1st May at 3pm the mighty whites travel to the Amex Stadium to take on BHA. With that horrific April fixture list behind us we head down south unbeaten in six games and sitting 9th in the table.
Life is good
Saturday's fixture will be the 47th game between these two sides Brighton won 17 Leeds won 18 and there have been 11 draws down through the years.
This will be only the second premier league game where the home side took the 3 points at ER back in January following a Neal Maupay goal
6 other top flight games have been played since the first one on 13th October 1979 0-0 draw and the record books show Brighton with 2 wins Leeds 2 wins and 2 Draws, so nothing much between us.
Celebrity Brighton Fans (couldn't find many if im honest)
Des Lynam - Legendary TV Sports Presenter
Normon Cook (aka Fat Boy Slim) - DJ
Jamie Theakston - TV and Radio Presenter
Looking into my crystal ball i forsee overcast conditions for Saturday temp of 11.32453245632452523 deg C
wind 17.5667452352453434 mph
Southerly brezze with possible gusts of 23.5674563452523525mph
between the hours of 15:00 and 17:00 we are looking at 3.000000234563453245mm of rain fall so have a brolly close at hand
1010.1010101010101010101010101010mb pressure - very strange to have such a binary reading but next Saturday afternoon is going to be different in so many ways
No doubt Ben White will be mentioned a few times by the commentators and the part he played in getting leeds promoted, but brighton's points tally from the month of April is just 2 from a possible 12 albeit they took a point from Chelsea and Everton their loss to Manure and most recently against the blunts have them hovering in 17th spot (7 points ahead of Fulham and with a 12 goal superior difference its almost worth an extra point at this stage in the season). Potter will have them primed up after his claim about not selling any of his players to another relegation threatened side.
NEWSFLASH TO THE SEAGULLS
LEEDS ARE SAFE AND CANT BE RELEGATED
Knowing the Bucket God we will more than likely go with the same starting xi but hopefully rapha will be back and fingers crossed poveda gets the nod over Costa but i cant see that happening
they will be fighting hard for anything they can get and if they even pick up a point that wont be a disaster from them, but neck on the block im going for
3-0 leeds if Rapha plays
if not
1 nil with header from paddy off a 53 min corner
2 yellow cards each
What do ye think of my new tie??????
MOT
I think putting the young lads in now is far better for them with no baying crowd. Nerves would be far greater in front of a full stadium.
we were really poor saturday lads but by now you will have all seen the game. Potter had his homework done (as i would have expected) but without Rapha we are really limited going forward. To loose Kalvin was the death nail and id say the players knew that going out, if we were 3 down at half time we really counldnt have complained it was that poor..
But im not going to slate any of the players they have given so much to LUFC cause this season (and last) they just had a collective off day it happens, draw a line in the sand and move on.
Spurs now tho after Bales hattrick are bang in form and while there chances of making a CL spot is slime they still have a chance and are scoring for fun, so it could be another difficult day for us next time out.
I agree adding a few of the U23's to the first team bench/team would be great its a massive step up and MB must consider throwing a young lad on only for him to be ripped apart on tv cameras (globally) may not be the best for that lads development. I think we should introduce a young lad but only when the team is settled and in a comfortable position in a game, and right now even our "seasoned" professionals are being exposed in our 1 on 1 style of play ,so they cant offer any sort of "cover" to a young lad as well.
Onwards and upwards lads
It was an honour and a pleasure to have had a few games in the MDT chair, best of luck to manxwhite in the new chapter.
MOT
Dire Game. We did not turn up.
Bull, great run though. So sorry it had to end like this.
Despite the brilliance of our manager he has a real stubbornness in not changing certain players when they are not performing/not good enough.
I agree with all the comments above about Alioski. I’d love to see Geldhart instead of Roberts, who IMO, is not part of our future. When Paddy is off form or needs a break we have no one currently able to slot into his position. Why not try Greenwood? Maybe the manager has a master plan in the Summer. If he didn’t play them against Brighton then when? It seems an ideal time to try different players. Will be a shame if we lose all the potential of the U23’s.
Indeed Danish, squadwise there are some fairly easy and obvious improvements to be made.
First and foremost the need for a proper left back, in a fair number of games Alioski has come up short (to say the least). To be fair it's not his real position, but even then, for all his efforts/running and stamina, I don't know if he, even as a wing-back/winger would get a start in a lot of Premiership teams.
Results when Philips isn't in the team speak for volumes.
At the very least we should be looking at a decent back-up for his position (remains to be seen if Forshaw after such a long will ever again get back to his best, + the fact the Premiership is a serious step-up).
In terms of creativity we're clearly struggling, such a pity that Pablo no longer seems to have what it takes (age has caught up with him?) and Klich had a very good start to the season but has faded really badly.
So in terms of creativity we need help in the engine room, someone like Koopmeiners or De Paul as playmakers?
Would also recommend looking at another striker, Patrick obviously has had a fantastic season. But when he's not at it, there is very little to fall back on.
Rodrigo has been unlucky with injuries, but has also been a major disappointment, just looks so lost out on the pitch. Looks like he has not got a clue where to play, when to chase/track back/ when to run into channels...
TC10, the lads you mention should be given more of a chance to show if they can make the next step.
Poveda was perhaps well up for it, but he's so lightweight and frail.
Fair enough, they were doubling up on him and his opponents were giants.
One last thing about Alioski, if he's going? Why does MB continue to select him. If he hasn't got a left-back good enough to start (Davis, Huggins?), MB could start with Dallas, which would open up a spot for one of the youngsters.
Wasn't able to watch as the boy was playing. Went out of our way to turn off phones, Talksport in car etc to watch 'as if live' on our return.... switched on Amazon Prime and you can't see the replay til tomorrow fkn morning and obviously couldn't wait that long !!
The only slight gripe I have is that we've lost with the same players playing.... we STILL don't know if Geldhart, Greenwood, Pavlova, Summerville etc can cut it at this standard. They're hardly going to be played in a match next season without knowing....
To maybe totally contradict myself, it shows Radz that our Championship players can only be squad players at the very maximum and we need to buy....
Looks like MOTD will suffice.... sounds like I didn't miss much anyway!!
Ayling hasn’t had a worse game than this, but otherwise he’s been consistently strong. Klich started this season well, but will he ever reach his old level again? Three definite and easy fixes for next season: Roberts is nowhere fast, tricky nor dangerous enough; Alioski is constantly on the wrong side of his direct opponent (and doesn’t master the Ayling flop..); and Rodrigo doesn‘t seem to bother.
I think Poveda was up for it but only got a half. Should start next game. Poor show & lucky we only lost by 2
Boring and after the first goal almost predictable. Don't think we've played worse this season with not one player up for it, most went missing. Absolutely no creativity anywhere on the field and shows just how average we can be without Kalvin and Raf.
Hope this isn't a dead rubber situation for the rest of the season, although I know MB wouldn't allow it.
Time to blood the youngsters who will be keen!
Toothless performance.
We started very poorly with some slack and off the pace defending.
Feel we never really got going.
Midfield was left unbalanced.
Koch looking rusty and out of sorts (in terms of a midfieldplayer he looked very limited and a one gear player).
Roberts & Klich hardly ever got involved.
Klich simply hasn't got the qualities to be handed a man-marking job.
Harrison was off his game too and most of his crosses & setpieces were just awful!
This left us with our best midfielder (Dallas) being out wide, thus missing his movement, workrate and creativity in the center of midfield.
In defence Alioski just had a mare and gave away a stupid and soft pen.
Up front, Patrick was isolated with very little support.
I know we missed Raph and Philips, but on this performance we absolutely need to get in some better players.
Not sure about Rodrigo, returning after injury is never easy, but his body language...
Really can't see a major/clear role for him in our side, his price-tag doesn't help matters.
A very poor performance overall, but it's what we do! So many players looked worn out in the second half. Maybe too much 'murder ball'.
Our midfield is generally always missing, and this will have to be rectified in the summer, if we are to progress next season.
Full marks to Potter! He plays a good game and if his team could shoot, we'd have got really stuffed today.
Very poor. Wouldn’t know where to start. On a 1-10 scale, maybe Meslier and Koch deserved a 6..?
Brighton now have what they deserve :-(
Leeds poor, very very poor today
Yep. We have lacked any form, energy or class.
Cue the barrage of "run out of steam" reports
How we are only 1 goal behind is a mystery, Brighton are too well organised today and deserve to be in front.
done
Move dallas lb,poveda or pablo rw?
Missing Raphinha more in the sense he's the only player who can unlock a defence with the ball at feet
we are missing Philps a lot
Lame first half. Missing any cutting edge or trickery - one dimensional passing, which is easily read.
Dallas good on corners.
Alioski ready for the departure lounge, thanks for the memories - look forward to signing a proper left back.
Let’s see... the natural change would be Poveda on for Alioski, and then play Dallas at left back. Come on Leeds.
Ffs
They are all over us
Come on Leeds
Hesgoal.
Anyone got a link for today's game?
Phillips injured, koch is in and klich for Costa and not poveda
Great MDT Bull and congratulations on a fantastic run of results👍
Keep it going til the end of the season bud and you may just see us marching all the way into Europe next season!
I think we may struggle for a little bit of creativity today with our injuries, so I’m going for a narrow 1-0 Leeds victory.
Cooome On you Mighty Whites💙💛
Twitter rumour-Kalvin is out with a dead leg
Twitter rumour-Kalvin is out with a dead
Great MDT mate.keep on the good work.3-0 Leeds win
Im really hoping we come out all guns blazing and attack this lot from the off.
But after the April teams / fixtures we have had "getting up for Brighton" could prove to be Marcelo's biggest hurdle.
If i could add my to'pence worth id be resurrecting Karen Carney's comments from earlier in the year when she accused the players of not being able to complete a season without a break.
Jezz im still boiling over that, for a "pundit" to come out with such a statement is either pure spitefulness or just simple laziness but either way i think its something we can use to our advantage this weekend
WEATHER UPDATE
wind
MOSTLY NORTHERLY NOW but only 4.23472358926348263826 mph
Rain
between the hours of 15:00 and 17:00 we are looking at 1.10002456688795mm of rain fall so much lower than originally expected
You are bang upto date
MOT
Rafa out for the Brighton game but Rodrigo now fit although only likely to be on bench.
With Costa a doubt I would love to see Poveda and Summerville given minutes on the right but MB will know what is best.
Its been a wonderful 1st season back in the Prem, more than we could have ever hoped for and relatively free fron the anguish of every week asking the question "will we, can we" avoid a relagation/promotion battle this season. All hail the mighty wizard MB.... (Honoury Knighthood please)
Brighton on the other hand "our relegation rivals" are scrapping and last time out against us played without fear in a similar style to us. That said they'll be no match for us this time round and if Raf is fit he'll destroy them.
3-0 to the Mighty Whites , Raf with a couple and Hatrick from close in.
PS- hopefully some of the prospects get a chance to experience the game from the pitch!
MOT
SIR BULL, has a ring to it , snarf snarf.
Well done Sir
We owe this lot one, I think we will do it too, 2-0 Leeds.
7th spot is for the new European Conference League which is countries not high up in UEFA rankings with just 1 team from the top 16 Europe leagues. Most teams then would be L1/L2 standard so it would be a chance for our U23s to gain experience mixed with first team players not getting game time.
Bull, you have ridden a proper 6 game streak !!
5 points out of those last 3 have kept the European (dream/nightmare) alive. I would like to see a sub appearance from either Gelhardt, Greenwood or Summerville in this game, but I'm not worried if Bielsa chooses to go unchanged either - In that man I trust.
As for this, I'm going on the principle we rarely get tricked twice by the same team so we'll be good value for a 2-0 win.
Awesome stuff mate, what a run.
Unlike Bri the only Europe I want is a holiday later in the year! We‘ll need to concentrate on maintaining our position next year as a minimum, a Europa League campaign will be a major distraction from that.
Please Mr Bielsa can we have at least a small cameo from one or two U23’s?
well how would have thought it
i again managed to gloss sorry read it all again
1-1
Great MDT again Bull
Keep he run going!! 7th spot in the table up for grabs and that could be enough for European qualification!
Time to be a legend.
now for the easy teams!!
I hear ya TC and im sure MB and the players will want to try and win every point they can from now till the end of the season but they are all only human afterall and "getting up" for a liverpool, man city, manure game is a lot easier than for a brighton, WBA, Burnley fixture, but anything from here on in a bonus and overall its a season all LUFC can look back on with a certain amount of pride and admiration.
I would like tho to see what others in the LUFC squads can bring to the table, tbf we have a reasonable idea what our best 16 players do offer (some we feel are already at their max and unfortunately thats not going to make us as a Club push on from our 1st season back in the big time).
If we give chances to some of the fringe players maybe come July Marcelo can go to the board and say we need one or two more new players to maintain our PL status for another year and with some more improvement we can try and better "mid-table" but consolidation in this league is paramount. If we dont bring in new faces / fresh legs we may not be in a position to maintain our high press high tempo style and wins could prove difficult to notch up.
Im delighted with the season and if we can finish 8-11th this year i think it will have exceeded most fans realistic expectations starting off last Aug.
MOT
Quality MDT Bull and a remarkable run of results considering the fixtures 👏👏👏👏.... now for the easy teams!!
We HAVE to drop Costa and Roberts and play Poveda and give Summerville a run out just to see what they can do.... they can't give any less surely and our style of play will be already drummed into them.
Raphinha to play if fit though hopefully....
I'm going for a positive 2-1 victory with a Hattrick Bamford brace in our quest for Europe!!