The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Thursday 5th May)

i said you were slagging him off all season, not that you wanted him gone…

I haven’t forgotten what he did, I loved what he did and am extremely grateful for it.

Jesse wouldn’t be here if bielsa hadn’t put us in mortal danger of relegation. Its not exactly a balanced view to blame the guy who’s job was to keep the sinking ship afloat. I don’t think Phil Hay is rubbishing bielsa… he’s just looking at what went wrong and saying what most of us have said.

 

But again, the counter argument to that is he’s always managed to do that so far, responding to bad results. This time the board thought he couldn’t so rolled the dice

 

Phil Hay said over training was one of the issues. Some will agree others won’t, what fact does he have on this?

 

He has none, just negativity gets more clicks than positivity.
I've given up reading his bile, along with all the other I told you so merchants.
Bielsa gave us some beautiful football, for that I will be eternally grateful.

 

He certainly responded to individual bad results in the past for us. But our form faded in his first year when we missed out on promotion. In February this year the response to bad results was further bad results. But on the flipside:
- it was a difficult run of fixtures and we had players to come back.
- His second season in Bilbao was a disaster but he did eventually string a few results that avoided relegation… and was sacked at the end of the season.

Mixed bag

 

Last Season

Games both started

Newcastle (A) - Won
Southampton (H) - Won
Villa (H) - Lost
West Ham (A) - Lost
Sheff Utd (H) - Won
Man City (A) - Won
Southampton (A) - Won

Games neither started

Liverpool (A) - Lost
Wolves (H) - Lost
Villa (A) - Won
Burnley (H) - Won
WBA (A) - Won
Spurs (A) - Lost

This Season

Games both started

Burnley (H) - Drew
Liverpool (H) - Lost
Watford (H) - Won
Southampton (A) - Lost
Wolves (H) - Drew
Norwich (A) - Won
Leicester (H) - Drew
Spurs (A) - Lost
Brighton (A) - Drew
Palace (H) - Won
Brentford (H) - Drew
Southampton (H) - Drew
Watford (A) - Won
Palace (A) - Drew

Games neither played

Arsenal H) - Lost
West Ham (A) - Won
Liverpool (A) - Lost
Leicester (A) - Lost
Villa (H) - Lost
Man City (H) - Lost

For this season, Llorente missed the away game at scum, the home game with Everton, the away game at Newcastle and the home game at West Ham. Cooper was absent for any other game not listed

 

Oh you want analysis as well as just plain stat gathering. Whilst I have always said I have a thing for stats, I'm also sure I've previously mentioned providing they take no more than 10 minutes to put together.

As for the 2:50 at Ascot, lump it all on Delaney's Donkey, I believe he will win the half mile race

In reality though, I know sweet FA about horse racing (I probably know sweet FA about anything), so in the time honoured tradition of picking a Grand National horse, because I like it's name, the winner of the 2:50 British Stallion Studs EBF Maiden Fillies' Stakes at Ascot will be Omniqueen,

 

he doesn’t if that’s what he said. It’s a long article and I can’t be arsed to read it again but I don’t recall him mentioning overtraining directly - just injury problems and reference to hard training. He did imply that those within the club thought the players were shagged… not the same as saying it himself. If he did say it, I agree he doesn’t have facts to support it… it would just be opinion..

I thought the article was balanced enough as a summary of where it went wrong and his criticism is mainly directed at the board… as the buck stops with them for not insisting on squad strengthening.

I’ve said before it’s a difficult one… bielsa has final say… and you want to give him control because If you over-rule that the relationship is soured. It’s a fundamental issue with ceding control of the project to the manager. When all goes well it’s great. When it gets rocky… how do you change things without changing manager?

 

Omniqueen?
One for the tranny 3 to lump on.

 

they take home omniqueen and wake up with Delaney’s donkey

 

well fella, you checked out the race which puts you one up on me.

I hadn’t realised it was the ‘British stallion studs maiden fillies’… sounds more like wakey’s holiday itinerary

 

Certainly do...

Harrogate branch

 

If you blame Bielsa for the results turning in his first season, I seem to remember the same happened under Monk, maybe a case of the players bottling it? Either way he responded the following year when we went up as champions. I’m not saying he didn’t make mistakes, the two main ones for me were being too loyal to the championship players and dubious recruitment.

 

again fella I’m not ‘blaming’ him… you said he’d always responded to turn round bad results and I’m just providing some balance of when results did turn and when they didn’t. He did respond the following year in fine style, this question though is more about ‘stopping the rot’

My personal opinion - and that’s all it is - is the board saw how we imploded in that first championship year run in and what that looked like internally… and saw the same signs on a worse scale, and consequently didn’t feel it would turn around.

It’s stating the obvious that they didn’t think it would turn around or they wouldn’t have sacked him, I’m just suggesting it wasn’t without some supporting evidence. Earlier to give balance I gave an example of Bilbao where he did manage to turn it around.

 

It's all just opinion, but how we were playing and how the team looked shattered I think that Palace front line would have hammered us under MB.

 

Omniqueen it is!!!!

 

Nearly time for the 2-50 at Ascot.

Aski has gone for Omniqueen I think ?

Market support is for Omniqueen

 

And the winner is....

Omniqueen

 

Just watched the race - Omniqueen absolutely romped it.

@Aski, what are tonights Euromillions numbers?