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.

That red card was a disgrace, our player won the ball so how could it possibly be red. It didn't help either that Sky wouldn't show a replay of the incident - also a disgrace. Since when did the decision to award a red card come down to the severity of the injury!!

If we want to retain our premiership status then the Master needs to get a plan b. Man U and Liverpool showed that against our man to man system, its so easy to break down and score at ease. The pressure on the team to comply with this is enormous, ie for it to work you need to be at 100% all the time which is impossible. I'm afraid Rodrigo may as well be packed off back to Spain, I've given him enough chances and he consistently fails. Roberts continually adds nothing when he comes on.

It was clear after the first 15 minutes that the trouble was coming down the left hand side against Firpo but nothing changed with the system. How we only went in 1 down at halftime was primarily down to Liverpool's poor finishing!.

I think Gary Neville summed it up pretty well in that attacking forwards would love playing against Leeds as they get so much time on the ball as opposed to any other team, even Jimmy Ffloyd Hassalbeink agreed which about sums it up.

The game against the barcodes is massive on Friday.

Agree Ice, looks a freak inciden and I do feel very sorry for the lad.

Looks some player too.

Hope for a very speedy recovery for the lad, he's young so that will help.

The injury itself has no doubt influenced the ref in handing out the red card.

By the way, I understand Klopp's concern for his player, but should he be talking to the ref on the pitch about the challenge/injury?

it looks like freak accident to my

hope the guy recovery fast

As predicted a very long season (i'm afraid it will be a real slog/batlle) ahead.

Do hope we'll have just about enough, still amazed we didn't reinforce our engine room (do think we'll sign O'Brien in January, seems Forshaw has picked up another muscle strain).

Scoreline could have been anything really (2-8), as in pre-season we're being cut open with ease, both down the middle and more and more down the wings. We're leaving acres of space behind us, jury still out if Firpo really offers more than say Alioski?

Last season in most games we played as a unit and most players played out of their skin. As Danish points out, this time around we seem to be carying several passengers, with some players hitting their limit.

We need players like Rodrigo to stand up and perform, he didn't lack effort today, had a great chance at 0-0 but overall it just is not happening for him.

Bill had something of a mare today, passing & positioning off and his runs forward (overlapping) looking pretty limited.

Dallas in these kind of games being played down the middle doesn't do him any favours at all. It knocks off 50% of his influence.

Can't comprehend why Klich didn't get on at HT, really in all honesty, I fanthom why MB still thinks Roberts is the answer.

Not unlike Rodrigo he did not have a real stinker, but there is simply very little to no end product !

Danish, I share your concerns about Philps and Raphina, but I'm afraid we'll need to be realistic here.

Soopaleeds, we're now without 2 CB's injured, one suspended (sounds MB won't fight the red card). On top of that Forshaw has picked up a muscle injury.

Enoch, will be jumping with joy if we get 5 pts from our next 3 games.

Toon will cause us problems, feel the Bubble lads will challenge the top 4/5 this season.

we weren't bad in patches but got totally over run for 20 mins in the first half,could have been 3 or 4 down by half time.

Strujic sending off is a joke,they said it wasn't a VAR decision so how can the ref send someone off for an offense that he didn't even give a free kick for.Klopp was on the pitch in the refs ear right before he gave the red card.speedy recovery to Elliot,he looks like a hell of a player.

Any points we pick up against the top 6 is a bonus,its been a tough start to the season with Manure & Scousers in first 4 games,Newcastle,West Ham & Watford up next before the international break,hopefully we can pick up 6 or 7 points and our position won't look so bad.

Shite☹️

Indeed, Soopa. Looks like a long season for us. The enthusiasm of last season is missing, and the over-performing players from last year suddenly again look average. We’re not even close to the Manchester teams or Liverpool. Something has to happen if we are to keep Phillips and Raphinha. MOT

This is another bad day for us. Struijk desperately unlucky to be sent off, but a horrible injury for Elliot.

Another defeat, one CB injured and one suspended.

Long season for us......

We started off OKISH, then lost control and Pool showing they're the better side.

Could easily be 2-3 down. From our outfield players only Philips has proved himself up to the requiered standard. Dallas is kind of struggling to make his mark, Bill is having a bit of mare. Loosing the midfield battle dispite Philips, think we'll see Klich coming on for Rodrigo and Harrison will later be replaced by James.

Well very big call playing Rodrigo instead of Klich.

Time for Rodrigo to finally show what he's made off.

Can't believe we're not starting with James!

If he was good enough to start for Mancscum then he should be starting for us....

I know Bielsa will say he needs to be integrated into the team slowly but....

We've still got a good team out though and glad Rodrigo has another chance to impress....

W

so ralph can play

Be interesting to see the back 4 combination: Ayling, Cooper, Llorente, Strijuk, Koch, Dallas, Firpo - Something has to give. I guess potentially Dallas could take Rodrigo's position therefore leaving Firpo as the left back. Presumably Ayling will be on the right then you perm any 2 from 4.

It also could be that Dallas is left out of the side (harsh) and then Rapha fills in for Rodrigo and James goes out on the wing. I'm sure the master will conjure up some plan.

I do know that we will need to be on our A game to get anything out of this. We are a bit hit and miss after international breaks so we'll see what pans out. As mentioned before, it should be an absolute belter of an atmosphere!!.

Another classy MDT, hope you'll keep the run going Batty4!

On paper Scousers will have too much for us, should be a cracking atmosphere. Can't wait to see how MB will line us up with Raphina being available and our new lad.

Philips, our CB's and Meslier will have to be on top of their game!

REAL FOOTBALL IS BACK!!. Feck the internationals and England winning games v the might of Outer Mongolia and their 300 residents 25-0. I just cannot get excited about that.

Now with the Scousers on the horizon, my appetite is whetted and I can feel the butterflies in my tummy! This is what football is really about!!

International football has diluted itself by having so many meaningless games played. It no longer captivates the imagination of fans unless there is a major tournament being played.

Who is really interested in watching their international team play no-mark-ehstan, some country no-one would ever dream of visiting? Yet we have to play them and field a second/third team knowing we will still win 4-0.

Let the minnows play themselves for the right to join the big boys.

I hate international breaks!!!!

Score draw 2-2

good luck mate

2-1 Leeds win😏

Does anyone know why Dallas pulled out of the Norn Ireland squad and if he'll be available for us on Sunday?

17c, cloudy.

What is a cloud I hear you ask, I dont know is the answer.

Quality that Batty Lad.

After all the years playing lower league football it's bloody great to be the main game on Sunday. The world is watching Leeds United and I don't think I'm overstating it to say we are reshaping the way the world is thinking about football.

Attack attack attack, even the refs are rethinking things and letting the game flow more, all down to Leeds United is that.

Leeds 0 Liverpool 2

I would start with Andyl on the bench as he reckons he's better than Roberts.... can't disagree but if you come on and are c-rap you'll be getting the same stick 🤔😲🖕🥊

That’s not bad 1-1

Nice one mate. I hope your run goes on and on and on….

The new lad to come on and score the winner/equaliser/consolation.

Nice one Batty but with no mention to the possible weather conditions i feel your MDT is doomed to failure, hope im wrong but even if you had slipped in somewhere "the possibility of 6 feet of snow" would have sufficed the weather Gods and marching on to Newcastle friday week you would go.

Unfortunately we havent really settled into any sort of rhythm this season yet but its early days however with the fans back inside ER im hoping to hear the roars over here in the west of ireland. Like last year the first goal when leeds play seems to crucial, if they get it we could struggle to contain them and just watch all the flicks, knockdowns all work for them. But if we score first i can really see the crowd driving the team forward and who knows maybe just maybe our first 3 points of the season could be bagged.

Tough one to call and i certainly wont be putting this game in my football accumulator

Head says them by an odd goal

Heart has us sneaking it 1-0 and wild celebrations not only around Beeston but everywhere a leeds fan resides.

fingers , toes, everything crossed for this one

MOT

Great stuff Batty - I think this is a good a time as any to take this lot on, particularly with the list of injuries and possible suspensions.

James may start as a direct swap for Rapha if the rumours are true about the FIFA intervention?

I'll be boring and sit on the fence 2-2

FYI Caroline Wozniaki - Danish tennis player - you wouldn't kick her out of bed for eating biscuits........

Cracking MDT Bats!!

Good Luck

MOT

Quality MDT Batty boy.... 👍👏

I'd love James to start and push Raphinha inside to be our creative spark....

Head says a draw but going with my heart and a Hattrick Bamford goal in a tight 1-0 win.... got to watch it with a Liverpool supporting mate though so it could all kick off!