Well that was a chastening experience v Citeh! Best it is forgotten.
I did the League Cup MDT for the game v Arsenal earlier in the season, so no need to talk about them too much.
The Mighty Whites will be without Shackleton, Cooper, Koch, Firpo (suspended), Pascal, KP, Bamford, Rodrigo and James. Of the players who could play are Llorente, Roberts and Rafa who are one booking away from suspension. Tyler actually has 5 bookings but am sure 1 was in the League cup so does not count.
I fully understand why MB chooses to work with a small 18 man squad + the U23s. I do get it but this is now getting ridiculous! 9 first-team players out v Arsenal and that could be 11 players out v Liverpool.
Even worse, we do not know when any may return, apart from Firpo.
IMO It is time to stop putting square pegs in round holes. Ayling serves us better as a RB than CB so I would go with
Meslier
Ayling Cresswell Llorente Dallas
Forshaw Bate
Klitch
Rafa Roberts Harrison
Subs: KK, Drameh, McCarron, Hjelde, Jenkins, Sommerville, Greenwood, Geldhart, Dean,
Bate is in as part of a double pivot for his work rate, tenacity and passing. He can also run with the ball at pace helping the opposing team to start losing their defensive shape.
No prediction as all I hope for is a decent performance that restores pride in the Famous White shirt.
Yes Daniel, but Meslier in the first half was standing in a shooting gallery.
Don't know how many times this season we've hit the self-destruct button, it's not down to just one player. Glad I'm not alone to notice Klich effectiveness or rather the lack of when he's being asked to play deep(er).
Defending, tackling breaking up play is not his kind of thing.
Harrison has gone off the boil completely.
Stuol, better shape needed, getting players in their favoured position will settle us down. Still hope the upcoming games over the festive period will get postponed.
I think we can all definitely agree that too much was asked of the team against Man City and Arsenal... all being well we'll have a couple of bodies back for the Liverpool game which will give us a bit more organisation and a better shape,with a few players playing in their favoured positions.... 🙏
Anyone notice our young keeper giving Ayling a right mouth full a few times?
Forshaw was out of position for 2 goals. Also back passed into danger a couple of time.
Klich only start looking good when mover higher up into the 10 role.
Harrison playing way to deep.
Is it true Bamford and Struijk could be back against Liverpool?
Robertson red card and should be suspended unless the FA bail liverpoo
Apart from some wanker in west stand calling saka a racist slurs and an Arsenal fan in the kop that got a slap oh and that
ridiculous rashford and saka let the country down crap was a fantastic crowd performance
Don't gave a shxte about what commentators or the self declared experts say about us.
But I'm afraid we're clutching at straws when we think that the second half performance was something of a fightback.
Arsenal totaly took the foot off the gas, gave the ball away plenty and became to cocky/arrogant thinking they're better than what they actually are.
Did we forget that in the first half Meslier kept the score down, it could and should have been 6 or 7 by that time.
Plusses, yes Meslier (some great saves), Dallas who did put in a good shift and had to cope with a very good player and of course Joffy (not a lot of decent passes went his way), but still looks good player.
The mistakes we make have been there all season (even in preseason),
and are there for all to see in big numbers. Yesterday it was Forshaw & Roberts turn, on several other occasions Meslier saved the day.
Can't expect youngsters like Drameh & Summerville to take to Premiership in a heartbeat. That's a learning process, and to me it's rather unfair to them having to turn out for a team that's struggling.
Furthermore Drameh, as a defender makes the same sort of mistakes as he does with the U-23 (wrong side of his man, losing his man alltogether), only difference being in the Premiership it gets punishned more often.
Summerville, tries his best but he's so very lightweight, either runs into players (bounces yards of them), again difficult circumstances for the lad.
To me, both need to aquire much more gametime in lower leagues.
As for Greenwood, you can actually see he's got something about him.
Do agree that the combo of Ayling & Koch at CB looked very shaky, Harrison (before he got that knock) was again poor. Forshaw as Arsenal faded in the second half became more influential. Raph's trying a bit too much.
Klich had a very mixed game (the good, the bad & ugly), feel we used to get the best out of him when he played much higher up the pitch, which allowed him to get into the box more & get us some goals & assists. From deeper he's far less effective, runs out of steam and simply hasn't got the power to shoot from distance.
18 games played with 16pts on the board.
So we'll need to pick up at least 6-7 wins + a fair number of draws to get 40odd points.
For now, I somewhat hope that the Premiership gets suspended for a couple of weeks, allowing us to recoup some of the injured players and hopefully bring in a couple of signings (even loans would do) to raise the spirits and quality of the side.
Surely everyone can see it cannot be too difficult to improve on what we've got atm.
We simply can't afford to get relegated.
Plenty of players would go & at inflated prices.
Agreed 👍👍
Too many people are reading too much into our last 3 results.... We were unlucky not come away with a point against Chelsea with about half the 1st team missing,Were totally demolished by Man city with over half the 1st team missing and tonight we were beaten 4-1 by a team who only had 1 of their best players missing through bad discipline and we had almost a full team of senior players missing including almost our entire defence and of course our midfield general,one of our best wingers and our best striker...... and people expect us to compete,not even Bielsa can work wonders with that many influential players out ffs..... And as for Mr Neville and Mr Souness they should hang their heads in shame and make public apologies tomorrow..... They were totally out of line with what they were saying about us...... "Leeds are a shambles" " Leeds looked like they were playing in a school playground" ? That is total disrespect to Leeds Utd,Bielsa,the players on the pitch and the fans.... to be to the female presenter.... She was totally respectful of the fact we had so many players out injured and you see Beckford biting lip....but took it on the chin and told Souness "with all due respect,half of those players were makeshift players and it was men against boys" But that arrogant tw@t Souness still didn't back down... He has become public enemy number one with Leeds fans now 😐
There were some positives. We did ok in the second half, in fact we probably edged the second half. There were good performances by Meslier, Gelhardt and Dallas. Raphinha scored a beautiful penalty. Thought Summerville did well and doesn't look out of place in the first team. Also Greenwood, he wasn't on long but his temperament makes him look years older than he is, he comes across as very assured and has good technique. The more exposure the u23s get, the more they will grow. And we haven't seen Charlie Allen or Lewis Bate yet.
The disappointments - Koch was pretty dire, granted he shouldn't have been playing but I've yet to see a good game from him. The centre back partnership really didn't pay off. Roberts fluffed at least one shot on goal into the heavens and was guilty for the fourth goal, this was a game where he could/should have sparkled. Harrison - looks a shadow of the player we had on loan. Klich put some decent balls into the opposition box in the second half, but overall, he no longer performs over 90 mins.
We got beat, and the scoreline was emphatic, however the performance and fightback was a big improvement than against Man City. During the second half, I really thought we could get back into the game, and a lot of that was down to the energy of the u23s. I suspect we will also lose against Liverpool, but what doesn't kill us makes us stronger.
Never mind BB, at least it wasn't 7.
It will take another brave bloke to take on the next MDT.
Roberts had a bad day for Roberts which is saying something.
The only good thing about today is that Bielsa fully knows the fans are on his side.
Get the next game out of the way and hopefully things might pick up from there.
I'm quite optimistic after tonight. Yes. two experienced players made mistakes which turned into goals, but overall we put in some good performances for the whole 90 mins. How many teams in the PL would have kept battling away at 3-0 down? The new kids did well with Drameh, Somerville and Gelhardt showing potential for the PL.
I liked how MB gave 'pussy' Roberts a bollocking for whining about a knock and made him play the game out.
If we can get 2 or 3 regulars back, then Anfield is not a lost cause!
Congrats for the ref too, not even booking shxka for an assault on Raphina & then booking Joffy for far less???
How did Ben White not get booked for that pen offence?
Well done ref, be proud.
A quick few words about our youngsters, called upon in a very difficult time (it does not do them any favours).
But;
Joffy, he's got it all and is gonna be a star.
Summerville, (like others in our U-23 squad), not at all ready for the Premiership,
he's one that should go out on loan to a Championship club or abroad.
Drameh the same, looks decent enough going forward, but makes the same kind of mistakes that I've noticed with the U-23, loosing his man, marking the wrong side of his opponent.
As I've said before, not having a go the lad, but he's not ready.
Our recruitment departement needs to take a hard look at the positions and the type & qualities of the players it signs. Don't know how they select players, but why on earth do we seem to sign a majority of small & lightweight players?
Are we paying by weight?
Said it before, to me Roberts would probably make a decent futsal player, that's it. Can't blame him, but he's never gonna cut it at this level.
When MB's gone he'll never get into this side again, not even at Championship level.
Too much to ask. F*&^%&& Roberts again
Better half anyway and credit the fans - keeping on the chants.
Well done Joe - well done Raphinha
Please let's win a half at least 🤗
Hopefully the liverpool game will be called off for COVID, if not i dread to imagine what Salah the rest of the team might do!
Soopa, I for one have been worried for some time (pre-season to be honest).
But first & foremost we need our main players back and even then we'll need to gamble in the upcoming window to have something of a figthing chance.
Meslier keeping the score down, could already been 6 or 7.
This is dire guys. Defence at sixes, sevens and eight's (think we've broken the record), so much space given away.
Constantly covering the wrong side of their players so often.
Forshaw mistake handed them their first goal, but so much wrong that I don't know where to start.
Just terrible for any of our younger players to have to play in such games.
I respect those who have optimism left. I wish I had the same. There is real damage being done here, and not just losing matches, but season long goal difference, faith in Bielsa inside the club, and the youngsters everybody cried to be let loose are having their confidence smashed.
I cannot believe what I see from Klich - his fall from form and influence matches the team as a whole. We have 3 players worth keeping and they will ALL be reconsidering their futures - Meslier, Rapha and Phillips.
Oh dear! Didn’t think I’d agree with Neville but we are like an under 9s team chasing the ball.