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The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Monday 12th April)

Discussion in 'Leeds United' started by ellandback, Apr 12, 2021.

  1. ellandback

    ellandback Well-Known Member
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    Good Morning. It's Monday 12th April, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road.


    Start of a Dynasty - thanks to Dallas

    10 men Leeds condemned Champions elect Manchester City to just their fourth defeat of the season, elevating themselves into the top half of the Premiership table for the first time since the beginning of the season.

    The last time Leeds completed such a feat was back in January 2001, when Bakke, Bowyer and a brace from Robbie Keane hammered the Blue side of Lancashire. Twenty years on, Citeh's 924m squad were firm favourites to coast to victory, but it was not to be.

    As expected Citeh showed early signs of dominance but it was the Whites that struck first with three minutes of the first half remaining. Alioski's long range clearance / pass found Costa on the left wing. The Angolan did well in controlling the ball, and evading two defenders before feeding Bamford. Leeds leading scorer was immediately closed down but found Dallas in space on the edge of the 18 yard box. The Northern Ireland International's rasping drive clipped the inside of the post leaving Moraes stranded.

    Moments later, Leeds hopes of Victory took a crushing blow when Liam Cooper was sent off for a sliding challenge that took out Gabriel Jesus. The Leeds skipper was originally booked, only for VAR to send Andre Marriner to the sidelines to review his decision. Moments later, Cooper was sent for an early bath.

    As expected, Bamford was sacrificed in favour of Struijk on the stroke of half time.

    City continued to press hard in the second half, but fine defending limited Guardiola to half chances until the final 15 minutes.

    Ferran Torres set up a tense finale after finally finding a way past a stubborn Leeds defence. Leeds continued to throw men behind the ball, and counter attack when possible whilst Pep's side laid siege on Meslier's goal.

    Leeds patience was rewarded in injury time when Alioski threaded an inch perfect through ball to Dallas. As thousands of Leeds fans held their breathe, he held off two defenders before slotting the ball between Moraes legs. What a great way for Dallas to celebrate his 30th Birthday later this week!

    Bring it on Liverpool and Man U!

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    So Leeds can defend!

    Not only did we see Leeds throw ten men behind the ball and counter attack successfully, but we also saw the Whites defend corners by man marking. In what can only be described as an extremely accomplished performance, it was not very Bielsa like!

    The Argentine admitted during his post match press conference that 'he had never trained his team to defend with ten men behind the ball!' - Why not?

    Other teams have done it to us on many occasions!

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    Stelling - Daylight robbery


    Jeff Stelling has issued a grovelling apology to Leeds fans over his reaction to Leeds winner.

    The Sky Sports presenter went into shock following Dallas' injury time winner at the Ehihad on Saturday lunchtime saying:- “Talk about smash and grab, talk about daylight robbery, it’s just happened in broad daylight at the Etihad.

    It's fair to say Leeds fans are a little fickle when it comes to pundits taking a swipe at their club. Unsurprisingly, six hours later Stelling offered a grovelling apology to the Leeds faithful.

    “Daylight robbery was of course the wrong expression re Leeds, so apologies to their fans. I was just gobsmacked that they won it in that way – hence the scream! And Dallas – what finishes they were!”

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    #1
  2. Doc

    Doc Well-Known Member

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    Diego Llorente has been the difference since he came back to full fitness 7 games ago. We have had 4 wins including 3 on the bounce and a draw against Chelsea and only 2 losses but Phillips missing in those games. Llorente reads the game well and gets his head where it hurts, he is also great carrying the ball and can see a pass. He has been as important as Raphinha in these last 7 games. On this showing he is a better option than Koch but nice to know we have 4 very able CBs now
     
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  3. ellandback

    ellandback Well-Known Member
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    It will be interesting to see who gives way. We have 4 decent centre backs
     
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  4. wakeybreakyheart

    wakeybreakyheart Well-Known Member

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  5. lufctommo

    lufctommo Well-Known Member

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    Good morning,

    Of all the players to lose Cooper might not be the worst. He's had a decent season but Llorente and Struijk are just as good and I don't think we've seen the best of Koch yet. If we miss him it'll be more for his captaincy.

    I can't think of many players in the world i'd swap for Dallas. There aren't that many who can give a consistent 8/9 out of 10 performance every week and even fewer who can do it in almost any position.
     
    #5
  6. Doc

    Doc Well-Known Member

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    Dallas was on my list of players to bin at the start of the season but what do I know. He has played all over the pitch and not done a bad job anywhere, hes like a Swiss Army Knife of a player as he has tools to adapt to any job. Paul Madley was a Rolls Royce of a player and I think we have a Bentley GT Continental here with pace.
     
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  7. NostradEmus

    NostradEmus Firpo is Shit

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    We have 2 proven international class centre backs, a quality youth CB capable of playing PL level and a top championship centre back.
     
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  8. Doc

    Doc Well-Known Member

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    Think its better than that Emu as we have 3 International CBs plus one wanted by the World No1 National team, which would make 4 full International CBs and as you say Cresswell waiting in the wings :emoticon-0148-yes:
     
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  9. southernwhite

    southernwhite Well-Known Member

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    Good morning everyone

    What a wonderful weekend that was. :1980_boogie_down:
    A truly brilliant whole team performance on Saturday & a last weekend (hopefully) of lockdown.
    It truly is amazing me, how a bunch of mediocre championship players with what now seems some inspired signings, are settling to life in the premier league, it now seems to me that Bielsa has not only taught these players amazing things. But also on Saturday’s tactics, how he is looking at his own way of thinking, a lot of people myself included thought if Bielsa had one flaw it must be the apparent one dimensional thinking on tactics, well Saturday proved what an extraordinary special coach this guy truly is.
    Believe you me if the team and now Bielsa, carry on improving at this phenomenal rate, god only knows where we will be in two to three years, a top four not just in domestic football but a top four European club ?
    I can truly see this happening, just hope Bielsa stays with a club and fans alike who just love him.
    Just a footnote
    Any body else a bit worried about his general physique, I wish he would practice what he preaches & get himself more in shape, because I want him around for a good few more years yet.
     
    #9
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  10. ristac

    ristac Well-Known Member
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    Morning all

    Cooper has been solid but he always has a huge mistake or possible red card in him. I’d be surprised if any other PL coach would pick Cooper over Struijk or Koch but we must trust Bielsa and as long as he is in charge Cooper will always be selected.

    Great result on Saturday but I’m not going to get carried away, they had some great talent on the bench, they battered us and we were well and truly on the ropes but we dug in and got the three points.

    I watched the Cooper incident again and it was 50/50 red or yellow for me, for that reason I’m against how VAR got involved and incensed even more that last weeks challenge against Roberts went unpunished.

    VAR is new this season to us, other teams and supporters complain just the same as us, guess we just have to suck it up until the powers that be implement changes.
     
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  11. Doc

    Doc Well-Known Member

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    What to do about Adam Forshaw who seems to be on the verge of coming back. He played for the 23s in the friendly against York City and played for an hour. He should be playing for the 23s on Friday too if he has no reaction to the York game.

    He has another year on his contract but I have my concerns. Was he really a top Championship player and will he be a good Premier League player? I think he would be better off going to a Championship club
     
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  12. NostradEmus

    NostradEmus Firpo is Shit

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    Forshaw impressed in a struggling Boro side in the Prem. Even talk of an England call up at one point.

    I'm not saying he will get back there but at his best he would be a useful asset to the squad. Let him run the rest of his contract run and see how he does.
     
    #12
  13. oldschool

    oldschool Well-Known Member

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    Perhaps he needs to have a skinny latte, next time he's in costa<laugh>
     
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  14. Leedsdude

    Leedsdude Well-Known Member

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    Obviously I don't want to jinx it but our defence has looked solid for a while now since the injured players came back. We haven't had a spanking for a few months and I think (and hope) we've seen the last of those. I thought the sending off was a bit harsh, Fernandinho's cleaving of Raphina near the end was much more vicious. Great win, onwards and upwards!
     
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  15. lufctommo

    lufctommo Well-Known Member

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    I'm sure the Cooper incident was covered on the match day thread which I wasn't part of but my opinion is there are two ways to look at it.

    1) That's where the ball happened to be and as a defender he's fully entitled to go for it. As long as he gets the ball and doesn't intend to follow through and injure the player then a collision is just unfortunate.

    or

    2) If there's any chance you'll hit the opponent in the follow through like that then you're not entitled to challenge for the ball whether you get it first or not.

    A few years ago I think most people would've agreed with statement one but it seems now we play by statement two. That's fine if the rules are consistent but then you look at Sterling's tackle on Raphina. If he hadn't got the ball a stamp like that would've been a dangerous tackle and a straight red so I don't see how "he got the ball" is a defence for one but not the other.

    The Roberts one was obviously ridiculous. Before VAR I often defended refs because they only get to see things once and usually the answer to a mistake is just that they're human and got it wrong. With VAR I feel like there should be more transparency and accountability on things like why the tackle on Roberts didn't even get looked at.
     
    #15
  16. w.c.dukenfield

    w.c.dukenfield Well-Known Member

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    The difference between Coopers challenge and Fernandinhos tackle and Sterlings 2 stampings was that Cooper went for the ball not the man.
     
    #16
  17. hemase

    hemase Well-Known Member

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    Afternoon all,

    I have flip flopped on the Cooper incident since it happened. There have been many arguments for and against. This is where the VAR sticking point comes in. The ref made a decision on the pitch straight away. Was it a clear and obvious error which is what VAR should be in for? If VAR did not exist and the match had carried on with Cooper on the pitch with a yellow card would anybody really have complained?


    The biggest thing that stuck in my craw was once again the blatant inconsistency in VAR calls. If Coopers needed reviewing then how the hell was Baldock's not reviewed last week? Look at the penalty incident in the Burnley game yesterday and then the Son one in the scum game. The biggest problem with VAR is still the human element. You can have all the replays in the world but it is still the same referees using their interpretation of the rules. This is why it is failing.
     
    #17
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  18. southernwhite

    southernwhite Well-Known Member

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    #18
  19. Doc

    Doc Well-Known Member

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    U23s almost won the title this afternoon as Palace were beating Stoke 2-0 but Stoke came back to equalise late on. This means Leeds have now all but won the league as Stoke would need to win all their remaining matches and Leeds would need to lose all their matches, plus overcome a 20 goal difference.

    So a draw against Villa on Friday will do it. Great season with Gelhardt Greenwood and Crysencio scoring 24 goals between them. Gelhardt 11 Greenwood 8 and Crysencio 5
     
    #19
  20. SIDDAS

    SIDDAS Well-Known Member

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    On Cooper it's a yellow for me. He's entitled to go for the ball and has eyes only on the ball.
    What would of Bielsa and the fans have said if Cooper decided on bottling that challenge? What if leaving that challenge let hole in the hands through on goal? He has to challenge it.
    Football is a contact sport please don't let the new era take that away.
    In the good old days that would of been cheered with a "get stuck in lad"
    Fernandinho's challenge was complete opposite he had eyes only on the player not the ball his intent was to foul a "professional foul" Yet it was deemed as only yellow absolute pathetic.
    Coops gets sent off for having eyes on the ball and winning that ball and unlucky with a follow through but studs down.
    Fernandinho's gets a yellow for a deliberate cynical foul having no intentions of winning the ball as well as injuring a player.
    hmmm so you can't challenge a ball fully committed. but, you can take a player out in any way needed to stop him getting past you Unbelievable.

    With Cooper out now we will finally get the chance the see a partnership I really like the look of in the left footer Struijk and Right Footer Llorente.
    I defo think Struijk will take Coops place sooner rather than later then its the battle of the right footers in Llorente and Koch.
    Llorente and Koch I'd like to see too but I'm a big fan of a left foot and Right foot CB partnership.
     
    #20

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