bielsaball. Whichever, it's patently clear he hasn't cracked it!

Is it HUGELY disrespectful to Bielsa to consistently slag off Roberts, a player Bielsa picks and seems to rate? Asking for a friend

 

I said that sober

 

First of all, Bielsa is on record as rating all of his players. He's that kind of guy. If ever Bielsa had a player to not rate, that would be Kiko, yet he tells us he rates him. Possibly he adds a bit silently to himself, Like "I rate Kiko. He has great qualities ..." [... in particular making scrambled eggs].

Secondly, Roberts gets his abuse for a variety of reasons, & generally speaking, most of them are valid. Would Bielsa pick Roberts if everyone else was available? I don't think I need to answer that for you. To be fair to him, he was bought as a young striker for the Championship, but Bielsa trained him as a #10. He has clearly failed to hold down that position, to put it mildly. Perhaps if left simply as a striker, he might have come on leaps & bounds. But then again, perhaps not. He's young, so might prove us all wrong in the end, but somewhere else, hopefully.

 

The 10 position with us is a funny one. It's obviously a position where Bielsa needs a risk taker. It's great when it comes off but looks horrific when it goes wrong.

Roberts has been pretty poor all season however he has had a run of 5 or 6 games recently where he has improved significantly in my opinion.

Just from memory he set up a goal for Bamford vs Southampton. Got another assist for the Costa goal against Arsenal. Had 3 goals disallowed by the narrowest of margins in the last couple of games. Hit the bar vs Chelsea after a wonder save. He crossed the ball for Aylings header that was disallowed last match. He has had a few shots saved and missed a few sitters along the way.

I'm not saying he is the answer, just that he has done more in the last few games than he has the rest of the season. He is definitely getting involved more and has improved.

He looks half a stone overweight to me and tires as the game goes on.

 

Most definitely agree that our failure at set pieces mostly comes down to individual errors with Ayling & Llorente being the latest examples. Would zonal marking stop these individual errors? Probably not, still the same players there to cock up.

 

Good post and yes No10 has been a problem ever since Pablo picked up his pension but Rodrigo gives us something else when hes fit. Rodrigo will also link up play better as well as score goals and put defences under pressure. Not having Rodrigo and Pablo has meant we have to give Roberts another go, and I disagree that hes had 5 or 6 games where hes been good, hes actually had 2 for me and in the previous 4 he has screwed up scoring and held the ball too long. I do see an improvement but fk me how many chances and years has he had? He needs a goal and until he gets one he will struggle and I need to see a lot more consistency before he gets my vote. Improvement yes but......

We should have a full full team available for the Blunts and Klich has had another positive covid test, which means he is now out and getting a rest at home. He tested positive, then negative and now positive again. He feels fine except a sore throat and says hes had worse hangovers, rest up fella

 

I can remember us leaving Pontus free to attack the ball. Maybe Struijk could do that for us.

 

I agree. Rodrigo is far better but to be fair to Roberts with a bit more luck on offsides and saves and the odd inch here and there he could have been walking off with 4 or 5 goals and 3 or 4 assists in his last 10 games. That's not bad. Alot better than I expected from him given the rest of his performances this season.

I know you take some convincing on Roberts @Doc!

I might just keep him for another season though.

 

Totally agree with your last sentence. His fitness is most definitely suspect. If he's not overweight, why does he fade out of games so dramatically?

Might explain why he's so choosy when tackling back. But under Bielsa, he's had almost 3 years to get his fitness right. He hasn't. Is it because he's as fit as he can get, or is he slacking in the fitness training? Either way for me, it's not good enough.

Reminds me of Mowatt in a lot of ways. He had the same issues with us - and that was before Bielsa's rigorous weight management & training requirements. The few times I've seen him with Barnsley, he looks like he's still the same. It's almost like he hits a fantastic pass (and he IS very capable of that), then spends the next few minutes looking around for plaudits.

 

Come on, there's no way you said that when you were 9.

 

Ah c'mon WJ. Last year Bamford had the worst goals:xg rate in the country, he missed sitter after sitter after sitter. You were very defensive about him, jumping on anyone who criticised him and coming up with a variety of reasons for why he missed so often. I didn't mind that, you were standing up for a player and appreciated his effort and overall contribution. This year he's come good.

Roberts has been crippled by injuries since he first came, played as a winger, converted to 10, been a bit part player. Last year he got a run of games but was a bit disappointing, this year he was disappointing early on. Recently he's shown flashes of quality and what he does do now is run his nads off... probably too much which is why he's shagged, but you'll note that bielsa's 10's rarely last a full game - maybe that says what's expected of them.

I agree with a lot of what emu says but half a stone overweight? Bielsa wouldn't pick him if he was a pound overweight. It's true about 10's being the risk takers. Saint Pablo's pass stats were often the worst in the team, because it was his responsibility to make stuff happen. Pablo earnt the right to make the mistakes and Roberts hasn't yet.

I'm not saying he's good enough, but i see improvement and effort. What I see from others on here is being quick to point out the mistakes and being blind to the good stuff. Actually many seem more interested in him taking the knee and giving black power salutes which I personally don't give a flying fck about one way or the other.

 

When I say 'half a stone overweight' I might be exaggerating slightly. Roberts is very quick over 5 yards, has very good acceleration but then seems to get caught after that. He seems very stocky for a young lad and fades badly after about 75 minutes. I just think if he could take a few kg's off then it might increase his top speed and give him more endurance.

He actually looks to be getting match fit lately.

 

Think he’s just a chunky build. Bielsa sets fat targets that makes the players cry, with very regular weigh ins and serious repercussions for failure!