BRIGHTO V LEEDS
Bighton on the south coast a place renowned for dirty weekend
mods v rockers, scallops that before brexit were a big local export to France the fantastic film Brighton rock the 1948 version
the home of punk poet Atilla The Stockbroker
and of
Brighton and Hove Albion FC
founded in 1901 just 18 before the mighty LEEDS they are in fact one of the reasons i support leeds
as a kid my grandad took me to football mostly in london palace v blackpool was my 1st gam followed by chelsea v spurs i was not interested in any of them then we moved from mitcham surry
to lewes 8 mile from brighton while watching match of the day leeds played them and old keneth wolsteholm said about newly promoted leeds didnt fear the well established brighton
i was hooked
brighton now play in the village of falmer in a 31000 seat stadium closer to lewes
from lewes to brighton if you need it you can get the 28 and 29 bus to the ground
am betting bamford on the bench but ralf and rodrigo back so we nearly have a full team
any way 1-1
Agree Smurf take a point, move onto Palace game, analyse yes and try to work on the weaknesses but hopefully yesterday they drew a line on Saturday's game and are moving on.
Big two fixtures coming up, i said during the week that i think we needed 10-12 points out of our last 8 games before new year. Tough ask considering liverpool, chelsea, arsenal & City are in that block, but if last April showed us anything we can still take points of even the best teams in the PL, and i for one wont give up on them.
Yes fans have a right to question what the tactics are, why certain players are being asked to play different roles against different opposition, but look if MB or any other top level coach set up exactly the same EVERY time the played it wouldn't be too long before that gets figured out and fans would be giving out about that too.
Lets face it Saturday was as poor, bloody pliss poor, but we still got a point, we were fantastic against spuds in the first half and should have been 2 maybe 3 up but still got nothing from that game. So if we are frustrated i can only imagine how the manager feels???
For me i dont see playing James instead of Gelhardt was the right thing to do, cause tbf James on the wing against spuds caused them alot of problems, so James has been asked to do a different role the next day out? Why do this??
Gelhardt would have offered more and his running the channels would have allowed rapha to demand the ball cause he would have seen a willing runner ahead of him.
Also Roberts coming on and looking like our best player tells a story in itself. I watched the game again yesterday and Roberts done nothing special but if the other players do ANYTHING AT ALL then daaaaa of course Roberts will standout.....
Forshaw was very poor i dont know how many times i saw him "defending" and all of a sudden being the wrong side, not that the attacker done a brilliant turn Forshaw just left "goalside" why??? he done that at least three times and low and behold they were straight onto our CB's.???
As for that Mark Robbins goal 😱
Folks, I think you are over-analysing this. The comfort is that we got an away point in a match we didn't play well. In terms of explanations for this season, I don't think there's any mystery. The team haven't been playing well and confidence is up and down.
One thing that gets overlooked is that theres a hangover from some big personalities leaving last summer. When you examine the numbers, quite a number of changes took place. Alioski's infectious enthusiasm has been a big loss. Hernandez may not have played much but he was a highly inspiring individual in the dressing room. Berardi was the longest serving player. Costa & Poveda were both first team squad players who left on loan. And Casillas was renowned for being generous with his time helping Meslier. So it would a mistake to regard this as the same squad as last year.
I agree that we lack a creative midfielder, and one or two of the squad, particularly Klich are passed their peak. MB has worked tirelessly at trying to work around this problem. We might regard some of his decisions as baffling, but remember he's trying to baffle the opposition as well. Sometimes the tactics come off and he's a magician. Some times they don't and he's a crazy man. But there's always method behind his decisions.
I do think once we start playing two games a week again we will be in much better shape. The stop/start nature of this season punctuated by international breaks isn't helping us find any rhythm or form. Apart from Cooper, players returning from their national teams seem to be out of sync, either positionally or out of their normal routine.
The media aren't helping either with fake news claiming Leeds are looking for a new manager - no chance. Orta leaving for Newcastle - as if!! Bielsa falling out with Phillips - subbing him at half time isn't anything new it's happened at least once per season since MB arrived.
We know that MB can stop a bad run. He turned a rut around last season and he did the same the year before that. Remember Alex Ferguson was once one game away from the sack, then won the FA cup and the rest is history.
Midfield is our single, biggest problem: Phillips was exceptional most of last season, an average player atm. Klich, in the first half of last season was a dynamic box-to-box midfielder with a goal from the distance, now and then; burned out this season. Dallas was a revelation last season; seemingly only recently back in form, but being played in too many different positions. Of the wingers, Harrison is without confidence, and Raphinha is visibly irritated with his team mates, and very much up and down himself. Add to that the running of Bamford and Ayling, both out injured since the beginning of the season. Still, if anyone can fix this, it’s Bielsa. Hopefully, the players still have faith in him. MOT
On top of that we have Kalvin playing at CB to apparently accommodate Forshaw!!
Strujik playing in CM....
Roberts being allowed to play in any fkn position....
It seems to me that Bielsa is so stubborn that he has to prove himself right....
IMO there is something seriously out of kilter at the moment.
The most obvious thing that stands out is the huge difference between last season and this. The signs were there in pre season. Even given all the injuries we look like a different team. Friends supporting other clubs are no longer singing our praises like last season and that alone worries me.
Is it me or are the manager’s team selection getting a bit strange? I know his love for a winger but James as a striker? Llorente at right back?
James instead of Gelhardt up front? The young lad must be baffled as much as we are.
To my admittedly untrained eyes it looks like the team is beginning to lose faith in the Bielsa way. A couple of performances have been the worst by a Leeds side in many seasons. For me it’s a worrying time.
Totally agree Soopa.... add to them, maybe a little controversially, Llorente and Koch after injury free runs for the WHOLE season and we have a VERY good team to build on.
Add an injury free goalscoring Bamford and we'd be challenging for Europe with 3/4 QUALITY new signings....
More praise needed for Meslier....
Just watching our highlights on MOTD and he makes an UNBELIEVABLE save in the first half to tip it on the post.... we'd have lost that game otherwise and it's as good as a goal and scoring the winner 👏👏👏👏
He really is going to be a GREAT player and still so young for a Premier keeps.... he's already better than Lloris
Very lucky to get that point and it may prove to be a vital one.
Bar Meslier that was a PP-Performance.
With the Leicester performance I had hoped we were on the way back, but after that decent first half at Spurs things seem to have again taken a turn/twist.
MB is trying to do different things but they're not really working, Philps at CB when we've got 3 of our 4 CB's fit? Resulting in one of the CB's having to take up the RB position? Just hope the Philips situation doesn't get out of hand and forces him to leave ER.
Harrison (even in the Championship) and James both have been tried in the nr. 9 position, they hardly touched the ball.
Firpo was poor at Spurs and rewarded with a start at LB?
Obviously the injuries have impacted our perfomances and some players are very low on confidence. Not sure that having and playing several players out of their natural positions is helping the situation.
Can't see how & why Struyck had to make room for Firpo. Certainly when against Leicester Pascal was bang on it.
Hope the penny has finally dropped and we at last start looking to improve/adress some of the obvious blanks/weaknesses in the starting 11.
But of course we can always wait and try to fix those issues once we're back in the Championship. That's a something of a gamble I for one wouldn't want to take.
Danish agree fully agree with you, why shouldn't we be able to question some the signings:
→ getting used to Bielsaball or not, I'm certainly not convinced there's a fullback/defender in Firpo.
→ did we need to splash our cash on another winger in stead of reinforcing the midfield area (playmaker) and out and out striker position.
Anyway, a massive week ahead with home games against Palace and Brentford ! But at least after those 2 we've got some very winnable games coming up.
Squeaky bum time is upon us.
Daniel James probably is a decent player, but as wingers we already had Raphinha, Harrison, Rodrigo, Summerville, Costa, and Poveda until the two lastmentioned were loaned out. Why on earth haven’t we instead spent the 25 million on a real playmaker, a creative no. 10? What is it with Bielsa’s obsession with wingers? On a day like today we are one of the most uninspiring teams to watch, and that the notoriously ineffective Roberts was the only one who got close to scoring says it all. One last rant: who ever did the scouting on Firpo should be ashamed of himself, because Firpo is never, ever gonna make it in the English game.
The real test will be when Ayling and Bambi come back into the side. These are the final 2 pieces of the Bielsa jigsaw. If it's still tits up after this, then hello Championship. As regards Firpo and Rodrigo, then can p*ss off back to Spain and I'll happily buy the ticket!!
While it wasn‘t a very inspiring performance, it was an improvement on last season’s result away at Brighton, so at least a step in the right direction.
I think we need to spend some money in January as I’m starting to get a tad worried now!
What a disgraceful performance! The whole bloody team(apart from Meslier) had a bad shift. Bad passing, fouling, shirt tugging galore, slow! When nearly the entire team was off the boil, then there is only one man to blame. Bielsa was outsmarted and outplayed by Potter and his team for the third game in a row. We were neanderthal! We could hardly do the basics.
If we survive the PL this season, and it will be a miracle if we are out of the bottom 3 come New Year with the programme facing us, then I think we should look for a new coach. I know to some it's heresy but this hit and miss form does the club no good. There is no forward momentum. We need change! Potter anyone?
That was the high lights
nice pie chili con carne
Well I live to fight another game witch was more than Leeds did today
The whole team were still clearly p*ssed from the Christmas party on Monday!. I feel sorry for the away supporters, they deserved better than that. Hopefully there is a large mirror in the dressing room at ER because that was unacceptable.
We now have back to back home games against Crystal Palace and Brentford before we enter a painful Christmas fixture list, we need 6 points, end of.!
James was werry poor to day.
Really, Roberts was good!? He did what he was supposed to do and be in the CORRECT position!
Once the keeper saved with his foot and the other shot was shanked so badly that only a deflection nearly sent it in....
It just proves how crap he has been to actually be in the right position to have a shot.... STILL no assists or goals! I honestly wouldn't want him with my hometown club Luton!
I STILL want him to become a legend for us but this is getting embarrassing now with Bielsa trying to prove a point about how right he is.... can ONE person comment that they wanted Roberts ahead of Geldhart and explain why!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Our passing was awful but luckily enough, so was Brightons.... we're playing with probably 5 Premier players good enough.
Did we see Rodrigo, Harrison, James etc touch the ball!?
Very demoralising today and so lucky to get a boring point....
It's literally the first time I'm worried about Raphinha wanting to stay in a team with Shacks, Coops, Forshaw, Roberts, Klich etc or going to a Champions League team earning 4 times as much money!!