Thursday night we will see an improvement again and with luck take a couple if chances we earned. Yesterday we saw Rapha, Klich, James, Firpo, Rodrigo, Harrison, Koch and more all scuff good chances. The game before against spuds we yet again missed 7 good chances with Dallas rounding the keeper, Rodrigo hitting the bar twice, Struijk missing an open goal. We create plenty of chances but ….. So hoping Villa take the hit
On yesterday's new formation. The flat back four made us a little more orthodox when defending. It certainly helped Firpo who struggled with the man to man system. Under Bielsa both full backs were encouraged to push forward in to wide midfielders or even wingers usually at the same time to create overloads. Under Marsche it looks more standard with only one full back pushing on at any time. That gives us an extra man to cover counters. In midfield it looked like Koch holding with Klich the link between him and Harrison and Raphinha who were playing as wide 10's or narrow wingers. That helped us strengthen through the middle. When they had the ball at the back we pretty much went 2-4-4 looking for them the play it to the full backs. That seems to be the trigger for the press which is the front 8 all descending on to that corner of the pitch. They hunt the ball like an U8's team. We didn't do this very well. There were too many occasions where one or two pressed but the others hesitated. That allowed Leicester to break on us (ultimately they scored from a similar situation). That's fine btw as it's a new system and that will improve with time. The times they did it correctly was enough to show that it causes huge problems. If the initial press fails then we don't just maintain the press. We give up after a few seconds, retreat, take up defensive positions and wait for another trigger. The trigger is usually a ball out wide where we can corner the player with the ball and limit his options. Again, I don't think we did this particularly well but it's early days. We as fans are used to constant possession and all out attack. I get the feeling that if we have possession in the opposition half and they are organised then we won't be creating much. It's almost like we want to give them the ball back just so we can counter press in order to create the overload. Under Bielsa we just committed more and more players forward until we forced the overload through sheer numbers. This is hugely more conservative now. The overload now has to be created by winning the ball back and catching the opposition out whilst THEY are committing players forward. We've now become a team that allow teams possession and set traps for them to fall in to. Things will get better the more that this is drilled in training. Now the negatives. The gameplan fell apart when tiredness set in. The game became increasingly more Bielsaesque in the second half after 60 minutes. That's when players tire, switch off, go in to auto pilot etc. Someone was going to score and unfortunately they got the goal. Changes need to be made and we just don't have the strength in depth to bring players on after 60 minutes and maintain the quality. Finally the players. Missing multiple golden chances. A couple corners just chipped at Schmeichel with nobody blocking him or challenging. Crosses not beating the first man. Rodrigo, James not being able to control a ball. Too many passes going astray. The list goes on. Overall, a positive first performance but lots to work on. Leicester were poor yesterday yet they found a way to win. We need to learn to win games. I'm not sure these players have it in them.
I’ll continue to say what I think I believe in democracy You have your opinions which you are free to express at all times
I know you won't see this but unprecedented has become the word that I have grown to hate over the last couple of years or so, bushfires, floods, pandemic etc etc all unprecedented except of course when they have happened before.
You sound like MSM, stay on message or STFU, critical thinkers welcome for me. No one hates the players, some may question their quality, nothing wrong with asking the question, particularly as we are in deep ****, praying for others results to go our way.
2p does not like Roberts true 2p does not hate Roberts also true It always pays to understand the meaning of words
I don't want people to take my post too literally. I was venting after reading the previous few pages of this thread. I pulled a theme from what I was reading. Emu's post was much more like what I look forward to. There are great posts from many posters which is why I wade through the other stuff. What I was getting at is that I seem to see the same old moans come round every week. I did exaggerate a bit though which I apologize for.
I'm probably guilty of being negative lately. I didn't want Bielsa to leave but it got to the point where there had to be change somewhere to try and turn things around. We're only one game in but in that game I have just seen what I have seen all season. A group of players that (most of them anyway) work hard but fail to do simple tasks like put a decent cross in now and then, control a ball, pass it 10 yards or keep shots below the bar. It's happened all season. There have been other contributing factors but ultimately, for me, the players haven't performed. It's getting to the point where I won't forgive some of them regardless of what they do from here. I'm usually very supportive of the lads. However as the season has progressed and they keep making the same bad decision over and over I'm starting to become hyper critical of them. They've pissed me off to be honest.
Season one with Bielsa and his inherited group of players was like a miracle. I remember after the first 45 minutes against Stoke I thought we can’t keep this up we did. I wondered if it was just a fortunate and lucky game but the exact same against Derby, it was the season that kept giving apart from one unfortunate game at the end of the season. Season two it again kept on giving, we thought Covid might ruin it but no, we were back in the promised land. Four huge signings followed, this was Leeds United spending around £100m on players, let’s pinch ourselves. Could we hold our own against the big boys, sure we could, taking points, scaring the opposition, again what a first season back. Three seasons and finally we could throw away our fears, our anticipation, we are here to stay under Bielsa we might even challenge for top six with a couple of decent signings, we were all on board, we were all sold. Then this season, it’s like the ever faithful wife has run off with your best mate, just disbelief and disappointment. As someone else said, we’d all fell deeply in love with the game again, it’s just pure disbelief and disappointment and anger that we’d all allowed ourselves to believe that after 16 years out of the top flight we’d closed the gap, Bielsa had us believing in miracles. Stating the obvious, the next 5 games are going to be season defining. I want us to stay up but I’m already fearing for next season if we’re still here. There needs to be a huge rebuild in the summer and I can’t see it happening Promotion season and the start of this season, we really should have harvested up the best players the Championship had to offer.
Well written Ristac Well written Ristac just about summed up all Leeds fans feelings their. As you wrote Season three astonishment & disappointment that we never built and pushed on, from such a solid foundation. Morning all
