Good Morning. It's Tuesday 19th October, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Touts scamming Leeds fans out of thousands Whilst thousands of Leeds fans jammed the ticket lines yesterday, desperate to get their hands on seats for the Leicester game, most were left bitterly disappointed! The majority had waited patiently on the phone for a considerable amount of time, only to receive the inevitable news that every ticket had been snapped up. Imagine my surprise when searching online to find that ticket touts had dozens of available seats on offer, as long as you are prepared to pay up to six times their face value. A ticket at Elland Road can cost between £29 to £47 depending on the view (and opposition), but a quick search on football tout sites showed seats for the Leicester game (which only went on sale yesterday) for up to £300 per ticket, or £1,200 for a family of four, or £13 per minute! please log in to view this image The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 makes it a criminal offence, yet touts have found ways to bend the laws. One way is to sell a novelty item, say a scarf at a hugely inflated price, with a free ticket. The Violent Crime Reduction Act 2006 and later the Ticket Touting (Designation of Football Matches) Order 2007 goes some way to stopping this! What should happen to Leeds fans caught selling tickets to these parasites? please log in to view this image Leeds to turn attention to Chelsea's forgotten midfielder Multiple sources this morning claim that Leeds are eyeing up a return for Chelsea and former England midfielder Ross Barkley. The 27yo spent a month on loan at Elland Road in 2013, but has only managed 36 minutes of first-team football under Thomas Tuchel this term, and is surplus to requirements at Stamford Bridge. Leeds face stiff competition for the former toffee, with a host of top flight clubs, including Newcastle rumoured to be interested in his signature. Is Barkley the right kind of player for Leeds. Would his lack of game time hinder his fitness levels please log in to view this image Hay lays into Leeds team Leeds Utd journalist Phil Hay has laid into the Leeds Utd team for their woeful performance on the South Coast at the weekend. Speaking on The Athletic's website, the former Chief football writer for the YEP labelled the fixture 'eminently winnable' and described Leeds as having 'no interplay, no dominance and no swagger' :- "In a first half as inept as any Bielsa has sat through, Raphinha was missed at St Mary’s. Phillips and Bamford were too, saying something about how essential Leeds’ most prominent faces feel at present. There was no interplay, no dominance, no swagger at all and — unusually for Bielsa’s Leeds — no chances worth talking about. Expected goals sat a fraction above zero at half-time. There was no answer to Southampton’s high press either, a tactic which can be costly against Leeds. Press high and teams take the chance of Bielsa’s cutting through them. But when Leeds fail to do so as comprehensively as they did on Saturday, the pitch is yours". "The concern for Bielsa is that whether or not he expected to win at Southampton — an eminently winnable fixture — he would have expected Leeds to be competitive and to make Southampton look more like a team without a league win to their name. There was a reversal of last weekend at Elland Road, where Leeds found their voice and Watford lost theirs. The picture in front of Bielsa is one of players climbing the mountainside, looking for the form and the flair they once oozed. Temporarily or otherwise, something is missing and has been from the start". please log in to view this image
Morning all Ross Barkley has 4 decent games per season. He isnt as good as he thinks he is and if he were any good he would be playing regular. Not for me as we need a consistent performer a player who improves the first team and a player who will pick up bielsaball fast. I suspect Ross cant spell his name twice the same way, so a non runner for me
One word ALIOSKI not what you want to hear, but to me he was a much larger cog than we all gave him credit for Energy/morale whatever it was he had in abundance, is it just a coincidence, that both are now sadly lacking since his exit,?
What we could do with to me, is a strong character in the dressing room to unify morale, and an even stronger tough captain,to unify the troops when things are not going well on the pitch, I 'me afraid a wishy washy Cooper does not do it for me and more importantly the Team either. At least we had half of my requirements last year.
Morning all, When it comes to Barkley there is a player in there but a wrong mindset. Two many off field issues and possibly not the right player for our dressing room. I do wish Bielsa had been able to get hold of him three or four years ago. Imagine the player he would be today but unfortunately I think he is too far gone now
Morning all I don’t believe the Barkley stories to be honest. If we make a move for anyone in January I think it will be a loan. If we pick some points up before then and are looking in a healthier position we won’t get anyone, the concern won’t be who we get in, more so can we hold on to players. I’d imagine January will be around the time that Bielsa either indicates to the board to start looking for a new coach “I’m not resigning“ or he’ll discuss his needs for 2022/23 again assuming we look pretty much safe. I know points wise nothing can be guaranteed by then but indications certainly can be.
I need some feel good factor. I want to read some positive posts lol. feels like every time i come on here we talk about doom and gloom lol. The Elland Road turf is looking good these days isn't it?
Since Bielsa arrived the team have had the odd bad game but in reality the team have been brilliant and a credit to Marcelo. Season 1 brilliant football right from the off but failed to get promotion right at the death, but great season. Season 2 awesome and smashed the league and every team in it. Season 3 brilliant, no worries about staying up and football loved by everyone who is a football fan. Season 4 hasnt even started for us and we’re 8 games in. We were near our best in match 8 even with injuries but useless in game 8 against a poor team. Something isnt right, be it injuries or something else, but its not right. Marcelo will fix it or I believe he will leave maybe in January if he believes he cannot sort it and fears relegation. He wants what is best for the cluband he may well walk, but lets hope he can sort it fast
Pretty much nail on the head their Doc, just about what all us Leeds fans are scratching our heads about, and as you said let's hope Marcello can sort it sooner rather than later.
There aren't any positives. Even the most blind, happy clappy supporter couldn't put any positive spin on the last performance. Like I've said on nurmorous times, we haven't been right since pre season. There is no guarantee that we'll beat a Wolves side whose confidence will be sky high after beating Villa, but if we don't beat Norwich I will start to really get nervous, nine games in or not.
Morning all. Have been trying so find some balance to exactly where we are at the moment, there's a lot of doom & gloom around so it got me thinking, is it actually that bad ? On closer inspection by this stage last season we'd already lost at home to Wolves & Leicester but had picked up a bonus point by drawing with Man City. In other words, the home form was identical with us gaining 4 points from 4 games. So how about away ? Well we'd already lost at Liverpool and Crystal Palace after 8 games but we nicked a win at Sheff U and then had one of our best away performances of the season to win at 3-0 at Villa. This season we've only managed 2 draws, Burnley & Newcastle with defeats coming at Man U & Southampton. Now, does that make me feel any better about our start to this season ? No not really, but I was bored and now I've bored you lot as well...so that makes me feel better
As Jammy says we are a bit worse off than last season, but not by much and we have the luxury of 3 teams below us who are really struggling. Norwich and Burnley have a face off this week though and we have to hope Newcastle keep dropping points. We also need Watford to carry on struggling so we can overhaul them and start to put space between us and the bottom 4 or 5 and then we should be a bit happier. Another big difference this season is that Palace can play good football and capable of getting results. Arsenal are stronger and better this season too but BHA are having a storming season and they were behind us last season, why? January will see a new coach at Newcastle and a couple of very good signings, so they should on paper they should start to climb. We have to improve and we need results
I think it's second season syndrome. The likes of Dallas and Ayling played like stars in their first season of the PL, however many of them are now finding it hard to get back to those levels of enthusiasm (for want of a better word). We need our best players back asap and I've no doubt Amigo will turn it around.
Brighton have played all three of the promoted sides and the highest rated team they've faced is Leicester, the rest were mid/lower table teams last season. Fair play to them as they've got off to a cracking start, but as with Villa last year let's see where everybody ends up.
It’s not the points tally that concerns me. It’s not even the league position or the injuries either. It’s the performances. Last season when we lost a game at least we gave it a real go. This season we lose with a whimper and all the fight seems to have gone. Very strange.
Even when we were getting stuffed by scum last year, we still looked like scoring more. I thought that I was reading too much into pre season, but like you say, can't put my finger on what the real problem is. Let's hope that we can get the injured back soon and take it from there.
Unless you're Citeh, and have the best players, you can't play exactly the same way, week in week out. We've been found out. Distrubution to Bamford has been stopped, and we look very weak against teams that are pressing high. If we don't catch them on the counter, we're susceptible to leaking goals