The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Thursday 2nd February)

Good Morning. It's Thursday 2nd February, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road


Orta pulled the plug on Harrison sale

The news that Jack Harrison came within a whisker of joining Leicester City on transfer deadline day has created quite a stir among Leeds fans. The 26yo travelled to Seagrave (Leicester City's training ground) on Tuesday afternoon, and even passed his medical, only for Victor Orta to pull the plug at the last minute

The Leeds Director of Football wasn't ready to lose someone of Harrison's quality, especially as former club Manchester City had a 20% sell on fee on any profits made. Leeds paid £11m for him in 2021, but also spent £9m in fee's for the three previous seasons on loan.

He may be less consistent than previous campaigns, but Harrison has twice the amount of assists than any other team mate (4). He also has an eye for goal, as he proved against Accrington Stanley last week with his wonder strike from 30 yards. Despite having less than 18 months on his contract, both club and player believe they can come to an agreement regarding a new contract at Elland Road.

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talkSPORT Duo rip into Roca

During their weekday talk show, talkSPORT duo Danny Murphy and Adrian Durham ripped into Marc Roca, suggesting he's not up to Premier League quality. The conversation came about whilst discussing new signing Weston McKennie, and where he's fit into Jesse Marsch's plans.

“He [Weston McKennie] is better than [Marc] Roca.” Murphy said. Durham added: “With all due respect to Roca, he’s a pro footballer but I’m not sure he’s a Premier League footballer.” Murphy simply added: “I agree.”

Only weeks ago, the 26yo was name-checked as a possible future star for the Spanish National squad, only to be shot down by the pair of wind-up merchants. Do they have a point? Leeds midfield has been pretty flimsy, and the main consensus is it has nothing to do with Tyler Adams.

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Could Adams adopt more of a Phillips role

Adams and Roca have employed the double pivot role to good effect this season, yet don't have much to show for their efforts. Between them, they have racked up almost 3000 minutes of game time, and have one goal, and one assist to show for it (both from Roca). It's not as if the duo have been instrumental in keeping clean sheets either. Leeds have conceded 33 times, in 19 games, though it would be fair to say that the defence should take responsibility for many of those.

Since arriving last month, Max Wober's defensive displays has given Illan Meslier some well deserved rest bite. It should also increased the confidence in the players, which hopefully in turn will give the midfield pair more creative freedom. The arrival of McKennie will undoubtedly mean less minutes for Greenwood and Roca. Will we see Adams adopting more of a Phillips role, allowing McKennie more freedom to bomb forward?

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Something odd about the whole Harrison affair. Must admit I’m pleased he’s staying. Who’s to say we won’t pick up a few injuries and all of a sudden our squad won’t look so big

 

I like Roca. A lot of his work in midfield is invaluable but goes unnoticed.

He’s our water carrier. Leave him be.

 

Pleased Harrison is staying others should be in the queue before him to go

 

Agreed but imperative he signs a new contract asap as his value is decreasing by about £1.5m every month and we’ll end up losing him for nothing next year.

 

Well done for pulling the plug

 

Morning all

There are times when I think some of these ex players as talking heads are buffoons. Murphy was never a great player and never an England player but hey ho. I have read pieces from Spanish pundits who say Roca is on the verge of a full call up for Spain. Sure Este will confirm that or not?

As for Harrison, not an automatic pick to start and doesn’t fit the Marsch system. He has however played better than Aaronson as a 10 in recent games. McKennie is going to keep Jack further away from the pitch. Sinisterra, Gnonto and Summerville all ahead of Jack too on the wide roles. So for me rather than giving him a pay rise he hasn’t earned get the best price

 

My thoughts on Harrison is he must have wanted to go and Leeds named the terms. Leicester did not agree so Orta called him back. Why go for a medical if he wants to stay?. Jack is after a big pay rise and i would call his bluff.
He has his moments but is nowhere near as good as he thinks he is.
Roca will lose his starting place and rightly so. Do we keep him and sell greenwood or move on both.

 

Yes we need him as cover but as you say it is odd.

 

His passing (which i thought would be his strength) has been inconsistent but i guess that's likely a result of the high pace we play at. As you say though, we are rarely dominated in midfield and whilst i credit most of that to Adams, the boy Roca must be doing something right. Be interesting to see what role they have lined up for McKennie as, if we stick with the same formation, it's Roca most at risk.

 

Maybe we just wanted him to have a mid season mot check at Leicester’s expense

 

Agreed

 

Leeds U21's lost 5-2 to Norwich last night. Their third defeat in a row.

 

That was Friday Ell

 

In his position who would that be?. Aaronson is younger and may well improve. Gnonto.. Summerville and sinner are faster. There comes a time to cash in and jacks time has arrived.

 

Re Jack.. what you say is possible - i think it's also likely that we were looking at someone else (zaniolo?) that didn't happen - so we were hedging our bets by sending him for medical. This sort of thing is more common than people realise. Remember when we bought Gnonto at the last minute? He'd had a 'just in case' medical several weeks earlier.

Re Roca, we absolutely need to keep him. We were way short in midfield - we play with two pivots. One gets injured and we're left with Greenwood or a defender there. They are critical positions to the functioning of the team. We need 3 senior midfielders, minimum.

 

Greenwood has yet to do anything apart from deliver a couple of decent corners. He’ll be well down the pecking order now hopefully.

Can’t afford to wait for this so-called free kick specialist to finally get one on target.

 

Remember Barry dead ball Douglas?

 

I’ve blocked him from my mind.

 

McKennie is flexible enough to, play 4,6,8. I'm sure that's part of the logic in buying him which gives us options. A lot of people think he's likely to replace aaronson but he's played a more as DM than as AM... he even played centre half for Schalke. He seems to see himself as a box to box midfielder, so it will be interesting to see what formation and position we use him in. If we're going 4231 i see mckennie as a replacement for roca - and the middle of the attacking 3 is up for grabs - and Jack has looked better there than aaronson. Though you have to think there's an option for sini or rutter in that role too. If we go 433 then there's no place for a '10' role at all. I'm not going to guess a lne up for 4222.

All supposition and depends on who's fit. Because we have plenty of options up front now. That said, with the 5 subs situation there's game time a plenty for all of them. Looking forward to seeing where everyone is supposed to fit in when we have jimmy back as well!