Good Morning. It's Monday 14th September, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road. Leeds are back, with a vengeance After 16 years in the wilderness (with nothing to eat except Nando's) Leeds arrived back in the big time as they went head to head against arguably the best team in the Country. Bielsa had to shuffle his pack at the back as Captain Liam Cooper sustained a calf injury on International duty days before the trip to Anfield. This meant throwing new signing, German International Koch and Dutch teenager rookie dender Pascal Struijk collected just his third Leeds Utd start, and only his sixth overall during his short Elland Road career. It would be fair to say that throwing two players together for the very first time wouldn't be ideal, let alone at Anfield. You'd have been forgiven, if after the first five minutes, that it was going to be a very long game!. Mo Salah's shot from the edge of the box struck Koch on the leg, then bounced up striking the German on his arm. Even though replays show that there was absolutely nothing Koch could do, the referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. Salah made no mistake from 12 yards. To everyone's shock Leeds were level eight minutes later. Phillips long pass found Harrison on the wing.. After a sublime first touch, the on loan Citeh ace beat two defenders before lashing the ball home from twenty yards. The Reds retook the lead on 20 minutes as Leeds defence showed further signs of frailties. Van Dijk was unmarked at the near post following an inswinging corner His bullet header has gave Meslier no chance. Hero turned villain with 15 minutes of the first half still to go, Van Dijk took a heavy touch on the edge of his box, and there was Bamford to guide the ball between defender and keeper into the back of an empty net. No sooner had the Whites drawn level than Salah had the ball in the net for a second time. A poor clearance gave the Egyptian International too much time. His drilled shot nesling in the back of the net have ricochet off the bar. To everyone's amazement Leeds were able to keep both their composure and discipline in the second half and with two thirds of the game spend, they once again drew level. Costa's pin point pass found Klich in space in the box. His touch lifted the ball in front of him, and the Polish International volleyed the ball past the helpless keeper. It looked increasingly likely that both sets of players and fans that the game was heading for a respectable 3-3 draw until the 89th minute. A clumsy tackle in the penalty area from new bot Rodrigo gave Salah his hat trick and Liverpool all three points! If Harrison can play like he did on Saturday week in, week out, do we needs another winger? How much did we miss Cooper? Would the scoreline have been different? Can Hermadez make the step up at his age? Is Meslier to blame for any of the goals? Is he too lightweight for the Prem? please log in to view this image Bielsa's post match reaction Marcelo Bielsa gives his very first Premiership post match reaction In other news Leeds chase Chouiar Leeds United are in the hunt to sign Dijon forward Mounir Chouiar, according to L’Equipe. The French newspaper claims that Arsenal and Wolves are also interested in the 21-year-old attacker! Apparently he's absolute mustard!!! please log in to view this image Yorkshire clubs fight it out over Gotts Sun reporter Alan Nixon is reporting that Hull City and Huddersfield Town are fighting it out to take Robbie Gotts for a season loan. please log in to view this image Stevens opts for season long loan with Swindon Jordan Stevens will sign for Swindon on loan his week. Swindon boss Richie Wellens told BBC Radio Wiltshire “Jordan Stevens, we’re very close to,” “I think we’ve more or less done it. Leeds have got an issue in terms of releasing him at the moment because they’re trying to get someone in. And Marcelo Bielsa doesn’t let players out very easily. He is the head of Leeds, and only his say so will release players. “We’ve been after him for six or seven weeks. He will join us on the 21st September.” please log in to view this image
Morning all, Well I've seen worse games this weekend then ours. All the players deserve creditfor the way we announced our return to the Premier league. Koch and Struijk grew into the game despite being thrown together and probably never having trained together. The handball penalty was harsh and var should have overturned it, the rules state that if the ball comes off another part of the body first then it's not a penalty. All three of our goals are excellent. Clearly 75 million VVD & 80 million Allison were rattled by the idea of facing Lord Bamford.
Good morning. You would bet that most teams in the bottom half of the table will come away from Anfield with more than a -1 goal difference so we're already better off. We're also above Spurs in the league on merit, who would've thought that two years ago. If Gotts goes to Huddersfield he'll be playing under Corberan in a similar style to Bielsa. The dog botherers might've lost again at the weekend but it's clear to see they're trying to play open attacking football. A few weeks ago there were reports that Gotts would be a loan to buy deal which surprised me as I thought he was highly rated. I wonder what team we'll put out against Hull on Wednesday. I'd like to see Rodrigo start. If we're looking safe by January should we be going after the FA cup?
While I think we will see a lot of changes for Wednesday I think we should be having a good go at winning the league Cup this year. None of the top 6 take it seriously and I don't think a cup run this season will be too detrimental to our league form.
Morning all A great first match seemed to shock the football world of pundits who are used to wheeling out the old: “they will find it tough to survive this season” into wow what was that, what just happened to Liverpool. Yes folks Leeds are back with a bang and it was the first time my team had 4 goals scored against us and I was chuffed to hell. Big week for outgoings I think and hope at least a creative midfielder coming in, because it seems the Rodrigo De Paul move is being hijacked daily. And the Mounir kid looks pretty good but is just a faster version of Poveda and not the finished article yet?
Morning all. Nice day for working at home... again. I don't think I can recall being this upbeat following a weekends defeat before. My hopes were to give a good account of ourselves and we definitely did that. As I said yesterday I didn't have an issue with the first penalty until I discovered that the rule changed last season regarding handball following deflections such as the one suffered by Koch. No good crying over split milk and I'm not but it should not have been given and VAR should have spotted that. Simples. I think struijk is going to be a very useful addition either at the back or DM. Considering him and Koch had not played together or even been training together I think they pulled it off as the game went on. Hopefully Pablo still has enough in him to shine against the lesser teams but we do need a succession plan in place for him. The trouble with meslier is he looks about 12 and is a bit of a stick insect but I'm happy with him so far. We all know Harrison can play like that but it is his inconsistency that makes him a frustrating player. If he can improve that then yes we are probably OK. I still think a couple of quality signings before the end of the transfer window are required but all in all feeling reasonably confident that we can survive.
I think a lot of clubs will be forced into going after the cups this season to compensate for missing crowd revenues, so it may be harder than usual, but I could be wrong? Jordan Stevens to Swindon will happen and Young Bogusz and Gotts should be going out somewhere too. Huddersfield Championship side should give Gotts a better grounding but I hear the delay is in the number of games he will be guaranteed to get. Corberan will not want to guarantee games but he will play every game for Hull. We actually have a head of Loans at the club who's role is to look after any loan player we have at the club and also to make sure our loan players are being looked after wherever they are including Belgium, Holland and Spain where we have players.
Great post and agree about a Pablo 2 as its obvious he will not survive all season in every game. We only have Roberts who do that role unless Bielsa gives Poveda or Shacks a chance and he loaning out the only proper No10 at the club in Bogusz?
This is a long running story that has a lot of politics due to our relationship with Lampard. Young Conor Gallagher is highly thought of and although only a kid is a real candidate for first team especially as cover for Pablo. Leeds and a bunch of other clubs have been linked to getting him on loan all season, but it seems Leeds are now offering to buy him outright, so maybe a way of breaking down the blockage?
Very proud of our performance. No disrespect to Struijk & Koch, I believe we'd have got something out of that game had Cooper & White were our CB's on Saturday Wasn't to be unfortunately!
good morning to Matt and co from a sunny Bardsey Phew!What a game I am waiting for the latest transfer and can Doc show clips of Couliar Mourinho made me laugh when he said his team were lazy you picked them so surely its your fault except you are the special one seems that the Croatin doesn.t want to come to leeds and Doc says Summerville will sign today Connor Gallagher would be a great signing as Hernandez seems out of sorts
I thought the performance was excellent. The big difference between the teams was the delivery from set pieces, not that we got any. I don't remember them wasting any of their corners, every one caused us problems. I don't think that is going to happen outside the top teams. If Carroll stays fit we're going to struggle against Newcastle. Him and Willson look dangerous. I think Everton put a marker down with the win at Spurs. It looks like Fulham, WBA and West Ham could struggle this year. We didn't need to get anything from Anfield but we could have lost a lot if we'd been hammered. I don't think Liverpool were very good by the way. We'll know whether it was us or them next week. I'm not sure we'd have done much better with Cooper. I do rate him but he always grabs people at corners. In the Prem they'll go down like they've been shot (like Fabinho did) and we might have conceded more penalties. The second pen was a pen but it's not like Moreno hacked him down, as soon as the leg went near him he dropped like a stone. It's fkn cheating but that's just my opinion. It was technically a pen but so soft.
Morning all We exceeded my expectation on Saturday It isn't fair to judge Pablo on one game but I have a feeling he is finished, the PL is too quick for him. He might shine against the likes of Fulham and Brighton but he was a passenger against Liverpool
This is one guy who I singled out last season as a perfect fit for our style of play. Would be an awesome signing. Chelsea are a set of c**ts to deal with though. Well known in the game for being greedy tw*ts and holding clubs and players to ransom.
We should use Pablo like we did after lockdown. Start him on the bench, wait until we have run the other team out of energy, then put Pablo on to finish them off. He has the skill and the intelligence to be a PL footballer but the top pressing teams like Liverpool, Man City and even Southampton will leave him behind. ****ing love Pablo though. Best player we've had since about 2003.
Vets age starts at 35 and I hate when teams have recruited newly qualified vets players on a Sunday as I end up giving them a 24 year head start!
Cockrobin was unlucky for the first penalty, Rodrigo was poor for the second one. It was a positive start for Leeds, despite losing but I hope it doesn't affect them like after the Arsenal game in January. I don't think it will but we'll find out next Saturday. Live on BT sport btw.