We have a game tonight and this thread will either take your mind of the result over the weekend or give you food for thought. This weekend I want to pose the question: should we offload Pablo. Lets have a look at some data and background first; his pro career really took off back in 2008 – 2012 when he played 111 games for Valencia and scored 16 times. He also got picked for Spain under Del Bosque 4 times in 2009/10. So at the peak of his game in 2012. He was so good that he was bought by Swansea for Michael Laudrup who was building a very good side with players like Michu etc. It was also a record fee for Swansea, but Laudrup had plenty of experience of Pablo at Getafe where he was before going to Valencia. In 2014 after playing 57 games and scoring 5 goals he no longer had Laudrup and was used under various managers ending with Gary Monk. Pablo left Swansea in 2014 to go to the Middle East mainly Al Arabia FC where there were football legends in charge and on the pitch. Da Silva, Cannavaro and many more. He played 25 games scoring 9 goals but although he was on top money he wanted to go home to Spain. He was sent out on loan to Rao Valacano in 2015 where he played 27 games scoring 3 goals and he was now in a bit of a rut and thinking about packing it in and taking over at Castellano FC a team in La Liga 4 which he part owns, as an aside Castellano won back to back promotions in the last 2 seasons and are now in the 2nd Tier of Spanish football for the first time. Gary Monk convinced him to come to Leeds in 2017. I think its safe to say that Pablo has enjoyed the must fruitful relationship of his career, even though he joined us in the 2nd tier of English football. He became a much loved player and was in a different class to anything Leeds had for many years. Pablo has so far played 152 games scoring 34 goals. So prolific and a genius at times and has won the Player of the year award plus football writers awards a couple of times. A league of his own on many many occasions. He is very happily married to Ma Garcia who is Sergio Garcia’s sister and uncle Sergio is coaching his young nephew in the art of the small white ball. The family are settled in Leeds happily and I know Ma wants Pablo to end his playing career at Leeds and has even been tweeting about how fit Pablo is recently. This is due to a fall out with Bielsa but my understanding is that Pablo will be on the bench tonight. Personally I think Pablo has been crucial to our progress, although after winning back to back PotY awards last season he was hardly available due to injury, although he came back for the run in and was a big part of the last dozen games for promotion, although now seems only able to do 45 minutes. This season so far he is missing again for most of the games through injury but cannot see him playing 90 minutes, so we must hope that his 45 minute run outs are constructive and destructive to the opposition. He was awarded a new contract in the Summer but should we sell him or should we value what we can get out of him?
Keep him. He is a club legend and is probably still THE player at the club most likely to make things happen.
Still not calmed down after that performance and it was the first time I watched most of the match stood up in my own living room for a couple of seasons. That game should have been over by half time with WHU put away. But through crap passing we just saw the ball coming straight back at us we were slowed down in the 2nd half to their pace and it just helped them. We were lucky Benrhama and Halle didnt have their scoring boots on or it could have been a rout. Meslier looked more like Felix for their first and yes he pulled of some great saves too, but when your keeper has to put in a shift you know you were not good enough. They had players who cost over £40m so yet again in this league you have to have the quality to survive and when things go wrong those expensive opposition players punish us. Having 2 International defenders out didnt help our cause. Ayling was great and in the main Cooper was too in the first half but at fault for their 2nd. We didnt get Rodrigo on the ball enough and he should have equalised at the death. Roberts added nothing Raphinah toiled away with nothing to show but overall we had no end product in the final third
We need that spark of genius that a 7 years younger Pablo could bring to a game, that little bit of magic. We seem a bit too predictable in the final third and so we can be stopped quite easily. It would take a great effort to get such a player in January, so I'm hoping we can remain in the Premier league and make 3-4 more purchases next summer.
Biggest surprise for me yesterday was Costa getting his chance and looking totally uninterested. I can accept Alioski and Harrison toiling away and just not being good enough but Costa just didn’t raise a sweat. On more than one occasion Bielsa was screaming at him to track back. We can’t replace them all in one go and I realise we need to bed down new players but.... Costa Harrison Alioski Cooper They’re not good enough for this division. Bamford will only ever suit a Bielsa team, when Bielsa calls it a day we’ll need a new striker. Bamford got off to a flyer but sadly it’s the Bamford of old that has resurfaced. Rodrigo looks good on the ball, some neat passes too but he’ll never be a prolific goal scorer. I’m not expecting huge steps, I’m just being realistic, this season will be all about surviving and building on the new signings we made this season.
I'm sure we'll be ok this season because teams like WBA, Fulham, Sheffield Utd, Brighton and Burnley have more players that aren't good enough for this division, so we'll finish above at least 3 of those.
Couple of massive games coming up: Leeds United v Burnley Sunday 27th December 2020 12pm live on Sky Sports West Bromwich Albion v Leeds United Tuesday 29th December 2020 6pm live on Amazon Prime Video
This could be exactly what we rely on because facts at the moment are on our side. the other way we stay up is by taking more chances early on, like we have done in the earlier matches. We miss chances that could put the opposition to bed but when we are just 1 goal up and mess things up playing out from the back or in the middle we will always give a goal away. Take more chances kills it dead and earn points
Prior to this season it was something like just the one defeat when we score first, that’s because the opposition open up and it allows us to get a 2nd. It worked great at Championship level but the PL is hugely different. Bamford as a team player is top notch, he hit the ground running and amazed us but deep down I think we all believed the old Bamford that misses chance after chance would return. I’ve never seen a striker his height so useless in the air either. Harrison and Costa, I’m still scratching my head wondering what’s gone wrong with the pair, two stinkers of a game back to back from Klich as well, we can’t afford for it to be three.
I had money on Rodrigo scoring and I haven't even been able to look at matchday thread today, or even the match report on the BBC or YEP, couldn't watch football focus, not even looked at the league table. Totally gutted for the first time since Heckinbottom. Expecting to see Newcastle smashed by 6
I think the problem we have is that Bielsaball demands defensive duties are carried out by everyone. Under normal circumstances playing a flat back 4 you will have real defenders taking care of business backed up by DMs, but last night we slipped up by having wingers fouling in stupid areas or knocking ball out for a corner and that was how both goals came about last night, Harrisons corner and Costas foul. I guess we have to accept the realities or change the manager, which nobody wants
I would never change the manager. It’s not his fault the likes of Costa and Rodrigo commit lazy, senseless, needless fouls. Drum some sense and professionalism into them - we have a problem with set-piece defending so they’re not doing the defence any favours by tracking back if the end result allows the opposition free delivery into the box. They could learn a thing or two from Raphinha, who tracked back and timed his challenges perfectly.
I don’t want Bielsa to leave BUT..... We won’t ever be top 6 in the PL with him in charge (in my opinion). He is great at what he does but he doesn’t man manage players very well. The best of the best need a different approach than what Bielsa offers. Bielsa takes an average player and improves them, he also refuses to have the likes of Benrhama play for him. I’d like him to remain for this season, if we’re here next and have the funds for one or two players then I hope he gives us another season. If we found ourselves with the wealth to bring in 2-3 £50m type players then I don’t mind him calling it a day
Think if Bielsa had a few hundred million to play with the players he brought in would be of a quality to win the league playing Bielsaball. The players we have at the moment are Championship quality in the main who are playing above themselves. Alioski, Cooper, Dallas, Costa, Roberts, to name 5 . We also had 2 International defenders missing. We just need to hope we stay up and then invest again so that those 5 are squad players and not starters. Yes Dallas has been great but hes now filled in at 3 positions which highlights how short we are.
