Good Morning. It's Thursday 19th August, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Brownhill on Leeds radar Midfielder Josh Brownhill is the latest name to be linked with a move to Elland Road. Applying his trade at nearby Turf Moor, the 25yo Warrington lad has attracted a mixed reaction from the Leeds faithful on social media. He joined the Clarets from Bristol City in last year's January transfer window for a fee of 7m. He was instrumental in helping them stay above the drop zone last term representing them on 44 occasions! Would you like to see Josh Brownhill in a Leeds shirt? A fee of 15m is believed to be what Sean Dyche is looking for! please log in to view this image Breaking news from Ibrox may force Kent's exit According to 'The Athletic, reports are circulating that the money worries at Ibrox may be more serious than first thought, following their humiliating loss to Malmo in the Champions League qualifying third round. This has once again ignited Leeds interest in winger / forward Ryan Kent. Steven Gerrard's team have found themselves in a position that they need to fill a 17m void, and with time ticking away, the debt is increasing. Leeds have already had bids of 10m and 12m rejected by the Scottish Champions, but all may not be lost! The Athletic have also disclosed that Kent has a release clause of 20m. Whether or not this is affordable to the Whites in the present situation is another matter! Final preparations are underway to bring Leo Hjelde and Lewis O'Brien to Elland Road which will set Radrizzani back, the best part of 10m. This brings their Summer signings to 40m, and let's remember we may still have to fork out 20m for Jean Kevin Augustin. please log in to view this image Game changers Many Leeds fans have expressed their concern that Leeds no not have any game changers on the bench. Bielsa's substitutions tend to be predictable and robotic starting with Costa and Roberts. This not only uninspiring, but highly unlikely to change the dynamics of the game! Is it time to unleash some of the U23's? I'm surprised he didn't do so on Saturday at Old Trafford when there was nothing to play for! How are the starlets for tomorrow going to get better if they are not given an opportunity to shine on the biggest stage? Who would you like to see on the bench? What changes would you make to Saturday's line up? please log in to view this image
NOT606ers, let's take a look at comments from fans on the Athletic; the good, the bad and the ugly! FULL-TIME: Manchester United 5 Leeds United 1. A very painful one at Old Trafford, again, and a terrible way to set the ball rolling. No arguing with the defeat at all, to be honest. Leeds weren't sprightly enough and Manchester United knew how to hurt them. A hat-trick for Bruno Fernandes, and that was a key battle today - him versus Robin Koch at CDM. Leeds weren't able to contain him. Should Kalvin Phillips have started? Where did you think it went wrong? Does that result concern you or are you philosophical about the standard of the opposition today? And how much of a worry was the defending? The frustration for me was that at 1-1, Leeds were suddenly well placed. It felt as if they got sucked in by that moment, let it slip again for a moment and suddenly, Man Utd were gone. Send me your comments and thoughts. Keep them clean, if you can. Hi Phil. Great your back. Healthy. Ok first game of the season. Away. Crowd back which is good for home team. However I am concerned that we do not have the strength in depth nor game changers in midfield or in attack. Thought this was one of poorest performances I can remember. To many pedestrians. Bringing on Costa is never a step up. Maybe it is like a broken record but we need top class playmaker, more engine room Midfielder and another striker, different to Bamford. Fear this season will be tougher with stadiums full and home advantage. Utter w**k in the second half. It’s really hard to be philosophical when it feels like you’ve been battered by your biggest rivals. Horrendous in midfield, passing seems like they’re about to fall apart any second and just the worst start we could possibly imagine. It makes the confidence of Orta and Kinnear about the squad very worrying and we don’t have an easy run of games to settle the nerves. Honestly if this was the first game of last season everyone would have thought we were destined for bottom place. Absolutely dreadful apart from Aylings goal. Costa and roberts are not the answer in a game like this when we are a few goals down. Is something wrong with Phillips? Surely he should have come on in that second half. Thank goodness it’s over. Sorry but that was shambolic how can bielsa look everybody in the eye and say we don't need any more players? Klich doesn't belong at this level nor does costa nor does Roberts...every time we've played a defender in midfield we've been found out but he continues to do it I know it's Manchester United and over the season you'd imagine we'd be better than the 3 worst teams but I think we're very much standing still at best @phil Hay Phillips evidently wasn’t fit enough for Bielsa following a shorter preseason but the difference without him was huge. When we drew 0-0 with them last season it was because Phillips kept Fernandes out of the game I know a bit of perspective given it’s first game of the season but that was abysmal. Can’t give players like that so much space and our midfield was non-existent at times. Really, really struggled and we do seem to be quite light in that area squad wise. Llorente was a massive miss too. But it’s done, on to the next game and we need to get some points. Well Phil that was a reality check - without Philips and Llorente we are much weaker side. Koch and Struijk were well off the pace. Klich was ok in the midfield, but Rodrigo being taken off is a worry for our record signing. We didn't go on a bad run last season and tended to bounce back quickly. Need to do the same now No arguments about the loss, scum were the better team on the day. They’ll be chasing the title this season and we’re just not there yet. If we’re going to go to their place and get anything from the game, we need to be at our best which we clearly were not today. That said, I see no reason to panic. The scoreline was big but flattering, their third and fourth are both within a centimetre of not happening just to name a couple of apparent fine margin differences. If there’s a concern it’s as you say that we fell apart so quickly after getting on even terms. Hugely important now the players and manager acknowledge what went wrong and do better next week. We can afford to drop points to the top six, going on a terrible run to start the season is a different story as it risks setting the tone for our season. Long way away from that though. Let’s smash Everton next week and put this down as a blip in the rear view mirror. @phil Hay Time to spend some money otherwise it could be a long season @phil Hay a poor display in the second half today and a deserved hammering as a result. Thought we actually played okay in the first half but seemed obvious where the problem was, so I was surprised Phillips didn’t come on. In general, disjointed going forward with a lot of wayward passes, and bad link up play. I thought Raph was well off it today, as was Rodrigo. Klich not at his best, and Bamford really got no service at all. Great goal from Bill and thought Firpo showed some good touches. But we were completely overrun in midfield - credit where credits due Pogba played very well today - but Koch didn’t get anywhere near Fernandes all afternoon and we paid a heavy price. Hopefully just a blip, and Bielsa can get everyone’s heads in the game by next week. Not a good way to start the season - but one thing we have seen is that this squad and staff are generally good at shaking off the bad days and going again. MOT Bringing on Costa and Roberts speaks volumes to me. We don’t have the depth at the moment to get back into games in which we fall behind, although I know not many teams outside of the top 4/6 do. Phillips on at HT I thought would have been obvious. How many games we get out of Llorente this season will be crucial, massively missed him today too. Was really odd how the equaliser seemed to have such a negative effect for us. Just got to hope for better next week now. Phil Hay It wasn't easy to hear Bielsa on the post-match presser - technical issues. But he said the problem was that Leeds couldn't turn the ball over enough and couldn't create chances. He actually said the difference between the sides was bigger last year than today and he was happy with how Koch played. Said Phillips' lack of preparation time was why he didn't feature. I refuse to get too upset about one game without Phillips, especially since this exact thing happened last season and they rebounded. But the fact that their chances drop so much without Phillips is still a concern. Also this was probably the worst I've seen Raphinha yet. But hey, first game of the season in front of that crowd at that place, the nerves are understandable. No arguments with that defeat. It all looked very rusty. Probably the worst performance for 3-4 of our players in the PL. I’d have to try hard to remember any time that we strung 4 passes together in their half in the whole game. Definitely the worst defensive performance in the PL. Somehow even the 6-2 defeat didn’t feel as poor as this. We threatened a lot more in that game. I thought Phillips might have come on at HT. Although Koch had some decent performances at CDM last season, he had a rough outing today. All that being said, I’m not concerned. I’ve come to accept that this is how we are now - could lose 5-1 one week and win by the same score line next week. I’d be more than happy with another top half or even mid-table finish this season. However, if we are to progress on that kind of standing in the coming seasons, these types of performances will need to be eradicated. I wonder whether we might see most home teams win in the next two weeks. Having the fans back for the first game after so long away is going to be a huge advantage so Leeds at Old Trafford with their superior individual players was always going to be a big ask. Man U looked the fitter of the two teams and that was probably because crowd got them through it. They will probably get beaten by Southampton next week! too open in midfield. Koch in possession can't put tempo and calm on offensive phase. we were carved too often in midfield and didn't take advantage of the possession we have with bad passes and turnovers. I suppose the season really starts when we play Everton next week. Man Utd away for the first time in a long time in-front of their supporters was never going to be easy. There’s every reason to trust that Bielsa will learn much from this and change where necessary, but as with the Ajax game we don’t look good against the top sides. Whether strengthening during the remainder of this transfer window could be the answer I’m not so sure. It’s obvious where we need cover. In order to replace a key player like KP Bielsa tends to shuffle the rest of the 1st team squad and today ends up with Robyn Koch in that position, in a role where he looked clearly uncomfortable. Surely some promotion from our under 23s squad makes more sense, I’d settle for 17th place this season if a few of our promising youngsters can push through to the first team. Bielsa’s success at Leeds is because he’s a good teacher, he will look carefully with individual players and say ‘look this is where you went wrong, try this’ etc. and with time and a good attitude they will do better. As a good teacher he is not inclined to say ‘clear off, find yourself another school’ unless the individual concerned simply refuses to learn. Under this model, especially because we aren’t a hugely rich club, recruitment is going to mainly through the under 23’s. I do hope though that he has someone there in mind for the KP pivot role because our record when KP doesn’t play is piss poor! Shuffling the 1st team pack hasn’t thrown up anyone yet, though perhaps Forshaw might finally be in a position to try. My biggest worry is Rodrigo. He wasn’t good enough last year, everyone saying injuries and COVID held him back. We’ll, he’s had a full preseason and still looked well off the pace. I think we’ve got another Saiz on our hands with a player who really doesn’t fancy living in Yorkshire and playing for Bielsa no matter how much he’s earning. It’s only one game but I’d be very interested to see if he’s even starts against Everton. Genuinely don’t think he’s a Bielsa player I'm wondering if this is why Koch played the full 90? Abysmal as the result is, perhaps he will learn and grow in that position reflecting on what didn't work at Old Trafford. Looking forward to having KP back in the starting XI though... What utter bull. Koch is a good player, but he was atrocious today because he was asked to play out of his role and couldn’t do it. That’s on the coach As no one can adequately replace Phillips maybe we should stop trying and play a different system without him. Koch, Strujik, & Dallas we’re all forced out of position to face some of the best players in the world. We can’t clone Kalviv so adopt without him. Playing out of position will usually fail against top teams as will man for man. Bielsa has worked miracles with this group of players but it is clear our midfield is simply not strong enough
Can't dwell we have to move on the Scum game is over nothing can change. Only way we can put it right is going out there at the weekend and improving that shyte show from weekend You would think we are on the verge of relegation by the way some of them are talking.
Morning all Yes we crap in the 2nd half, but will keep my powder dry for a couple of weeks as no point just going over the same thing day after day. Only 11 days left to sort out the transfer situation and looks like Hjelder is done and should arrive soon for the 23s, but he could even be fast-tracked into the first team bench as cover for Junior. O’Brian looks like happening but if Bielsa wants him its because he sees something, so I go along with it. Being a fan though I would want the club to go out and get me an International midfielder who can cover DM with ease being not far behind Phillips, or could easily start as a 10 or 8 and create and score goals. You never know we be surprised yet?
Best media post of year. How some of these people are in jobs beats me. The bloke should be sacked on the spot because people just don't do research these days. Everything is just so wrong with the post it's frightening how wrong someone can be.
This is the world we live in. Literally any dickhead can go online and make a living just spewing out deliberately provocative stuff on the internet. And the irony of this reply is not lost on me by the way !!!!
I too would like a midfielder to come in and be better than what we have. If we sign the udders kid then would he get a game?. Does Bielsa beleive in Forshaw because i do not. He has a very poor scoring record and where would he play?.
Morning all, I can't be doing with reading all those replies on the athletic. First game and they've all given up, what miserable sods. If we can take advantage of Rangers and get Kent for £15 Mill and O Brien for 7-8 then I would consider this a very good summer and would be quite happy with the squad. I think O Brien may take a little time to get up to our speed but I may be one of the few who still believe Forshaw will do some sort of job for us this season.
Morning all ... Brownhill is a shock, if true ... Kunt can stay at Gers ... Scum was last pre-season game, not bothered finally the sun is out so the dog turd can get hard & dry before missus makes me pick it up and bin it in the Collymore looking forward to Toffees being properly chewed
Niall Huggins is having a medical at Sunderland today, but not sure if this is a loan or a full transfer. Lots of interest for the kid from Championship clubs so be interesting to see what we do
You've seen what happens to clubs who don't pick up points early on in the season, they are the ones who are fighting against relegation.Now I'm certainly not saying we will be in any danger of that, but we will have to pick up points quickly.
Totally agree mate. we can can pick the brains from the scum game all we want but it doesn't bring back any points. all it does is bring negativity and bad vibes. We have to start again and keep positive. My team talk would be Let's start the season again afresh this Saturday. A Massive crowd will be behind you. play for that White shirt is all these fans ask of you. if you do that they will always be your 12th man. I'm very confident we will strike 3 points this weekend.
Well there you go from todays presser. Bielsa on transfers, he says further additions aren't looking likely before the end of the window. "A low price means a high price. With good players, the prices are excessive." Bielsa thinks players who were injured for parts of last season will make a bigger impact this time. Says Forshaw at full tilt would be a big asset - but isn't denying that Forshaw has been on a long road back Bielsa is basically happy with his squad.
I hope you're right Siddas, although the crowd can be very fickle at times especially if we go one down early on. I hope we can get our passing, workrate and pressing back, because if we do the three points are acheivable. What dissappointed me about the scum game more than the scoreline was the performance.(I'll try and not mention that game again)
Looks like Bielsa’s analysis is that we lost Koch, Llorente and Rodrigo for half the season and think having them all back for the vast majority of this season gives us a better team than last season. We didnt have Forshaw last season so expects him to be available at some stage too, so again another bonus. A biggy for for me is his comments on the wingers, he said he had 3 in Costa, Raph and Jack. That really does mean the end for Poveda. He then went on to say that some young players have a chance to make an impact on the first team and if they cant they need to go and develop elsewhere playing regular because U23s cannot improve them more as the competition isnt the same as league football. He mentioned Huggins, Gotts, Alfie, Edmondson and Davies needing to play games to improve enough to allow them to come back.
Bielsa also mentioned the prices quoted by football clubs for players. Bielsa hates wasting money and refuses to pay above the odds for anyone which means we will not be buying anyone with the wrong price ticket. Lets hope we dont regret spending a few quid more than we should have, and end up struggling.
