Think we’ll have to agree to disagree on those games, Spurs deserved the win despite the first half, Norwich were the better team, we were poor and fortunate. The other games I can’t honestly remember them all. We need to forget this should have been out of sight attitude, under Bielsa maybe once or twice have we put ourselves out of sight, we haven’t the quality in the team to put our chances away. Nothing personal mate, I just see it all the time, we’re famous for missing chances and for all his greatness we’ve never managed to fix it under Bielsa. Bamford - Bielsa prefers a player who does tons of donkey work, holds up the ball, has a great engine but his finishing is more than questionable. Rodrigo - Has never been known for his goals, Bielsa wanted him and I think he was quoted as saying he wasn’t signed for his goal scoring capability James - Everyone who’s watched him play has said tackles back, like a rocket for pace, runs all day long but no end product It’s the kind of players Bielsa prefers
I was just about to say the same thing mate, everyone seems to break their duck against us, so, unfortunately we'll probably boss Brighton and get beat by a goal from someone who hasn't scored for three years.
-----------------------Meslier----------------------- Dallas---------Struijk----Llorente-------Firpo -----------------------Phillips---------------------- James-----Raphinha---Forshaw----Harrison ----------------------Gelhardt---------------------- Is this our strongest (and balanced) XI for Saturday. Forshaw or Rodrigo? Is it a 4/1/4/1 or a 4/2/3/1?
James left, Rodrigo right, drop Harrison. In defence Struijk has looked good on the left, I’d play him and include Cooper drop Firpo. Bielsa won’t drop Cooper..
Really? If he has, I must have missed it. If I have missed it, he can't surely be better at it than Harrison, who imo could easily turn out as LB.
When we were looking to sign him, virtually every report from Man U fans all said the same, he’d run all day long, he’s good at tackling back, his pace scares the opposition to death but his final ball is usually the wrong one or missing the target. If fans were saying this then Bielsa must have seen the same. Despite what he’d seen Bielsa still wanted to make him our record signing, he obviously liked the “other stuff” and wasn’t concerned about lack of goals or the decision making. Like I said it’s the kind of player Bielsa likes signing
Bielsa will never blame injuries because he's then saying that the players on the pitch aren't good enough so I take his comments with a pinch of salt. We don't know how good we are this season yet because of the nightmare we've suffered with injuries. I think Forshaw has become that CM we needed in the Summer. Considering he hasn't had many games since his layoff I'm interested to see how good he can be. I think him and Philips make a decent MF. I think our realistic best 11 is: Meslier Ayling - Llorente - Cooper - Firpo Forshaw - Philips Rodrigo Raphinha - Bamford - Harrison That gives you a bench from: James Dallas Klich Joffy Struijk Koch Drameh Summerville Greenwood McKinstry... What do you think? Will we ever get the chance to find out?
Have to say I'm far more optimistic about getting a result tomorrow than last weekend against the Spuds. Let's hope we can keep the performance going for the full 90 minutes this week and put the seagulls in their place. As always however a point is never a bad result and could eventually prove vital in keeping us up. If you take a look at last season's final table you'll see Brighton drew 14 games (the most of any team in the division) and finished 16th on 41 points. My team as follows (Bielsa won't leave Cooper out, so not going to happen), Meslier Dallas Llorente Struijk Firpo Phillips Forshaw Raphinha Rodrigo James Gelhardt
Don’t know if anyone has seen this but an interesting article about Joffy, and touches on Marcelo's attitude towards youth, and fitness for games. Sadly can’t get this to copy as a webpage , but perhaps some of the web wizards out there will be up to the task. https://www.skysports.com/football/...ball-joe-gelhardts-rise-to-first-team-stardom On 2mrws game, I reckon we’ll get something, hopefully 3 points. We’ve improved since the poor Southampton game, not got what we’ve deserved. The season starts properly now, MOT.
The only thing I would add is that Burnley should have had 2 red cards and we should have had a penalty nailed on. So 2 points dropped for me and Newcastle was also a nailed on penalty but you called it 2 points dropped so fair enough
Yep. Fully agree. The main point is we look like we are in a false position in the league despite not firing on all cylinders and having lots of key players missing. Hopefully we can get a few back, get a few decisions and a couple more go in the goal. My main worry is that we just never seem to get players back before another lot are with the physio.
Meslier Dallas…..Llorente…..Cooper……Struijk Phillips Raphinha….Forshaw…..Rodrigo…..James Gelhardt Subs Harrison Firpo Roberts Cresswell Summerville Drameh Greenwood Having Firpo around means Struijk can drop into the middle if required and Harrison gives us more options off the bench plus having Drameh means we have the option of putting Dallas into midfield too. This week we have a bench that can change the game
Interesting, for as far as I can see, Brighton play 3-5-2 (according to the BBC), meaning that we'll be 3-3-3-1, almost certainly. If that's the case, my line-up guess is: Meslier Llorente Cooper Struijk Dallas Phillips Harrison Raphinha Rodrigo James Geldardt That's my first shot. Still musing ....