The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Friday 6th Sept)

Good Morning. It's Friday 6th September, and here are the Leeds Utd headlines


Bamford looking forward to being paired with Nketiah

During a recent interview Patrick Bamford was asked whether it was time Nketiah and himself were paired together?

“I think so. Before coming here he’s played across the whole front three. He’s not just a striker. He can play no 7 & 11. Having 2 strikers automatically means they can’t just focus on 1 of you.”

Thoughts?

The ex Chelsea starlet was also asked about whether he plans to settle down in Leeds long term

“I don’t see why not,”

“Being so settled is nice. It is something that I had always wanted, I had always wanted to be the main No 9 somewhere, to get that chance and to get settled and it’s a nice place to settle in to be honest.

“It’s the perfect club, it’s got everything. I think my sole focus this year is just to help us get promoted and score as many goals as I can and then hopefully when we are in the Premier League set new targets and see what we can achieve.”

Bamford has scored 14 times in 28 appearances. Is he good value for money?

Do you think Boro regret selling him?

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Kinnear talks spiraling wages and gives Phillips update

During his recent interview, Angus Kinnear was asked about Leeds wage bill, and how it has spiralled under Radrizzani's tenure

“The biggest thing to understand is how much the wage bill has grown under Andrea’s tenure. The wage bill when he took over was for a mid-table team and there was a correlation with how much you spend on the wage bill and where you finish.

“The type of players that can get us promoted are more expensive so our wage bill has grown significantly. Some of the player sales money goes into supporting that wage bill and maintaining the integrity of the squad.”

Kinnear was then asked about how contract talks were going with Leeds starlet Kalvin Phillips

“Obviously we had Kalvin, but there were a number of other first-team players who we received offers for, from both the Premier League and the Championship,” he said. “It’s a testament to Andrea’s financial commitment, but also the belief the team has, as a unit and in Marcelo, those players refused those offers and wanted to stay.”

“Obviously the discussions around Kalvin and keeping him are centred around giving him a new contract.

“He deserves a new contract, he’s at the very heart of what we want to achieve both as a player and a personality.

“He’s a local lad and he understands exactly what it means to play for Leeds United, so we’ve had very constructive conversations with Kalvin and his agent, and I think we’re very close.

“I think it will be soon, but a credit to Kalvin is he hasn’t let this discussion influence him or distract him in any way.

“He knew we’d be good to his word and give him the right offer and he couldn’t have been more committed and more focused. He’s started fantastically.”

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Challenge

Pick a Leeds Utd team. It must include no more than four players from the last three decades.

1987-1997
1998-2008
2009-2019

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Morning all...

Wages might have increased but so has income, I think saying we had wages that reflected a midtable team before Rads is optimistic and false, Cellino had zero infrastructure in place, he stripped us back to the bare bones when it comes to staff and wages not to mention a host of cheap overseas players, I'd imagine there were some league one teams with higher wage bills (entire club not just players).

Thoughts on Bamfords comments; who would we leave out? I want to see Costa start too and we're not going to leave Pablo out so for Bamford and Nketiah to both start it would mean Bamford starting ahead of Harrison or Forshaw.

The rest of Kinnears comments, all in one ear and out the other, okay we might have received interest for other players and we want to keep Phillips but we certainly sold an awful lot and the reason why we were able to cash in on Pontus was all down to Bielsa wanting White

 

Morning El, morning all

 

Goid Morning to Matt and co from a very chilly Bardsey
Stuart Dallas was left out of the team because of a niggling injury or was he?I think he was rested for the German match
Macalmont came on as a sub and impressed everyone so he looks like another good investment for the future
Its about time Bamford who lives in Bardsey settled down as he has 8 clubs in short space of time
I am still unsure if he is worth the fee and wage we pay him I will judge him at the end of the season

 

I was at the game Mike, young Alfie looked like the most assured player on the pitch when he came on - I feel like I'm damning him with faint praise here, the bar wasn't set too high.

Think Stuart was rested for Monday ok.

 

--------------------------------Martyn (2003)----------------------------------

Ayling(2019)---Radebe (2005)--Ferdinand (2002)---Dorigo(1997)

Hernandez (2019)---Phillips (2019)---Strachan (1995)---Speed (1996)

-----------------Viduka (2004)-----Chapman (1996)------------------------

Can anyone beat my team?

They can play 4-4-2 or 5-3-2 with Phillips dropping back and having Ayling and Dorigo as wing backs

 

Alying wouldnt get ahead of mills or Kelly IMO

Nice team though. McCallister unlucky to miss out from my era

 

Yes put Batty in it every day.Phillips is good but he's no Batty.

 

no more than four players from the last three decades.

1987-1997
1998-2008
2009-2019

I wanted to put Kelly in

 

So I'm back after a week in Wales with intermittent wifi so hope everyone is well.

Kids still doing well at all age groups I see and young Edmondson scored for England U19s in front of Southgate and Clarke played for England U20s, Kun played well for Bulgaria U21s and Alfie McAlmomt came on for NI for the last half hour.

Think its time we started with Costa and Fast Eddy in place of Harrison and Pablo into the 10 slot. Harrison can come on if we need to replace one of the front men. 2 defeats on the spin clearly shows we are doing exactly what we we did last season and not capitalising on our dominance of chances created. Therefore Costa and Fast Eddy who were brought in to do that now need to start IMHO

 

Good to have you back Doc but I'm afraid I have to disagree.

It's not that Costa and Nketiah shouldn't be under consideration to start but the fact that we don't have anyone capable of playing the no 10 role effectively.

Hernandez plays at his best coming in from the wide areas and just loves forming intricate triangles between their full back and centre half which drags the opposition defenders out where they don't wish to be. Put him more centrally and he just gets smothered as the defence narrows and he struggles to be as effective. Also he has a tendency to drop deep to get on the ball, as well as not being great at receiving the ball with his back to goal due to him being slower than in his younger years. Remember how Siaz could drop a shoulder, spin and be gone whilst on the turn, they are the classic attributes of a no' 10 along with the ability to drive straight at the heart of a defence and then offloading as the spaces open up.

Bielsa knows this and that's why we don't play with a 10 but use Klich and Forshaw as midfield runners instead. Roberts was half way to developing into the role last season but injury keeps slowing his development. It's a bit of a conundrum as to how to get more of our attacking players on the pitch without it costing us the possession Bielsa craves as his preferred method of keeping the opposition at bay.

Flair players are great until you find yourself being repeatedly counter attacked on. So far this season I think Bielsa will be absolutely delighted with performances and so I don't see anything changing for some time yet.

 

The snake slithers into Wednesday!

Garry Monk: Sheffield Wednesday set to name ex-Birmingham City boss as manager

 

Who would you take out as you're only allowed a maximum of 4 players from one decade

1987-1997
1998-2008
2009-2019

 

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Robert Mugabe 1924 - 2019

Why on Earth is this tyrant, thief, murderer and dictator being mourned?

 

Everyone is saying the same problems as last year still seem to be happening in front of goal. For that reason alone I think Eddie needs the opportunity to prove he can be more clinical than Bamford (given it's extremely unlikely Bielsa will change from his preferred formation). Going to stick my neck out and wait for you all to jump on it because although he's not had a lot of minutes, I think Costa is the best winger at the club right now.

 

Actual proof that only the good die young.

 

SPEAK to Paul Gascoigne about Leeds United and he breaks into one of those trademark grins which he is famous for.

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In true ‘Gazza’ style, a wisecrack is not too far away either – one that can only be aired after the ‘watershed’ mind – but it is also accompanied by a sense of what might have been.

Back in the close season of 1995, Leeds called, as did Glasgow Rangers and Chelsea and if things had been different, the most gifted midfielder of his generation could have been playing in front of the Gelderd End as opposed to the Govan Stand.

What a delicious thought that would have been.

It was a move which got close. Director Bill Fotherby, the Elland Road deal-maker entrusted with bringing in some stardust to Leeds amid the largely fallow post-Cantona era, surreptitiously headed over to Italy to speak with Gascoigne’s club Lazio.

Over dinner, Lazio president Sergio Cragnotti told Fotherby that he would do a deal, while imploring him not to tell a soul that Leeds were in for Gazza.

The story goes that Fotherby got up the following morning, went for breakfast and picked up the La Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper and was drawn to the striking headline: ‘Fotherby, managing director of Leeds United, here to sign Gascoigne.’

Cragnotti’s bid to smoke out others worked. Interest hardened from Rangers in particular with Walter Smith enjoying a more successful Italian expedition than Fotherby, heading to the hills above Rome to find Gascoigne’s abode and convince him to head to Scotland.

Leeds’s loss was unquestionably Rangers’ gain.

Speaking to The Yorkshire Post, Gascoigne said: “I nearly signed for Leeds, but I ended up turning them down and joining Rangers.

“Chelsea also wanted to sign me, but I was not going there and the only English club I would have gone for was Leeds.

“But I ended up going to Rangers. Terry Butcher said: ‘go there and give it a try’ as they had Ally McCoist and Gordon Durie there. I went there and never looked back, but I think it would have been the same with Leeds.
“But I did not realise that after signing for Rangers, the next England game was at Elland Road (against Sweden) and I got hammered!

“Elland Road was an intimidating place. I remember taking a corner once and it was really scary. They were all singing Leeds, Leeds, Leeds.

“I also remember playing there with Tottenham and the ball came across and I was ten yards out with an open goal. I had just split up with my first girlfriend and the Leeds fans were hammering me saying: ‘Where’s your girlfriend gone.’

“The ball came across and I miskicked it and it went over the bar. It was the Leeds fans who definitely put me off. But it was a great atmosphere at a great club.”

A gifted footballer whose ball-playing ability would not have looked out of place in the great Leeds side of the early Seventies, Gascoigne believes he would have felt at home off the pitch in the Yorkshire city too.

It is a place he has visited several times, enjoying the ‘craic’ with its football-obsessed natives, whose fervent desire to witness success at one of the game’s sleeping giants – much like his hometown club Newcastle United – is all-consuming.

Just like Newcastle, Leeds is a 24-7 football-mad city and it is something that Gascoigne is quick to pay deference to.

“Every time I go to do a venue in Leeds, the fans are absolutely brilliant. It is like a home town to me,” Gascoigne continued.

“I have also been there a couple of times shopping and what I used to do was – if I was having a drink and did not want any people to know from where I lived – I used to shoot off to Leeds and go to the Living Room and the fans were brilliant.

“I watched a documentary on Leeds when they beat Manchester United to win the league and Leeds is a huge, huge club and I do think that one day, something might happen at Leeds which is similar to Manchester City with some big chairman coming in with loads of cash and investing in that club.

“At one time, with the young kids coming through, they were a great side. You had Rio Ferdinand, Alan Smith and Lee Bowyer and Ian Harte at left-back – and then there was the ‘big lump’ up front in Mark Viduka.

“Leeds is a sleeping giant and that team will come good again and the supporters are second to none. Every time I do a venue there, it is packed and the supporters are fantastic.

“Not so long ago I had 1,600 people there and it showed how much that club is a sleeping giant. I feel welcome every time I go there; I don’t know why.”

His memories of time with ex-international colleagues who played for Leeds also endure to this day, as do recollections of time playing at Yorkshire’s other great footballing powerhouse of Sheffield.

Gascoigne added: “I used to room with David Batty for a spell with England and it was brilliant. I remember when he joined the England B team and he didn’t have a tie so I lent him one.

“He was a salt-of-the-earth bloke and I know he likes motor bikes now. I also remember Nigel Martyn and he was a funny lad and I remember him coming up to the B team and borrowing his dad’s van.

“They were the times, bloody hell...

“Yorkshire is a great football place. I remember the massive end at Sheffield Wednesday where the terrace went right back. We got a couple of good players from Wednesday and United who played for Newcastle such as Glyn Hodges and Tony Cunningham. Gary Megson too.”

After some much-publicised travails since retirement, Gascoigne is currently in a good place, with projects in the pipeline and his enthusiasm for life undiminished despite some hard knocks.

It is news that should be received warmly by any football fan, regardless of club colours, while collectively keeping fingers crossed for an individual whose vulnerability and fragility off the pitch has always contrasted starkly with his exuberance and carefreeness on it.

Gascoigne, now 52, said: “I am doing well and enjoying life again. You know me, I don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow. But everything is good and I am happy and I have a new manager at M and N Management. Everything is on the up.

“I have a book out next year called: ‘Thirty Years of Hurt’ and that will be exciting.

“I am really busy. It is good to be this way and I look forward to getting up in the morning.”

 

Hes the only winger at the club

 

Harsh

 

Some on the brexit thread don't seem to know their arses from their elbows...

Perhaps they have more in common than they thought ?

Anyway back to the football...

We've been so close to a perfect start that there really is no reason to panic. Not analyzed any statistics or anything but my feeling from watching every game is that we will concede far fewer goals than last season as we are a much more disciplined side both in and out of possession. Of course we are still highly vulnerable from set pieces, especially corners but I'm pretty sure we are conceding less of those than previously and though that in itself is not a fix it's definitely a help.

In summary;

Creating more chances, whilst conceding fewer chances, better in and out of possession, better options from the bench and no bad apples in the dressing room.