Good Morning. It's Monday 10th January, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Leeds exit Cup after Sucker punch Leeds were knocked out of the FA Cup in controversial circumstances by West Ham yesterday, at the London Stadium in front of 8000 travelling fans. Bielsa's handed debut's for Lewis Bate and Leo Hjelde, whilst in the absence of Bamford, Roberts, Rodrigo and Gelhardt, Sam Greenwood led the line. Although on paper, it looked like it was going to be a one-sided affair, the Leeds starlets frustrated the Hammers, providing stubborn resistance from a well-organised and balanced team. West Ham took the lead with ten minutes of the first half remaining. Vlasic outmuscled Hjelde on the edge of the box, turned his man, and ran in on goal. Hjelde redeemed himself with a last gasp challenge which any top flight defender would have been proud of. Meslier went to smother the ball, but was thwarted by the onrushing arrival of Bowen. The ball broke kindly for Lanzini, who fired David Moyes team to a 1-0 lead at the break. Bowen was in an offside position when he ran across Meslier. Whether he actually touched the ball is irrelevant, he influenced the play, and the goal should not have stood. Leeds continued to frustrate the Hammers in the second half, but were undone deep into injury time when Antonio broke free, as Leeds piled forward searching for an equaliser. His diagonal pass found Bowen on the edge of the Leeds area, who thumped the ball past the despairing dive from Meslier. please log in to view this image Another setback for Bamford In his post match press conference, Marcelo Bielsa disclosed that Patrick Bamford injured himself again in training earlier this week. The Leeds No 9 was due to lead the line against West Ham but has picked up an as of yet unidentified injury. According to the Argentine:- "Bamford recovered from the injury he sustained against Brentford and he was going to play again today, he was going to be the starter at centre forward and in the training during the week he suffered an injury that is not identifiable," "It's a knock underneath his hip and it's still not clear what's the reason behind it. The only thing that's for sure is that it's not a muscular problem because his muscles are healthy." please log in to view this image Cooper and Radz lead the protests whilst Bielsa takes moral high ground Liam Cooper and Andrea Radrizzani led the protests for the Whites after being knocked out of the FA Cup. The skipper took to social media to call the incident where the Hammers took the lead as a 'shambles', whilst everyone knew what Andrea Radrizzani was suggesting when posting 'very clear to everyone' on his twitter account! As usual Marcelo Bielsa took the moral high ground, and refused to lay blame at either the referee or VAR:- "It's a decision I prefer to accept what the referee's say, not because I don't have an opinion, I think it's a collaboration us coaches should make, to accept the decisions to the referees even if they jeopardise us," "If not we enter terrain where we can't offer what we want to offer, which is good football. There is a lot of arguments to say that the position I'm taking is incorrect, I consider them and I revise them but adding and subtracting I think the decision to accept their decisions helps their job and the spectacle. There are some conclusions that say the ones that demand the least would seem that it facilitates for the referee in case of doubts that they go towards the one that complains the least. I think the argument I'm offering is superior." Whilst it is noble that Macelo Bielsa continuous to fall on his sword, it makes it easier for decisions to go against Leeds if their head Coach is fine with it. During Fergie's reign at Old Trafford, I can assure you that referee's would think twice before making a decision against his team! please log in to view this image
Never mind being a twitter warrior. Lodge an official complaint to the FA regarding the decisions that have gone against us. It could cost us millions in revenue but we just shrug and moan about it on twitter. The club has to draw a line in the sand and put some pressure on these inept and probably corrupt officials.
Morning all, Best comment regarding the offside yesterday on Twitter- "Bowen wasn't interfering with play in much the same way the iceberg didn't interfer with the Titanic."
I know it’s only the 10th but is anyone else slightly worried that we’re hearing talk of loans to Greenwood, Summerville and Drameh but not anything about incomings. I feel we need a CM & striker at least.
My tuppence is that an AM (box to box type) will help our striker and midfield issues. KP worked well for England with Rice alongside for example.
The Everton v Leicester game is called off again. Due to covid and injuries so one side? unable to field a side of senior players. Why do we not do this and why are we so soft with everything. Rads twittered something yesterday but kept it veiled to avoid direct reference and of course a fine. TEn days gone and not a sign of a senior player joining us. We do not need u23s they are not the answer. West ham are a top side and the difference in pace showed. We have so many average champ players in our stupidly small squad. The luckiest man to still have a job at Leeds utd is victor orta. Bielsa has kept him in a job because if you add up his millions wasted (moreno for one) against his successful signings he is a failure. He was working for Boro but was wanted all over Europe.. Really? I would like to see proof of that. Fans want better players and to qualify for Europe once again. We need to sign players now not in the summer. Start making some progress with who is going to leave. We are supposed to have mega rich backers but clubs like Newcastle are showing us up. They needed to sort the defence out and bid for trippier and made a statement of intent. We were told the u23s would seamlessly fit in first team when needed well it never happened. Can't wait to see who we tried to sign this window. I think we have a chairman and majority owner who knows nothing about football.
Agree with this Seems there are plenty on here slagging off our U23s which I find amazing. We now have a settled defence with Ayling, Llorente, Koch and Firpo and thats without adding in Cooper when he returns and Struijk who is due back soon. On top of that we have Cresswell who everyone thought was great not long ago is also back soon and then we also saw a young lad yesterday called Hjelde who had a storming game and I thought he did better than Llorente against the WHU CF. Also my view is that Drameh is a great prospect at RB Our midfield is lacking badly so really does need some creativity injecting into it. We miss Phillips badly and we dont have a player capable of playing that role like Phillips. Koch isnt Phillips, Klich, Forshaw or Struijk are also not good enough. We have Dallas, klich and Forshaw all over 30yo and we need to have real back up options in the middle i also think we really need a debate about strikers because when lets face facts our striking options have not worked because they havent received decent service. Rodrigo struggled because of service and a couple of untaken chances. Roberts just isnt a striker and Gelhardt does give us a different option because he always makes something happen, but right now he isnt good enough or mature enough to start regular when Bamford is out so maybe a new striker required or Rodrigo played differently as a No9
Same here. We've had injury problems all season and it feels like we're sitting on our hands or Forshaw is going to make water in to wine. I think the victory against Burnley has put a very thin layer of paper over the cracks but things need to be done now.
One thing I would really like to know is what the **** do they do in training that results in so many injuries???
Cheers. Is does make you wonder then especially as Bamford keeps on getting injured.. Is Bielsa chasing him around the training ground slapping him with a copy of his contract.
Been needing a striker for at least three seasons now. Bielsa has the last say on signings and he says only signings this month who are better that what we have. Well any striker in league one is better than roberts strike rate. Sure he can play and has a nice touch but big feckin deal as he can't score.
