The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Wednesday 18th May)

Yeh just opinions Doc. Bielsa himself only joins clubs at the end of the season because he doesn’t think he can make changes properly mid-season. He always joins clubs in June and gets a two month runway… where he doesn’t need to worry about relegation fights and picking up a side who are seemingly physically and mentally struggling. So take your point and you may be right with marsch… I’m genuinely on the fence… it’s just the comparison isn’t apples with apples.

 

I don't ever remember a worse Leeds performance than Man City away,not in the top flight anyway, and there were a few close, Southampton for one, so not just the top teams, tbh Doc I don't see the passing as got any worse, no better either, we are still struggling in the final third, we have no player that can hold the ball in midfield, no one who can pick the ball up from the defence and play consistently good passes. I don't think Marsch like Bielsa has managed to field the same 11in any 2 games. I think rightly, we can all point the finger at everyone involved, managers, board, players but one big thing the club got wrong and I don't know if it was Bielsa or Orta or a combination but our recruitment as been all wrong, I won't k ock Radz for what he's spent but blame others how they spent it and where.

 

We had gone from bad to worse under bielsa this season. My idea of fun is not watching us get thrashed every week.

 

I don't think there is a 'relegation release amount' in Phillips contract (that I know of) though several sources are suggesting he'll go for 30m if relegated.

 

Rads has made Orta into mr big and flash. He operates as if he runs the club as rads is not a good owner. His football knowledge as he admitted is sadly lacking. But to bring in a guy who failed at boro is just incompetent.

 

Kalvin sacked his agent so maybe he did it because the agent was pushing him to leave and take the bulk of the money for themselves. Kalvin may want to see Leeds get the most they can for him and then leave on good terms.

 

There's two sides the the Orta thing. I'm not a big fan, I've heard a few things about him - but essentially he has a model, taken from Monchi ar Seville, and he just rolls it in at every club. I have no problem with the model, but thought it was misplaced at Leeds (and Boro) until we became a premier league club. Radz new nothing about football so let Orta get on with it... spunking cash on the future without focussing properly on the present and cheapskating on a manager where he could expect plenty of influence. It didn't work. But then he went after Bielsa. Let's not kid ourselves this was a sh*t or bust gamble, that a glance at MB's track record would confirm... but the board had the sense to let Bielsa get on with it, suffer his whims on parking spaces etc, give him the freedom of the project that he craved but that is hard to get elsewhere. So great credit to Orta and the board for that.

All brilliant when it works. But when things start to go tits up, the complete control invested in Bielsa doesn't look so clever - his attitude that the only way to get out of the slump is to do the same things harder, because that's all he knows - and the board have ceded power so can't do anything about it... without removing him. They're on the fence in january and decided to stick. Things get worse and when they decide to twist, the new guy has no time and no players that he might have been able to get in January if appointed then.

Just my take.

 

Agreed but the run of fixtures meant defeats and even thrashings were almost inevitable given our injury situation.

Results 2022 under Bielsa;

02 Jan...Burnley (h) W 3-1
16 Jan...West Ham (a) W 3-2
22 Jan...Newcastle)h) L 0-1
09 Feb...Villa (a) D 3-3
12 Feb...Everton (a) L 0-3
20 Feb...Scum (h) L 2-4
23 Feb... Liverpool (a) L 0-6
26 Feb...Spurs (h) L 0-4

Those 2 rearranged games against Villa & Liverpool meant we played 5 games in 17 days whereas other clubs are still catching up. Why were our games rearranged so quickly and in such a short time frame when we had so many injuries ?

Has any other club (not involved in Europe) played that many games in 17 days this season ?

Maybe we're just naive but I'd really like to know why Bunley & Everton haven't yet caught up their covid postponed fixtures.

 

Afternoon all

When Bielsa was sacked the board released a statement that a change was required as relegation was a threat and to be avoided. If we go down, Marsch has failed to fulfil the reason for the sacking of Bielsa so he needs to go.

It’s true I’m biased and feel he is the wrong guy anyway so I accept my opinion is weighted.

 

After the Arsenal game sky flashed the league table up on screen.

I pointed at the goal difference and said that's what will be the death of us. It's all down to that period where the likes of Everton and Burnley were cancelling left, right and centre if they lost one player to covid.

We, because Bielsa is so honorable, kept playing with two thirds of our squad out and took several tonkings mashing our goal difference look terrible.

We may well deserve another fair play award for attempting to play our games while others cheated the system but that award won't keep us in the Premier league.

 

All good points and why have Man Utd finished all their matches last week except the final game? Why did the Prem Lg do nothing about clubs calling matches off for covid reasons and make us play with half the team out injured. These clubs had 2 players with covid and we had 9 first team players out injured.

On Milky’s great points I would add the same points as above. I believe the perfect storm killed Bielsa. Small squad being hit with 50% casualties week after week. At one stage we had 11 of the 18 man squad not able to train. It was too much and morale was decimated as the players were all having to play out of position and have kids backfilling

 

Hope it's true.

Aston Villa head coach Steven Gerrard has urged his players to take their 'frustration' of failing to beat Crystal Palace out on Burnley on Thursday night.

 

Unfortunately, it's the opposite. This was Sharp speaking about Leeds turning down Villa's offer for Phiilips in January.


"Kalvin was pleased that Leeds turned those offers down," Sharp said.

"He has never asked to leave Leeds in all his time with the club and has no intention of doing that now or in the summer. "But I understand the offer that was turned down would have been a record for both buying and selling clubs. "So I would hope that Leeds would honour their promise of a new contract for him, which would then end any unsettling speculation about his future this summer."

Two weeks later, Phillips fired Sharp.

 

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So you just proved my point.

 

Most pubs anywhere more likely.

 

Yeah. I'm with Wakey!

 

Absolutely Doc, small squad leaves you more vulnerable to injuries and whatever the causes we certainly had a run of bad luck. Those injuries and the february fixture list were definitely a contributing factor ... I guess you could say we'd likely lose those games anyway so maybe not so great a loss points wise, but it was shattering for confidence.

 

In the 6 weeks since the beginning of April Burnley have had 4 free mid weeks where they could have played Villa (a) without having the advantage of playing their 37th game knowing what's required.

Everton have had 3 free mid weeks where they could have played Crystal Palace.

Obviously it's possible on some of those weeks that Villa & Palace had other fixtures but not every week as I've checked.