The Mighty Whites v Bin Dippers

The FA/Leeds spat goes back to Revies days. They never forget!

The whining Scouser/German will be happy too!

No you are correct I thought it was just a one game for a straight red

The red card stands and he gets a extra 3 games for the nerve of asking

never really expected anything else

The managers blind faith in a select band of players works brilliantly when everyone is firing on all cylinders and we are sweeping forward as a team.

When players are off form for whatever reason or are injured that faith falls on it’s ars.e. For example, Gelhardt has a tough season in the Championship with Wigan and was their player of the season, yet Roberts, who didn’t even shine in the Championship gets the nod. This microcosm demonstrates to me the managers most obvious flaw.

Bielsa is a hero for what he has done for this club. Can he adapt and move on? In two or three games I hope the doubts will have dissipated somewhat, but the murmurings of dissent could quickly turn into louder voices if we do not change things around pretty quickly .

What Leeds is going through, right now, is the biggest crisis in Bielsa’s time with us. It’s of course also his crisis. It’s about defending, and it’s about going forward. I have not seen us so disorganised the last three seasons. We are actually lucky to have two points after four matches, Everton being the only half-decent performance, while we were clearly over-matched by Burnley.

Again all very valid points BB.

Soopaloods doesn't seem to think Toon can hurt us?

I do agree with him that the Toon don't have Liverpool's quality all over the pitch, but the 2 lads you mentioned and their main striker Ellington or something will certainly cause us problems.

We beat them twice last season but in the game at Newcastle we certainly didn't have it all our way.

Thus far this season (incl. pre-season) we've just not performed like we did last season. They're is far less intensity, movement & pace to our play.

Without those elements in our game we look pretty average.

We also seem to take ages in moving the ball amongst our defenders, this allows the opponents to take up position and intervene with ease when the ball is finally played forward. This make us predictable and so easy to read, so Pool intercepted our forward balls time and again.

Also I do believe Philips perhaps tried to do too much against Liverpool.

Ttrying to make up for several of our players who apparently were on leave.

Still he was our stand-out player.

For the Newcastle game would like to see the following side out:

Meslier

Shacks Ayling Coops Dallas

Philips

James Klich Harrison

Raphina

Bamford

Liverpool were the better side and deserved to win.

Just a few points:-

1. For an international striker, Rodrigo's shot in the first few minutes was appalling. Even sitting on my sofa, when the ball was played to him, I could see the simpler finish was a cool stroke along the ground to the keeper's right and into the corner. That should have easily been a goal and the game could have changed.

2. Our final ball was piss poor and so was our decision-making. We seemed to treat the ball like a hot potato at times.

3. KP seemed to play as the No8 at times with Dallas as the No6/DCM. Please can KP get back to what he does best and play as the DCM/Pivot not the stupid position Southgate gives him for England to accommodate Rice.

4. Pascal red as NEVER as red. Ref should be ashamed, he waved play on after the challenge but Mr Moaning Jugern the German 'helped' change his mind. Even Origi on the subs bench could be clearly seen mouthing 'No Way' after the red was shown.

5. Newcastle will set up to hit us on the counter with the pace of Almiron and Saint-Maxim. Just hope MB has a plan to counter this.

For me, Phillips was the keystone that avoided a total rout. He was majestic at times, and Spiderboy had a really solid game after a shaky start. The rest of the players need to give themselves a real good slapping. The lack of class showed just how much we've been buying in the bargain basement for players. Orta has wasted millions that the club doesn't have, and to look for reinforcements in January is going to be tough.

I've always thought that Radrizanni was out of his depth, though wellmeaning and ambitious. He should remember that the dogs at the EFL will not let let us out of the Championship cage so easily again. It took the 'miracle' of Marcelo to free us. If we emulate the Blades and make the drop after one season, his value of LU will plunge. He is almost penniless in PL terms and would be wise to look for a rich suitor asap.

Re. the sending off, Bielsa must appeal to the FA! He cannot, as reported just say, he believes that the ref. should be in charge. If that is his, and the clubs stance, it will not do anything for player morale. Struijk, and the team, need to know that an unjust sending off will always be challenged.

i am ready but you can go next Soopa for my sake

I need to get myself on the list so if nobody else volunteers I'll do it.

who is next in MDT?

Good man Soopa, im uplifted by that.

We're SoopaLeeds an we are going to take 18 points from our next 6 games

Had time to digest that now.....

Conclusions - we have lost 2 games this season, both against big 6 and both played a top class 3 man front line. Our weakness comes in 2 areas for me

1) Fullback - Firpo needs time and he deserves that, Ayling has started badly. The reason this matters is because their job is to move alongside Phillips to make it a 3 in that part of the field but against real quality (Salah is a great example) they get pushed back and leave Phillips covering a wide void on his own.

2) 8 and 10 - Dallas is a decent cover, but not the 8 we need against the best. Klich seems to have fallen away as he passes 30. Rodrigo is just a square peg in a round hole.

The good news is we have played 2 other teams without that class front 3 and lost 0. That's because we're consistently good enough against the rank and file of this league.

My theory will be tested on Friday night because that's a team we did a double against last year and do not have a powerful front 3.

So with the midfield and why I said Phillips was not at his best. I Understand he has it in him to be better but...

When man marking and the player drags you 40 yards away from your position past 3 of your team mates and does not get the ball, the first time i understand you are following team orders. The second time in 5 minutes also somewhat understandable but when it happens the 4th time in a row allowing the space you left to be filled by their striker (which in Liverpools case a skillfull nippy false 9) thus forcing our CB to come out and cover and having the left back slide inside inturn to cover our CB (forcing the space open for liverpools most dangerous attacker) i call it League one game understanding. Keep in mind this how Cooper got his Yellow trying to get hold of Jota and again Llorente got his Yellow for the same reason.

When your position is CDM leaving a hole that big will always lead to major trouble. The same has happened in every game this season...

On the Dallas / Rodrigo position in CM. Shackleton, Jenkins and McCalmont plus former player Gotts could do a better job not to mention Klich. The really is not point in carrying 5 attacking players if there is no one in the middle to control the game.

We were well beaten and LiVARpool could have scored 8 if they had their shooting boots on.

Nobody will convince me that's a red card for Pascal, ffs he won the ball he didn't lunge in and if the ref gave that as a red why didn't Cooper get one about 10mins later under the Jack Charlton Stand for EXACTLY the same challenge, where's the consistency??

Cooper picked up a red card last season for a challenge against Chite (again won the ball) but somehow we lose a player. These Clubs have vasts sums of money at their disposal so how come the officials somehow seem to favour those very same clubs when it comes to decisions like this.

I wish Elliot well and no self respecting football fan would wish any harm on another but ffs its a contact sport you cant give red cards for stuff like this otherwise why isn't there red cards for defenders jumping with arms up and making contact with a strikers face? Is that not potentially endangering an opponent??

I can understand Klopps reaction as he wants to protect his player and if the shoe was on the other foot and i was manager id be on the pitch too especially when Salah reacted the way he did. But if you look back at the challenge nobody on the sideline was jumping up and down complaining about the tackle when it first took place.

The second goal was offside as mane was goalside of Mesiler and he moved left so did the defender on the line so was he interfering with play (3 yards in-front of the goal-line?? jezz do we really need answers to these questions??)

Our problems started down the left and this was never addressed Firpo was left to fend for himself as that's the "system" we play that's the way MB sets out his team, going forward we had limited ball but Rodders should have just slide the ball into the corner rather than power and straight down the keepers neck. As i always say the first goal in a leeds match in the PL will tell you how the game pans out and unfortunately we didnt get it yesterday, hopefully Friday night it will be different but theses next 6 PL games Barcodes(a), hammers(h), watford(h) saints(a) wolves(h) and norwich(a) will define our season. On paper ALL WINNABLE but we gotta pick up 10-12 points minimum to kickstart our season.

I personally thought KP was head and shoulders the best LUFC on the pitch and like Hasselbaink yesterday will be very surprised if we are able to hold onto him next season especially if we are languishing in 16-17th (or heaven forbid worse)

First things first Friday we go again

MOT

Agree about Firpo. Second rate so far compared to Gjanni - and on £150k pw!!

I felt only Phillips, Meslier and Bamford (for trying, for his movement and for that sublime chip) came out with any credit.

We were on the back foot as soon as Coops was booked for another wholly unnecessary challenge.

Just hope Koch's injury is healing fast as we're looking extremely threadbare at CB!

The top quality midfielders just aren't there at a price we can afford though. The Rodrigo de Paul rumour was fiction. The Erick Pulgar rumour was fiction. The Nahitan Nandez rumour was fiction. The Lewis O'Brien rumour may have had legs but the player was nowhere near good enough to be anywhere near our first team. I can't recall any genuine bids over the summer for players better than what we already have.

Midfield wasn't where we lost the match anyway. The second goal was a terrible set piece, we had six men defending the goal and they still scored. Salahs goal happened because Alexander Arnold was allowed to get in unmarked. Both were defensive errors. Rodrigo fluffed the goal attempt in the first half. And the red card was just bad refereeing. The third goal came in extra time when the match was already lost.

Can't agree with that at all Daniel, Philips was our best player and is about the only player who would get into that Liverpool side.

And yes at times he got higher up the pitch to chase players down, others stood by and watched (cfr Rodrigo).

Whilst Bamford wasn't exactly at his best, he wasn't that poor either (he hardly got any service and was up on his own against 4 defenders).

Rodrigo is a forward? To be frank, I'm not sure he even looks like a premiership player →fullstop! Certainly not at a whopping 28 Million GBP.

How he got/gets selected before Klich I don't understand, the same goes with Roberts the saviour.

Would this lad get into any other Premiership squad, let alone in the first 11?

Against Pool, both fullbacks were shxte, not all impressed with Firpo/Junior.

The latter half decent going forward, but pp at defending.

An upgrade on Alioski?

Ayling succeeded in passing more to a red shirt than towards a teammate.

At least Bill improved a bit when going to CB, helped out by Dallas.

Dallas at left back certainly wouldn't have lost out to Salah time after time.

As I said before in centre mid Dallas loses half of his qualities.

Both Harrison and even Raphina are good going forward, but neither can defend even if their lives depended on it → breaking up play is non-existent.

So yes there was/is no midfield to speak of, but that was not down to Philps.

We made a big mistake not signing a midfielder. Not having a pop at James, but was signing another winger really a priority?

It seems we are the opposite of the Blades last season. They relied on clean sheets and nicking a goal in their first season, we relied on scoring more than the opposition.

Their second season fell apart quite quickly because they conceded more and couldn’t get the one goal victories. With us it doesn’t look like we are capable of scoring the same amount of goals to counteract the ones we are conceding.

Banford had a blinder last season and anything less this season will mean less victories. We failed to strengthen up front and for a team that is reliant on attacking play so much that was negligent.

Apologies to pick on Roberts but if he is the answer then what is the question? If he is that far ahead of someone like Gelhardt then we are in trouble, because the U23’s will add nothing to our season and our squad looks thin.

1st Issues - there is no midfield.

Phillips performance was on par with his days in league one were he had no understanding of the game or positioning. He followed players all the way up to beside Bamford leaving a hole infront of defence which had the CB forced out to cover resulting in 2 yellow cards. Dallas was invisible in there as he also followed men into no man lands opening a hole in the middle. Rodrigo is a forward fullstop.

2nd Issue - Bamford was extremely poor today and offered nothing.

3rd issue - Why have both fullbacks stopped overlapping. It seems a clear game plan as both seem to sit more then last year. Also way to many long ball switches instead of simple FORWARD pass.