This time last season yes I’d have taken it, start of this season quite possibly, after the Villa game I’m slightly disappointed to be honest
This for me, I said in game that Bielsa needs to look at different approaches to the top sides. Our fight this season isn't against them it's against the rest but there has to be a more pragmatic approach to the top teams THIS SEASON. There is no need to abandon the way we play, we recruit gradually and then see where we are in a couple of seasons because when we get the quality players no other team will be competing with us. Does anyone doubt that if Bielsa was in charge of those scum ****ers yesterday that they wouldn't be top by a considerable margin ?
Not sure if anyone caught the discussion on MOTD, but OGS abandoned the usual formats against us & went man-for man. Successfully. Unfortunately. It was also mentioned that Fat Frank's approach was to match our running, increasing it by 20%. Neither had played that way before, as far as I know, so they were changing THEIR game to counter OURS. A huge, huge compliment, in case you missed it. Now, if Snr Bielsa had to adopted all the 'helpful hints' he's getting - e.g. playing 'standard' full backs - then they wouldn't need to change against us. They'd tonk us anyway. We have to accept that 99 times out of 100, quality will prevail. And that's our way forward - introducing quality. A slow process, sadly.
For me, the question would be is Ayling a Quality RB? - I’d imagine you will say yes. If I said is Ayling a Quality CB I’m guessing you’ll say no. Is Dallas okay at LB, is he better at LB than Alioski? Is Dallas better at RB than Ayling? This is my issue that we swap around too many players when one is missing. Phillips was injured a few weeks back, Struijk started the season at CB and we all thought okay he’ll slot straight in but no. Dallas was moved from LB to CM, Klich moved to DM and so the shuffle began. Yesterday Bielsa was pissed off with Klich and Phillips and he felt it was okay to haul them off and play Struijk. He popped Shackleton into RB and Dallas moved to CM there just isn’t any sense in a lot of it. Bielsa is a great coach but he has his favourite players and he is extremely loyal to them, he himself doesn’t do change very well. When we played W Ham Benrhama was better than any midfield player we had on the pitch. Bielsa wouldn’t touch him as he wasn’t humble enough that is why we’ll never challenge at the very top under him as often quality comes with traits Bielsa doesn’t handle
And yet Bielsa has the highest-ever win percentage of all our managers (who have managed 10 or more games). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Leeds_United_F.C._managers Perhaps if he listened to the fans, his win %age would be even higher? Aye, right! Dream on ..... Leave the man alone. He's doing better than any other manager we've had, and not one of us knows what goes on behind the scenes. He does..
This is what I have been trying to say for a couple of weeks in my slow way. WJ puts it better Adding to that comment about oppo managers adapting I can guarantee where OGS tactics came from. Remember Man Utd home and away were battered by Bielsa’s Bialbao. Fergie said he had never seen anything like it applauded Bielsa on the touch line at OT after he was tonked. Fergie was at the match yesterday and bet he sat down last week with the little twat and gave him the benefit of his experience
I think Bielsa is a great coach when given a bunch of average players and he is also a great humble human being, we are blessed to have him. We still have a squad made up of 70% average players so we still need Bielsa at this moment in time but his rigidness and his inability to handle players who are not humble enough mean (in my opinion) we’ll never progress into the top 8.
