Junior will be fine, he just needs time to get fully Bielsa fit as I'm sure he's never played a game in his life at that intensity. Visibly faded after HT but he'll get there and it was great to see the constant communication between himself and Harrison as they worked out the positional distances etc. As Tony Dorigo said before KO...Junior is a Rolls Royce going forward and just needs to play so he can learn from his mistakes and get fully match fit.
Poor old Sober Shaks has been taking stick again, but the offy is open now. But people are allowed to criticise players when they make a booboo. When the ref was asked to go take a look he had no option but to award a penalty, maybe he should have looked at the whole thing and may have came to a different decision. So even if Coops was to blame every one of our players deserve criticism except maybe Meslier and Phillips. Most players scored 5,6 or 7 at best which just isnt good enough. I think our main problem is going to be depth of squad and injuries and suspensions. Cooper and Phillips will be suspended again this season, but at the moment its our 4 CBs that have to cover for Cooper and Phillips, which could then mean we only have Cresswell as back up. So for me we need a top midfeilder who is good enough to cover Phillips and also be able to create as an 8, and just why Bielsa tried for Cuisance last Summer and Gallagher this summer. Why has it taken 3 transfer windows and we still dont have that player. I hope we get him next week or we will have to go into a 4th window in January for another try
Yep we'd have easily lost the game yesterday without Kalvin and he was nowhere near 100% fit. Seeing him yesterday confirmed what a player he's developed into under Bielsa but also it was the right decision to leave him out last week. Players from yesterday who are still on a massive upward curve; Meslier Struijk Junior (maybe ?) Phillips Harrison Raphinha Dallas unbelievably just keeps getting better and is currently undroppable. That leaves Klich, Cooper, Ayling & Bamford from yesterday's starting line up, all good players but if you're looking at areas of the team where improvement is likely to be limited then those are the ones. As we don't have a spare £100+ million we can't improve on Bamford so just have to accept that that's as good as it gets for now in his position. To be fair he works so hard for the team that anyone coming in would have to be some player. Plus it leaves the opportunity for Geldhart or others to break through if good enough. Llorente is the best central defender at the club so no need to upgrade as we have enough once he's fit again. Drameh will push Ayling all the way from now on, which is good as Luke will hopefully relish the challenge and keep performing well. Which leaves Klich who has been excellent for us and can still do a decent job. Unfortunately improvement in his game is unlikely and as it stands Rodrigo & Roberts are competing with him for that position. This would seem to be the reason Bielsa is not favouring signing a direct replacement for Klich as he feels he already has 3 squad members vying for that one role. When you look at it in the whole you can clearly see why we're not rushing to spend big in this window. That only changes if it's with the future in mind or a worldy becomes available at a reasonable price.
The view it that defensively he needs to improve positionally and then he'll be fine. That comes with game time as he's with a new team that has different requirements to what he's been used to at Barcelona. Minor tweaks Wakey, the guy is not completely useless at defending or anything approaching that.
If Man Utd played like this against us we would have been 3 up at half time. They have managed to scramble a goal just now 1-1 but they have been shocking. World beaters last week, garbage this week so far after an hour
Chances are arse go into the International break firmly on zero points and -8 goal difference. I have a wedge on Arteta being the first Prem manger looking for work in Tesco filling shelves. £134m spent so far this last few weeks but 2 more coming in making it a firm £198m wasted
They did a sweetener, buy tickets for Crewe, get special priority for Liverpool, could well be a few empty seats because of fans wanting Liverpool tickets at any cost, not that the Crewe game was expensive, just a tenner I believe
Kiko's still got it!!!! https://motleedsnews.com/comment/le...suffers-nightmare-in-elche-v-atletico-madrid/
If Bogutsz carries on like this he will be back in the fold. To be honest he was the first of the wonderkids we brought in for the 23s, and he was brilliant in his first season scoring and creating. Bielsa didn't fancy him as a 17/18yo for the first team battling to get out if the Championship. Last season out on loan he wasnt firing and disheartened. I think he has his head together now and we have a loans manager who will be in contact with him. I hope it all works out for him
The O’Brien deal seems to be fizzling out due to not being able to agree a fee. I think this confirms we only see him as an addition to the U23s at the moment, Bielsa probably comparing him to Bate and comparing what we’re getting for the money.
