Match Day Thread Southampton v Leeds Utd Match Thread

He wouldn’t make the team if not injured though, Cooper and Llorente are first choice, Struijk is surely next in line

 

https://www.leeds-live.co.uk/sport/...fZIiUZ7X7x-gwttjR9ycwaR8w2DZvchmsmcIPFl6pI66E Harsh ratings but can’t argue

 

truth hurts

 

Sorry guys

 

Leeds’ Rodrigo conundrum

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By Phil Hay Sept 15, 2021

Like most things at the Nou Camp these days, the interest Barcelona took in Rodrigo at the end of the recent transfer window was scattergun and haphazard. There were hours to go before the deadline when Leeds United received contact from Spain and even then Barcelona were talking about a loan. Last-ditch and doomed to fail, a plan with very high odds.

The nature of the interest, among other reasons, made talks a non-starter. Loaning out a £27 million signing was nonsensical, it was too late in the window to think about replacing Rodrigo and in any case, he had already made it clear to Leeds that he was ready for a second season in England. Marcelo Bielsa was committed to keeping him too and the story died before it got going.

The attention Barcelona paid to him was indicative of a few things. It showed, first of all, that from a distance, Rodrigo’s form and impact at Elland Road made other clubs think that Leeds might be open to cutting him loose. It showed that Barcelona, as a consequence of abject disarray, are no longer trading in the galactico bracket of the transfer market. But it also showed Rodrigo is highly thought of, well regarded enough to convince a Champions League club to look at him.

He is well regarded by Bielsa too and Leeds’ head coach will regret the fact that in between talking about how Rodrigo can settle and thrive in the Premier League long term, he has twice been compelled to substitute the 30-year-old at half-time this season, and twice in Leeds’ most difficult games. Manchester United away and Liverpool at home were days when Rodrigo, in theory, was mixing with opponents of his own calibre. Instead, Bielsa came around to thinking that a midfield with Rodrigo in it was only inviting problems.

Accommodating Rodrigo at Leeds has been a quandary from the outset; not because he is anything other than a skilful, imaginative footballer but because the established order of Bielsa’s team meant he would have to adapt in some way. It was not simply a case of learning Bielsa’s tactics or due to the fact that Valencia, the club Leeds bought him from, were not much of a pressing side but more a matter of Rodrigo having Patrick Bamford in his way. Rodrigo was a record signing at Leeds but Bamford was Bielsa’s No 9. And the balance of power up front has
never changed.

Rodrigo came to England with a reputation for versatility, a reputation which suggested he could play in various positions across the front line (and, as Bielsa saw it, behind Bamford as a No 10 of sorts). That perception might have been strengthened by his form in Spain which implied he was more inclined to assist goals than score them himself, the trait of a creative attacker. But in his last season at Valencia, almost 90 per cent of his time was spent in the No 9 role. If not quite a traditional centre-forward, Rodrigo was used to occupying that zone and shaping himself for it. There is little doubt that at Leeds he would prefer to play there.

Bielsa’s formation was no secret when Rodrigo joined. Bielsa is more than 130 league games into his reign in England and has never picked a starting line-up which featured a front two. Bamford’s position at No 9 has been nailed down and protected by a double-figure return of goals in both of the past two seasons, a useful haul of assists and performances which earned him an England debut this month. There is no clamour for Bielsa to replace him with Rodrigo and no temptation on Bielsa’s part to do so. Which creates the conundrum of how to fit both players into his team. And the wider debate about whether fitting both players into his team is the right thing to do.

Leeds’ best performance of the season so far, at home to Everton, was produced without Rodrigo in their side, something which may or may not have been coincidental (Bielsa had planned to start him that day, only for Rodrigo to suffer a muscular strain earlier in the week). What seemed clear, though, was that against Manchester United and Liverpool, Rodrigo was withdrawn at the end of first halves in which Leeds lacked a dominant shape and made hard work of retaining possession beyond halfway. So much attention is on Bielsa’s midfield, in part because of the failure to recruit in that area over the summer, and Bielsa is in the midst of a fight to establish a consistent pair in front of Kalvin Phillips.

Rodrigo could not have asked for a better chance than the one which fell to him early on against Liverpool and the attack which led to it showed hallmarks of what Leeds want from him going forward: Rodrigo measuring his run into space inside the box as Raphinha sprinted down the right with the ball. His failure to bury the opportunity was a costly one but it is safe to assume Rodrigo popping up in those positions regularly would result in him scoring goals. One of the themes in two of his starts so far this term was a struggle to receive the ball in the opponent’s penalty area.

The next two touch maps — the first from Old Trafford on August 14 and the second from Sunday’s 3-0 defeat by Liverpool — show the exact positions where Rodrigo took hold of the ball while he was on the pitch. Both of them show a lack of involvement beyond the 18-yard line but also an absence of concerted interplay in the pocket outside the box, the pocket where a No 10 in theory should be most dangerous. That was not solely down to Rodrigo. In neither fixture did Leeds play well and Bielsa admitted on Sunday that his system had failed to serve his attacking players in the way that Jurgen Klopp’s system served Liverpool’s front three but it supports the view that Rodrigo in midfield is not giving Leeds enough of a foothold.

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Rodrigo’s touches against Manchester United at Old Trafford

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Rodrigo’s touches in the defeat by Liverpool

Burnley away before the international break brought more out of him. Leeds were better at linking up with Rodrigo going forward (graphic below) and he was involved in the creation of some of their best chances, varying his position more. Burnley contained Bielsa’s team for parts of the game, however, and Rodrigo was one of the players Bielsa chose to sacrifice with Leeds chasing a 1-0 deficit in the second half. Not for the first time, it was Bamford who came up with a finish and forced a 1-1 draw.

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Rodrigo’s touches against Burnley

The framework of the team at Leeds is not designed to accommodate a full-blown 10. Bielsa likes his midfielders to mix creativity with graft and to position themselves in a manner which keeps Leeds defensively sound. To that end, Rodrigo is as much required to be a centre-midfielder as a secondary forward. Opta’s analysis of his appearances for the club last season categorised him as a central midfielder in 69 per cent of his minutes and an attacking midfielder for just 10 per cent. He got a short streak of appearances as a striker towards the end of the campaign and scored four times in four games. That burst of form made him and Bielsa think that he would acclimatise to a greater extent this season.

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At Thorp Arch they regard Rodrigo as a disciplined and dedicated trainer. Bielsa sees that in him too. But there was a feeling there that creating a consistent midfielder out of Rodrigo — even a very attack-minded one — might take a lot of persistence and patience.

Rodrigo’s up-and-down influence, Bielsa said last month, was not the player’s fault. “I sincerely exempt him from any responsibility (for his impact) because in every game and every training session and in his private life he is impeccable,” Bielsa said. “He is not a player who is happy with having no protagonism. Any manager, with his disposition, would want him to be in the team.” Everyone wants this transfer to work.

Bielsa is trying to make that happen and while Barcelona wondered if a £27 million forward playing out of his natural position was someone they could target last month, Leeds were wholly resistant to the idea of him leaving. But as Tyler Roberts took Rodrigo’s place at the start of the second half on Sunday, it seemed again that Bielsa had a broader decision to take over the best blend in midfield for games where the opposition’s system allows him to go 4-1-4-1. In plain sight, the advanced midfield areas are where Leeds have been found wanting so far in terms of the way they have controlled their matches. That is where Bielsa needs a greater weight of confidence and pressure.

In getting it right, does he take the most robust approach by pairing Stuart Dallas and Mateusz Klich, at least until the results begin to flow? Does he stick with Rodrigo and support him resolutely or is the Spaniard at No 10 too much of a luxury against the Premier League’s strongest sides? Is Jamie Shackleton’s engine worth another go? Should he try and bring Tyler Roberts into the picture or does that simply create a mirror-image of the set-up with Rodrigo? Will Adam Forshaw give him an alternative over a sustained period of time? And is there a way in this team that Rodrigo and Bamford can both feature and do what each is paid to do?

Bamford’s starting place is solid and rightly so. As hard as Sunday’s match was, some of his runs between Virgil van Dijk and Joel Matip in the first half were intelligent attempts to create space, looking for deft passes into the gaps. And Bielsa is blessed with a machine in Phillips, a midfielder who looks destined to improve again this season even if Leeds do not but, in between them, the waters are more muddy. Where Rodrigo is concerned, it is still to be proved that in signing a high-calibre footballer who other clubs in Europe rate, Leeds signed the right one.

 

Regarding when Leeds bought Rodrigo

"Leeds have signed him for his work-rate off the ball, his runs and his movement. They don’t just look at the goal scoring. "That’s why when I see Rodrigo play for Spain, there is a lot of rotation, there is a lot of movements he makes, which I like to call unselfish runs to open up space for other players. Rodrigo understands this.

"He knows how to win the ball back and he knows how to do the pressing. It’s a sensational signing for the Bielsa style and the goals will just be bonuses."

 

Well that’s laughable

 

Only because we made them look
Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much better than last season
This was down to senior Bielsa small squad = problems somewhere along the line
3 Shots in over 90min non on target on this performance we will be back in the championship pronto
Don't even get me started on FIFA and their cra99y World Cup which they want to hold every 2 years

 

I have to say that we suffered with injuries last season and the same again this season. The hardest league in the world with the smallest squad equals struggle. Marcelo must believe that by now

 

6 of the starting 11 had also been away on international duty and so will have missed a proportion of leeds training, coupled with the injuries........ as you can see I'm scratching around for excuses. We need 5 more points before the end of the month, simple.

 

Bi

Bielsa only believes in himself and just keeps plugging away.

 

So this is where Bielsa get's his ideas on tactical plans from, just incredible similarities !!!

 

Surprisingly an accurate comparison!

 

11 Tyler Roberts

No influence on the match and struggled to keep Leeds on the attack when they did press into the home half. 3