I never like blaming MB, but I don't think he got the formation right on saturday. Three at the back only really works when we have Philips available. I appreciate that Forshaw is only back from injury, but the midfield needed reinforcing, and if that meant moving Shackleton to CM or DCM and playing Drameh at RB, then that's what was needed. Forshaw and Shackleton in the middle with Klich playing in an advanced number 10 role would instantly improve the spine and provide support to the forwards. It means taking a risk and playing a newbie in Drameh or, even Hjelde on as LB and Dallas at RB, or I think McKinstry has played as a full back on occasions in the past, but that's what the u23s are there for - to provide competition for places. Much better IMHO to play a rookie at full back than concede the midfield.
Words fail me after watching that tripe last saturday.
If this game teaches us anything it has to be we need PL quality in the squad available if the likes of rapha & Kalvin are missing. I didnt see one player wanting to drive the team the on (ala batty, milner, henderson) a player that knuckles down sets the tempo and kick starts the engine in midfield. Lackluster and down right un-acceptable was that against lets face it a poor Southampton side.
People saying "blip", "players out", "it will be fine", im sorry guys but how does a team that performed so admirably last season (5 months ago) play with freedom, fight to the end, passion, desire serve up that dross???
Yes ok Kalvin and rapha are different gravy but ffs thats two players, i thought only 2 players James & Cooper showed honesty of effort and we got stuffed, ZERO shots on target???? Like thats just pliss poor for any professional football team to end up with after 90mins of football, ZERO shots on target???? its not as if we were playing Brazil of Italy ffs. I wont say we played Southfu*kinghampton on Saturday we took to the field thats about the size of it.
We are very lucky not to be in the drop zone this morning we need points and need them badly otherwise if we are relegated it could be another 16 years before we get back. and by then an ESL could well be formed!!!!
by no means do we need to panic but most of us were around when the "Leeds are too big of a Club to go down" comments were out and if we dont sort things quickly we could be facing 7 or 8 six-pointers and must win games which we all know when the pressure comes on we dont tend to cope with that too well, plus i can imagine a few dodgy "VAR" calls or not going against us.
I have noticed we are going longer quicker and more vertically when a team presses us high up.
We do not seem to have that old confidence to pass between the lines. NO decent 40 yard cross field balls to the wings, just a hit and hope from back to front
Wolves will do the same and have real speed up top. Their incredible hulk will have a field day if there is no KP.
Rodrigo and Roberts are a waste of a shirt. Put Gelhardt and Bate in. They have something to prove.
Not sure what Dallas problem is but he is nowhere near the player he was last year.
IMO Coops was our best player. Don't get the stick he gets.
As for James, he needs another 30 days under MB, put Jimmy in.
We were shite v Saints. Playing the kids would have been no worse. At least they would have put some effort in.
I really can only hope KP and Rafa are back this weekend otherwise it will be another long day at the office. Does not look like Ayling, Koch, Firpo or Bamford will return but they have a chance. MB is trying the plan B of hit and hope, lets play football on the floor.
Another quick word about Cooper's performance yesterday, miles ahead of anybody else? No he wasn't, best defender and player was Shacks, to me MILES ahead of the overrated & payed bunch (incl. Cooper, who was our 2e best defender but our 2e best player).
That's not saying a lot because most were just rubbish.
It was thoroughly depressing being there yesterday, the whole experience, stupidly long queues to get in leading to a few fans missing the start and a bit of a scuffle as some fans pushed in. Rubbish team line up and horrifically bad performance. Queues for the bog at half time took ages, for a modern stadium it was naff. Rubbish atmosphere due to the lacklustre Rubbish on the pitch, it would have taken more than the fans to raise that shower
Don't have anything against Coops, and never will have a bad word to say about him either.
He's a great person, and good player who'll always give his all for the club.
Some (myself incl.) didn't agree with him that yesterday we improved after the break, because there just was nothing to improve upon.
My biggest worry now is not that players like Philips and Raphina will leave for big box, but plain simply that they'll have there mind made up about going, no matter what.
"He's a great overall captain of our team" Really? If he was as good as we believe why the fck was he not dishing out boll*ckings to the underperforming dross on the field??. I didn't seem him once complain to any of the other players to get their fingers out and put a shift in. As he is our current captain we will stick by him, no real choice, but whatever the stats say, he is becoming a liability and going back to the old Cooper. Maybe it will all turnaround when we are at full strength, we will see.
My biggest fear at the moment is that the likes of Phillips and Raphinha will be on the big clubs shopping lists come January. If we haven't turned it around by then, pretty sure they will be off for big money!
Fair enough Smurf and I haven't seen those stats which look good for Coops....
I just think he's always got a mistake in him, going to give needless free kicks and pens away etc....
However I have to hold my hands up after seeing those stats and I'd definitely have him as one of the 4 CBs needed....
He's a great overall captain of our team and does a lot of work in the community but I just think I'd rather have a fully fit Llorente and Koch as CB partnership.... ideally you'd want a right and left footer though.
Why pick on Cooper? He was our best player yesterday - by a long way, and has been outstanding all season. The Mirror rate him as the 9th best performing defender in the premiership.
Number 2 according to https://dataviz.theanalyst.com/season-reviews/2021/
He's 7th in the list of passes made, according to the EPL
He's won more aerial battles than any other Leeds player, 33 in fact - double anybody else. And he's started more sequences from the back than any other premiership defender.
He's arguably been our most valuable player this season, along with Meslier and Raph. And he's first name on the teamsheet, And rightly so. If there is one player that deserves the respect of the fans, it's our captain.
Well I must apologise for the dross served up and fully expected to be in the MDT for a few more games.... we should be SMASHING teams like Watford and Soton.
Coops is not good enough for the Prem....
Dallas is only a squad player this season and shouldn't be starting based on his performances....
Is Strujik good enough to cover for Kalvin? Don't think so....
Klich is not good enough to play in the Prem....
Rodrigo is so hit and miss and inconsistent....
Roberts is embarrassingly poor and I wouldn't even want him to play for Luton in the Championship. What does a manager with a reputation worldwide see in a player like him!? Fair enough and he gave him a chance based on potential but this is fkn stupid now. Roberts has a good work ethic but ANY player should have that.... even a Division 29 player in parks team football!!
Geldhart can't be any good if he can't get in ahead of Roberts....
When you have important players like Kalvin, Raphinha and Bamford out added to 5 crap players in the starting line up then it's no wonder we lost!
I think Soopa said we had our longest away trip after the international break and not fair.... I'm just glad we were playing Soton instead of one of the top 6!!
Sill looks like a wasted opportunity to test out our younger players at the end of last season. We still played the same squad at full tilt. No rest. No rotation.
Bielsa’s 18 pool of first teamers is the major problem for me. At the end of last season he persisted with Costa and Alioski when we knew they’d be out the door in the Summer. Forshaw seems to have seamlessly slipped into that group now despite him never exactly pulling up trees in the Championship.Bate must be thinking how that has happened!
Turned off the game after 70 mins. Could not bare to watch it. Worst performance I have seen us put in for 3+ years.
There is no point in picking Roberts or Rodrigo. Dallas is a pale shadow of the player he has been. It really would have been better putting Gelhardt, Greenwood and Drameh in as they could not have been worse.
Pumping the high balls into the box and guess what, we lose it. The midfield today was non existent.
So it take the master 80 minutes to work our Roberts is completely crap and then sends on Gelhardt for the last 15 and Summerville for the last 10, what's the bloody point!!.
"And Captain Coops thought we played well in 2nd half".
Well he certainly wasn't at the game where I was!!. Absolute sh*te. As soon as the line up was confirmed, I knew we were in trouble. We have never played well with a back 3 and again today it was shown in bucket loads. Roberts and Rodrigo should donate their salaries to charity, never have I seen a poorer pair of players as those two.
Since Dallas was caught out playing away from home, his form has completely gone to pieces and is a shadow of the player over the last 2 seasons.
We seem to have the smallest squad height wise in the Premiership, but because our brains appear to be scrambled, keep on puming
I would rather play kids than established players that do f all.
Dallas, Roberts and Rodrigo should be ashamed of themselves.
Coops is never going to be a vocal leader as was Strachs. He played well v Saints as did Baby Shacks. It is just the others that let them down.
No midfield showing for the ball? Hoofs up the field?
Saints was painful to watch and I gave up after 70 mins
Give me Jimmy over Fanny Games. I just want a winger to run and destroy
£25 million wasted.
God I could cry!!!!
I never like blaming MB, but I don't think he got the formation right on saturday. Three at the back only really works when we have Philips available. I appreciate that Forshaw is only back from injury, but the midfield needed reinforcing, and if that meant moving Shackleton to CM or DCM and playing Drameh at RB, then that's what was needed. Forshaw and Shackleton in the middle with Klich playing in an advanced number 10 role would instantly improve the spine and provide support to the forwards. It means taking a risk and playing a newbie in Drameh or, even Hjelde on as LB and Dallas at RB, or I think McKinstry has played as a full back on occasions in the past, but that's what the u23s are there for - to provide competition for places. Much better IMHO to play a rookie at full back than concede the midfield.
Words fail me after watching that tripe last saturday.
If this game teaches us anything it has to be we need PL quality in the squad available if the likes of rapha & Kalvin are missing. I didnt see one player wanting to drive the team the on (ala batty, milner, henderson) a player that knuckles down sets the tempo and kick starts the engine in midfield. Lackluster and down right un-acceptable was that against lets face it a poor Southampton side.
People saying "blip", "players out", "it will be fine", im sorry guys but how does a team that performed so admirably last season (5 months ago) play with freedom, fight to the end, passion, desire serve up that dross???
Yes ok Kalvin and rapha are different gravy but ffs thats two players, i thought only 2 players James & Cooper showed honesty of effort and we got stuffed, ZERO shots on target???? Like thats just pliss poor for any professional football team to end up with after 90mins of football, ZERO shots on target???? its not as if we were playing Brazil of Italy ffs. I wont say we played Southfu*kinghampton on Saturday we took to the field thats about the size of it.
We are very lucky not to be in the drop zone this morning we need points and need them badly otherwise if we are relegated it could be another 16 years before we get back. and by then an ESL could well be formed!!!!
by no means do we need to panic but most of us were around when the "Leeds are too big of a Club to go down" comments were out and if we dont sort things quickly we could be facing 7 or 8 six-pointers and must win games which we all know when the pressure comes on we dont tend to cope with that too well, plus i can imagine a few dodgy "VAR" calls or not going against us.
Soopaleeds, no apologies needed at all! I was only joking or trying to.
Sorry if that came over the wrong way.
I know and agree with you that Koch is MB's first option to replace Kalvin.
I do rate Koch as a CB and feel he can do a job in midfield to shut things down and see out a game.
Having Koch & Pascal as first and second stand ins for Kalvin is what worries me.
A fully fit Forshaw could perhaps be a better option but he's obviously still a long way off getting towards full matchfitness.
I have noticed we are going longer quicker and more vertically when a team presses us high up.
We do not seem to have that old confidence to pass between the lines. NO decent 40 yard cross field balls to the wings, just a hit and hope from back to front
Wolves will do the same and have real speed up top. Their incredible hulk will have a field day if there is no KP.
Rodrigo and Roberts are a waste of a shirt. Put Gelhardt and Bate in. They have something to prove.
Not sure what Dallas problem is but he is nowhere near the player he was last year.
IMO Coops was our best player. Don't get the stick he gets.
As for James, he needs another 30 days under MB, put Jimmy in.
We were shite v Saints. Playing the kids would have been no worse. At least they would have put some effort in.
I really can only hope KP and Rafa are back this weekend otherwise it will be another long day at the office. Does not look like Ayling, Koch, Firpo or Bamford will return but they have a chance. MB is trying the plan B of hit and hope, lets play football on the floor.
Soopaleeds, if Koch turns out to be the cover for Philips, prepare 'thy' for championship football sooner than expected.
Good news is that in turn I'll gladly cover for Koch, with or without Pubic/Pelvic injury.
andyl, great points about Alioski & Costa.
Another quick word about Cooper's performance yesterday, miles ahead of anybody else? No he wasn't, best defender and player was Shacks, to me MILES ahead of the overrated & payed bunch (incl. Cooper, who was our 2e best defender but our 2e best player).
That's not saying a lot because most were just rubbish.
It was thoroughly depressing being there yesterday, the whole experience, stupidly long queues to get in leading to a few fans missing the start and a bit of a scuffle as some fans pushed in. Rubbish team line up and horrifically bad performance. Queues for the bog at half time took ages, for a modern stadium it was naff. Rubbish atmosphere due to the lacklustre Rubbish on the pitch, it would have taken more than the fans to raise that shower
Weather was nice though, as I probably predicted.
Don't have anything against Coops, and never will have a bad word to say about him either.
He's a great person, and good player who'll always give his all for the club.
Some (myself incl.) didn't agree with him that yesterday we improved after the break, because there just was nothing to improve upon.
My biggest worry now is not that players like Philips and Raphina will leave for big box, but plain simply that they'll have there mind made up about going, no matter what.
"He's a great overall captain of our team" Really? If he was as good as we believe why the fck was he not dishing out boll*ckings to the underperforming dross on the field??. I didn't seem him once complain to any of the other players to get their fingers out and put a shift in. As he is our current captain we will stick by him, no real choice, but whatever the stats say, he is becoming a liability and going back to the old Cooper. Maybe it will all turnaround when we are at full strength, we will see.
My biggest fear at the moment is that the likes of Phillips and Raphinha will be on the big clubs shopping lists come January. If we haven't turned it around by then, pretty sure they will be off for big money!
Fair enough Smurf and I haven't seen those stats which look good for Coops....
I just think he's always got a mistake in him, going to give needless free kicks and pens away etc....
However I have to hold my hands up after seeing those stats and I'd definitely have him as one of the 4 CBs needed....
He's a great overall captain of our team and does a lot of work in the community but I just think I'd rather have a fully fit Llorente and Koch as CB partnership.... ideally you'd want a right and left footer though.
Why pick on Cooper? He was our best player yesterday - by a long way, and has been outstanding all season. The Mirror rate him as the 9th best performing defender in the premiership.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/premier-league-top-defenders-202122-25188849
He's 9th in the list of tackles made (EPL), https://www.premierleague.com/stats
Number 2 according to https://dataviz.theanalyst.com/season-reviews/2021/
He's 7th in the list of passes made, according to the EPL
He's won more aerial battles than any other Leeds player, 33 in fact - double anybody else. And he's started more sequences from the back than any other premiership defender.
He's arguably been our most valuable player this season, along with Meslier and Raph. And he's first name on the teamsheet, And rightly so. If there is one player that deserves the respect of the fans, it's our captain.
Well I must apologise for the dross served up and fully expected to be in the MDT for a few more games.... we should be SMASHING teams like Watford and Soton.
Coops is not good enough for the Prem....
Dallas is only a squad player this season and shouldn't be starting based on his performances....
Is Strujik good enough to cover for Kalvin? Don't think so....
Klich is not good enough to play in the Prem....
Rodrigo is so hit and miss and inconsistent....
Roberts is embarrassingly poor and I wouldn't even want him to play for Luton in the Championship. What does a manager with a reputation worldwide see in a player like him!? Fair enough and he gave him a chance based on potential but this is fkn stupid now. Roberts has a good work ethic but ANY player should have that.... even a Division 29 player in parks team football!!
Geldhart can't be any good if he can't get in ahead of Roberts....
When you have important players like Kalvin, Raphinha and Bamford out added to 5 crap players in the starting line up then it's no wonder we lost!
I think Soopa said we had our longest away trip after the international break and not fair.... I'm just glad we were playing Soton instead of one of the top 6!!
Good luck to the next MDT....
Sill looks like a wasted opportunity to test out our younger players at the end of last season. We still played the same squad at full tilt. No rest. No rotation.
Bielsa’s 18 pool of first teamers is the major problem for me. At the end of last season he persisted with Costa and Alioski when we knew they’d be out the door in the Summer. Forshaw seems to have seamlessly slipped into that group now despite him never exactly pulling up trees in the Championship.Bate must be thinking how that has happened!
Agree Macwhite, said the same about Rodrigo on another thread.
If Barcelona come back in for him, cut our losses & let him go.
It's not gonna happen.
He looks out of sorts and his confidence seems completely shot.
1972glory, same here.
When I got that team news, i said to myself we're so lightweight and with the lack of an engine room... a draw was the best we could hope for.
Mind you didn't expect them to take us to the cleaners and back.
Don't know why/how Coops felt we did better in the second half.
But MB more or less said the same, something to the tune of "we didn't dominate but stopped them dominating us".
Yeah right. Clutching at straws...
BB, Rodrigo needs to go back to Spain. We have taken Spain’s centre forward and completely broken him ffs!
Turned off the game after 70 mins. Could not bare to watch it. Worst performance I have seen us put in for 3+ years.
There is no point in picking Roberts or Rodrigo. Dallas is a pale shadow of the player he has been. It really would have been better putting Gelhardt, Greenwood and Drameh in as they could not have been worse.
Pumping the high balls into the box and guess what, we lose it. The midfield today was non existent.
So it take the master 80 minutes to work our Roberts is completely crap and then sends on Gelhardt for the last 15 and Summerville for the last 10, what's the bloody point!!.
"And Captain Coops thought we played well in 2nd half".
Well he certainly wasn't at the game where I was!!. Absolute sh*te. As soon as the line up was confirmed, I knew we were in trouble. We have never played well with a back 3 and again today it was shown in bucket loads. Roberts and Rodrigo should donate their salaries to charity, never have I seen a poorer pair of players as those two.
Since Dallas was caught out playing away from home, his form has completely gone to pieces and is a shadow of the player over the last 2 seasons.
We seem to have the smallest squad height wise in the Premiership, but because our brains appear to be scrambled, keep on puming
That was imo the worst team effort I have seen their were a few boos at the end of the game