Good Morning. It's Thursday 10th February, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Point shared in six goal thriller Leeds came from 3-1 down to grab a share of the spoils in a topsy-turvy game which saw 28 shots on goal. Bielsa kept faith with the same starting XI that failed to impress against Newcastle, but his conviction was rewarded when a rejuvenated Dan James put the visitors ahead on nine minutes after good work from Rodrigo. Soon after, the Welsh International could have doubled the lead, but the crossbar came to Villa's aid. Just when it looked like Leeds were going to extend their lead, Villa equalised. Matty Cash's speculative cut back found Coutinho on the edge of the area. He had time to take a touch, and turn, after firing them level on the half hour mark. Eight minutes later, the hosts were ahead. Coutinho broke free from Ayling in the centre of the park; and delivered a diagonal ball to Ramsey, carving the Leeds defence in half. The 20yo look his time, before slotting the ball past the despairing dive of Meslier. Coutinho was the orchestrator for Villa's third just before half-time. He once again carved Leeds defence wide open to feed Ramsey who was in acres of space. He had time to pick his spot before rifling the ball into the roof of the net, giving Meslier no chance. Just when it looked like the hosts would take a two goal lead into the dressing room at half-time. Leeds fired back. Klich and Rodrigo combined well in the area. Rodrigo's cross was met by a melee of players, but somehow 5ft 7' Dan James got the final touch to reduce the deficit deep into first half injury time. As the game progressed, Leeds grew in confidence, and slowly got a grip on the game. Their persistence paid off on the hour mark when Rodrigo's cross was put away by Llorente after Struijk's initial effort was saved. Villa were reduced to ten men on 88 minutes, but clung on for a point. please log in to view this image Why did James ignore Bielsa substitution At the six goal thriller was nearing it's finale, Marcelo Bielsa decided to make a couple of changes. Forshaw for Klich, and Roberts for James, but the Welshman had other idea's. James refused to acknowledge Bielsa’s instructions, and ignored his instructions to come off the pitch. After a few minutes the substitution was retracted but not before millions saw the event unfolding. Not only does this show an utter disregard to the gaffer, what about the disrespect to his fellow Welshman Roberts? please log in to view this image Post Match reaction Aston Villa Manager Steven Gerrard: "We wanted to take the sting out of the game. It was frantic, end-to-end and 100 mph. We almost brought into the Leeds style and we needed more calm heads out there so it looked more like our style. It would have been unfair to go in 3-1 up I think. Leeds deserved that goal. They had a lot of movement and runners outside. We didn't have the same creativity ourselves going forward in the second half. A draw was the right result. A fun game for the fans tonight but not one for the coaches! "It was vintage Philippe Coutinho tonight. He's certainly getting back close to where he was when the whole world was speaking about him. There was a lot to be pleased about in terms of our forward-play. Defensively we have to improve but Leeds are really unique. It was a wonderful game, just not for me! "We're still learning a lot about the players and they are about us. Leeds take you places you don't want to go. They have pace and talent. We will try and improve but sometimes you have to pay credit to the opposition as well." On Jacob Ramsey: "He's not following in anyone's footsteps. Jacob Ramsey is Jacob Ramsey. He will be a terrific polayer. It won't be long before the whole country is watching him I'm sure. He is right up there let me tell you." Leeds Manager Marcelo Bielsa "It was a disputed game. The dominance was alternate with moments for one team with possibilities and then the other way around as well. "At the start I don't know exactly when we were dominating until and were superior but some things we didn't continue doing and the game became unbalanced. "It was difficult but we got a stimulus at the end of the first half which got us closer. In the second half we slowly started to deserve a draw. "A draw was the fair result." please log in to view this image
The James substitution looked more like he was saying "no, I'm fine!". I just presumed they thought he had a knock or was tired. On the game itself....it becomes more blatantly obvious with every passing game that we desperately need a new central midfield.
Morning all Happy to get a point last night. Hopefully the lack of transfers last month with actually pay off from now to the end of the season. If we don't beat Everton then there's something wrong. Regarding James and this substitution supposedly he turned around a saw Roberts on the touch line about to come on and said. 'Oh **** Off''. I'm not surprised he acted the way he did. Everybody knows Roberts is a pile of **** and it must be maddening to be replaced every game with a player with no talent. Everybody knows Roberts should have gone in the window apart from Bielsa.
Morning all, Firstly, a team that is still nowhere our best eleven in their rightful positions just went toe to toe with a full strength villa side who are alledegly on the up. Secondly, anyone who thinks James refused to come off and disrespected Bielsa like that clearly knows very little about Bielsa and the club in recent times. No way in hell Bielsa would give in and not make the sun just because James thought he was better than Roberts. This whole thing has come about due to clever camera work by BT creating a story where there isn't one. Just something else for the idiots to knock Roberts with
so Emu's perspective or Wolves perspective? James would never play for Leeds again if he 'refused' to come off.
Good morning all Great game last night, about the James very minor incident, i am 22st, and if i was playing and I was about to be substituted by Roberts, i think i might have been a bit disgruntled , also we moan about the refs and rightly so in most cases, but i don't know without looking it up, but he deserved a lot of praise for his performance last night, refereed in what i call the old style, let most of the crunching but fare tackles go, which kept the game flowing. And finally i am beginning to like Gerrard , from what he said before and after the game, i think he is secretly a Leeds fan
Heavy tackle on the half way line looked like it caused James to cramp up a little. Told the bench he was fine and carried on. Probably should have come off though as milky had predicted Roberts to come on and score the winner.
Many pundits said Rodrigo was Leeds best player last night. The YEP marked him as 8 with James 9 simply scored, but when Raphinha is marked as a 5 after a poor performance and players like Llorente and Meslier marked as 7s, Rodrigo has gone under the radar here. He ran his nags off and created quality. How I wish we had a full team on the pitch to take advantage. I look forward to the time when Bamford, Phillips, Firpo, Rodrigo, Raphinha, Harrison, James all marked as 8s because thats the time some team have just been smashed
James and Rodrigo were our best players by a distance last night. James less of an influence after the break, but unplayable in the first half. Rodrigo was consistently excellent I thought. Even though he works hard, we always look more vulnerable defensively when we play him I guess because it's usually at the expense of a traditional 'midfielder'. Raphinha our worst player by an equal distance last night. He reminds me of Pablo in that respect... usually our best player but when he's bad he's bad.
Never got to see the game last night. So waited till this morning and read back on the match thread. Now just watched the highlights about 3 mins long. Villa took their chances well and meslier was unlucky with their third putting his legs out the wrong way. He thumped the pitch in annoyance. Villa had more pace than us but james is adding some for us.
Afternoon all Like LeedsLondon has pointed out, we’ll know very quickly if James defied Bielsas orders, I’m guessing he wouldn’t do that, I’d be gobsmacked if he did
sat in Holte End it was frightening to see Leeds running at such pace at Villa, Bielsa Ball at it's finest ... Villans around me were bricking it and they were delighted that they didn't lose by six Leeds were immense, Rodrigo was different gravy and kept Leeds pushing hard at the Villa defence all night Dan James is just incredible in the way he terrorises defenders, he is going to brilliant for Leeds ... his "substitution" was a non-event, once he confirmed to the bench he was okay to continue he stayed on ... I suspect it had to do with the bang on the head he got scoring his second goal and it was more precautionary anyway, superb Leeds!
If Leeds are adept at one thing, it’s fighting fire with fire please log in to view this image By Phil Hay Feb 10, 2022 “What’s been demanded is what I’ve done the least.” Not quite the words of Limmy, one of Scotland’s comedians de jour, but words cut from the same cloth as those which turned Limmy into a meme: Don’t back down. Double down. Another week in Yorkshire and another week of chat about what is going on up front at Leeds United. Patrick Bamford became a father overnight on Sunday but there was no mention of that a few hours later as Marcelo Bielsa spent part of his Monday morning press conference revisiting a battleground which, for all its complexity, smells of little other than Joe Gelhardt. There is, it seems, no end of metrics where Gelhardt scores highly: expected goals, expected assists and expected debates. Outside of Bielsa’s domain, there are many who would like to tell him that Gelhardt needs to carry the baton at centre-forward while Bamford, alongside babygrows and night feeds, tries to shake off a foot injury so he can add to his five Premier League starts so far this season. That swell of opinion has been rising for months and if it ever seems that Bielsa is oblivious to what is being said, written or tweeted about him, look once more at how a question about Dan James starting at No 9 handbrake-turned into his Leeds coach admitting that by using Gelhardt so late in last month’s 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United, he had gone against the tide. Nothing in what was said suggested Bielsa was for turning. People are shouting for Gelhardt, he said, but pre-game and in-game, that call is his alone and if three and half years of Bielsa’s management have taught Leeds fans anything, it is that most of his decisions are impervious to noise on the outside. More than that, noise on the outside tends to deepen his commitment to his own views. Should he have used Gelhardt earlier against Newcastle? “The decision I didn’t make can’t be verified,” he said. “Because it can’t be verified, the critique of it acquires value.” Hardly the sound of a head coach conceding ground. The debate is not solely about Gelhardt’s inclusion or exclusion, even if the 19-year-old is the shiniest toy in town. It is about Bamford and the hole he leaves up front when he doesn’t play. It is about Tyler Roberts and the part of Bielsa which sees more in him than the crowd looking on does. It is about goals, results and a desire to get out of this season unscathed; to wit, by utilising the most extreme talent available. Leeds are not in “relying on scorelines elsewhere” territory but the bottom rungs of the Premier League were tight enough to make Tuesday’s round of matches, preceding their trip to Aston Villa 24 hours later, pertinent. It would suit them to consign Newcastle 3-1 Everton to the bin of fixture irrelevance. please log in to view this image At Villa Park, there was no backing down and no hint of it either: James up front again as part of the same XI as Bielsa set sail with against Newcastle. When the Argentinian turned to his bench near the end of the box-office 3-3 draw that unfolded from there, Roberts emerged ahead of Gelhardt. The thinking at the outset, no doubt, was that James’ turn of pace and butcher’s-dog stamina would hassle Villa’s centre-backs while giving Leeds another outlet on the counter if they were able to turn over the home side’s narrow wingers, otherwise known as a pair of No 10s. Adam Forshaw might have helped with the second aspect but, fit again after a hamstring injury, Bielsa named him only on the bench. Ten minutes in, retractions of criticism poured from all directions. Rodrigo did some poaching on the edge of the box, dispossessing Tyrone Mings, and his inside ball, the first of numerous clever passes, was whipped inside the far post by James, struck with perfect accuracy. Rodrigo, who isn’t great at pressing and James, who isn’t really a No 9, did it all in the time it took Villa to blink. Inwardly, Bielsa might have performed a mental knee slide. Outwardly, he sat sipping a tea. The early movement of his attacking players was not to Villa’s liking and as James drifted right to smash a cross off goalkeeper Emiliano Martinez’s body and then left to force a stretched clearing header from Lucas Digne, the Welshman’s part in the rotations made Bielsa’s logic clearer. Villa looked like scoring from every corner they took, able to guide them onto the head of Mings, but as they prepared to deliver, James took to placing himself on the halfway line in preparation for a clearance which set up a race for the ball. That unpredictability, and Rodrigo’s searching range of distribution, left Villa wondering which direction the next stab would come from. In short, it showed how the arrangement could flourish and why Bielsa was persisting. A burst from Jack Harrison set up another chance for James on the half-hour mark, one he cracked against the top of the crossbar from 20 yards, but from switched-on status, Leeds switched off seconds later, making a mess of a throw-in and leaving Philippe Coutinho unmarked. At a favourable range, Coutinho swept a low shot beyond Illan Meslier, happy to cash in. That equaliser snuffed Leeds’ candle out temporarily and lit Coutinho’s own. In the 38th minute, the Brazilian turned Luke Ayling on halfway and fed Jacob Ramsey with a killer ball, which the youngster converted. Six minutes later, Ramsey left an off-colour Raphinha trailing on the other side of the pitch to collect another Coutinho pass and smash it into the roof of Meslier’s net. No nonsense and no panic — which looked like setting in among Bielsa’s side. That was Leeds’ season typified: glimpses of seductive promise lost to moments of weakness, the latter killing the former. Last night’s first half was thoroughly out of control when James’ close-range header, presented to him by Rodrigo’s deflected cross, brought the scoreline back to 3-2 in added time. Thoughts flooded back to an away win by that scoreline here at Villa Park just before Christmas 2018 when nothing was settled until the very last swing of Kemar Roofe’s boot. A swing of Diego Llorente’s just past the hour brought the scoreline level again and there it stayed, despite a late red card shown to Ezri Konsa and riotous effort on the part of both teams to squeeze out a winner. Leeds scored three times here last season too, on a day where they wiped the floor with Villa. On Wednesday, three goals sent them home with a draw and a feeling they had been short-changed. And in that, there was a point that got lost in the debate over how Bielsa should structure his front line. Leeds have three clean sheets in Premier League games this season. They have shipped 43 goals, which is close enough to the worst defensive record in the division (Norwich City’s 46). They are liable to splinter when teams burn through their midfield and liable to trade a lead for a deficit in no time, albeit with the capacity still to fight back. They have not been able to afford themselves the light relief of an easy night’s work. An attack as consistently slick as yesterday’s would help to take them up the league from their current 15th place but it is brittleness defensively that is keeping them in harm’s way.
