The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Monday 18th October)

Good Morning. It's Monday 18th October, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road


You're not fit to wear the shirt

Leeds slipped to within one place of the drop zone after handing Southampton their first league victory of the season in front of a packed out crowd at St Mary's. Whilst, it was going to be an uphill task, without first team stars such as Firpo, Phillips, Bamford, Raphinha and Ayling, you'd expect any Leeds side to fight for every ball, and make it difficult for Hasenhüttl's men; alas, this could not be further from the truth.

The Saints too, had their fair share of absentee's. Jack Stephens, Che Adams and James Ward Prowse were all missing from the home side's starting line-up. Their plight to stay in the Premiership has been made that much harder after being forced to sell Ings, Vestergaard, Bertrand, Gunn and Lamina during the Summer to balance the books!

Heart wrenchingly, Leeds showed no pride. Their performance was not just inept, there was no fight, passion or willingness to dig deep and show some Yorkshire grit. Leeds only saving grace is that Southampton were not strong enough to take advantage of their 20 shots at goal (to Leeds 3); but what would you expect from a centre forward, who only months ago was playing for Chelsea's U23's?

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Puzzling

Leeds fans were left baffled after both Raphinha and Phillips both made the 500 round trip to St Mary's knowing neither stood a chance of playing. Phillips was ruled out having not recovered from his calf strain, whilst the newest member of the Brazilian National team, met up with the squad after a gruelling International break. Having landed at Gatwick Airport on Friday afternoon, he made the two-hour outing to Southampton instead of going home to recuperate!

The 24yo had played an integral part in all three games for the South Americans and had caught a flight directly after the 4-1 win over Uruguay in the early hours of Friday morning! Surely the sensible thing would have been for Raph to make the four hour trip back to Leeds and catch up on his sleep, fresh for training on Monday morning.

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When are we going to stop making excuses for the team

'It's only pre-season', 'Our fixture list has been more difficult than last season' and 'We've been unlucky with injuries'. These are just some of the excuses we have made this season. In fact, apart from our performances against West Ham and Watford (who were dire) our productivity has been unacceptable. Are these players stealing a living at the moment? Our wage bill is over 100m a year now, and considering how small the squad is, are being paid a lot more than most Premier League clubs?

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Is Bielsa the right man for a relegation fight?

Bielsa has been nothing short of an inspiration since his arrival in 2018. Very few would have heard of the Argentine before taking the ER hot seat, but none of us will forget him. His legendary coaching methods have mesmerised fans and pundits alike, yet his stubbornness to change the formation Leeds play, or drop players who are out of sorts has caused grave concerns, as are his substitutions!

Is the 66yo, the best man to get Leeds out of trouble, or will his headstrong attitude hinder the Whites?

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***DRAMA QUEEN ALERT*******DRAMA QUEEN ALERT*********DRAMA QUEEN ALERT*******

 

Morning all

At the moment we’re on course for 30 points, more worryingly we’re failing to beat relegation rivals. Bielsa is the only man capable of turning this around because before he took control this core group of players were poor.

If the unthinkable happens and we go down we need Bielsa to want to stay and get us back up. If we beat the drop then I’m open minded, I reflect back to O’Leary being excellent with the youngsters and having faith in them

 

All the clubs from Crystal Palace (14th on 7 points)) down are currently on course for around 30 points or less.

No need to panic, just make sure we win that mini league.

 

Morning all,

So the most important thing to think about regarding Saturdays game is this-

Phillips out
Bamford out
Raphinia out
Ayling out
Firpo out
Koch out.

The system we play is like a complicated machine. When it is running properly it is wonderful to see. Loosen or lose a cog and the machine goes wrong.

From the list above you could say we were missing our three best cogs, a cog that has been integral for the last three years, a cog that hasv been brought in this year for a specific role and the cog that would have stepped in to cover our England international cog.


Now that being said it does not excuse the players on the pitch being out worked, out pressed and making so many silly unforced errors, this was the most disappointing thing for me.
Excuses can be made for losing when we have to make that many changes but there is no excuse for the levels of performance

 

We are obviously all hurting at the moment but think back a couple of years to that photo of Niels after qpr away.
If there is one person who feels it all much if not more than the supporters it is him.
He will not sleep you well trying to fix what's wrong. If the injured players are fit by Saturday bet your house and car on us beating wolves and I think emphatically

 

Morning all

It was bound to happen and if we’re not careful Marcelo Bielsa will just walk. All ghis bollox about is Bielsa the man for the job is ridiculous. Yes everyone is upset and it seems every player is taking a kicking. I say again…. You cannot have 5 first team starters out and do a good job when the replacements are not Premier League players. Shackelton and Roberts are not Prem quality and Struijk is not a DM, then we get square pegging again. Not good enough and we need to recognise that fast.

We need a quality DM/AM im sick of being without Phillips as we suffer badly and that needs to happen in January. Arsenal in the cup is going to be fun and what team will he risk because for me the cup has sailed again this season because we have no depth

 

Saturday was defo a wake up call. The game is over and in the history books it's how we respond now what matters.
Some players need to buck up their ideas because they simply have not been good enough from game 1. There's no excuses anywhere the team are match fit.
We can't put on a display against Watford and then the players down tools and put in the worst display in many years against let's be honest a very average saints team. Players out or not.
Wolves and Norwich next we need 6 pts simple as that.

 

How long is bamford out for? I heard him on the Leeds podcast after the injury saying it was a nowt injury so why is he missing so many weeks? Have I missed something

 

Nice post
You can’t disagree about the injuries but all teams have them, did anyone expect us to go a season injury free?

Ayling has been very off form, Firpo has had a more than questionable start and Koch wouldn’t start if he was fit. Our problems on Saturday were not in defence.

Moving forward Bamford has scored one goal, was there genuinely not a single fan pleased that Rodrigo was going to be given a chance up front?

Again I agree we have a growing injury list but that will be the same all season, strikers get injured, midfielders get suspensions, wingers pull muscles.

When we had Bamford, Phillips and Raphinha playing we were still not getting the wins or points, Southampton were depleted too.

We need to turn this around quickly, we need to figure out what we are going to do with Rodrigo, we need to drop Roberts and Bielsa needs to soften his stance and stubbornness and bring in someone who can make a difference in January

 

I'm still not panicking.

I said I would look at it after 10 games and I am sticking to it.

Bielsa has been the best thing to happen to this club since Wilko took over. To dismiss him after 8 games is ridiculous.

 

I remember him speaking about his injury and he was almost suggesting he might even be okay for the game against West Ham, since then we’ve had two more games and an International break so I’m wondering if he has had a set back

 

Cabbage head will be available later today.

 

Small squad is loco's remit and he believes in his way and that's that, the injuries are a poor excuse for me every team goes through these phases but in the prem they have better players to fill in when needed, we haven't and the bench proves that.
We are over reliant on kalvin and now raph could join him on that pedestal, I think it's a bit harsh to call out Shackleton as not being good enough, for me he is better in mid. Roberts,Rodrigo,Harrison,klich,Dallas all very poor, the way we are performing at present is anyone confident of honestly getting 6 out of the next two.....heart yes,head no

 

I agree there will be injuries and suspensions all season but we have been unlucky with the sheer number at one time and to the key players.

I also agree that even with those players we were not winning many. The big difference though was that for the most part we were playing well and looked to be getting better each game.
If we had been putting Saturdays performances in all season then there would be every right to panic but not yet

 

Good point, Bielsa insists that every player can cover another position, hence probably why we’ve missed out on a few targets. He obviously works this way because of his liking for a small squad. It works at Championship level but in the PL it’s more square pegs in round holes.

I’m taking Dallas as an example, is there a PL club that would take him over their own LB? Then the same question for every position he has filled for us. We see it as square pegs in round holes but it’s what Bielsa plans for.

I bet there isn’t another PL club that has just two main strikers, the reason we only have two is the Bielsa two position model and belief that Roberts can play as a striker.

 

Shackelton has to prove he is a prem player, a good start in a couple of games but he was as bad as everyone else. Roberts has had 91 games and for me he is shyt rolled up in shyt. Rodrigo needs the ball and he runs his nags off but to shine just like Bamford he needs the ball which he isnt getting. Koch would have started as DM if fit so stop writing a German International off, Dallas was square pegging, Struijk square pegging, Klich tring to work by himself as Roberts never touched the ball for over half hour in the first half. You cannot have our midfield of Roberts and Struijk and expect to win the ball …. James ran into brick walls and maybe should have scored, Harrison never came to life until the 2nd half and even that was not brilliant. That team will not have worked together as unit ever, and Bielsa knows that

Having 18 first team players is great but I bet he never thought he would have 9 of them out which was the truth a couple if weeks ago and a third of them out last weekend. Having 18 players is fine when they are all available and having a half dozen U23s to fill in, but our bench was Forshaw and then kids and we had a second string on the pitch as well, we stood no chance and we allowed Southampton to look like world beaters.

 

Our back up players are ok imo when only one or maybe two are needed at a time.
If it was just Shack in for Ayling or Rodrigo for Bamford there isn't a problem.
They are all good enough to fit in with the normal first team but when, as Saturday, at have to being in four or five and move players our of position is when it goes wrong.

 

Was speaking with an ex pro on Saturday night (football not hooker) and the message was football is tough at times. You get through it by getting out on the training pitch, working your socks off on shape, patterns of play etc but most of all you stick together and make sure you've got each others backs. The sides that get relegated are the ones with cliques, differing factions and players who are against the manager because he doesn't pick em.

Think we'll be fine