Good Morning. It's Thursday 17th December, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road Seven goal thriller at Elland Road Nobody can ever say that games involving Leeds Utd are ever boring, and even though mistakes were plentiful, forgiveness will be given when you witness the quality of the attacking. Goals from Bamford, Rodrigo, Dallas, Alioski and goal of the season contender from Harrison put the game beyond the Magpies reach, but only stretched their advantage in the last 13 minutes. Before this point Steve Bruce's men had scored from 50 percent of their on target chances. Leeds on the other hand recorded the most strike on goal from any Premiership team this season (25), with 10 being on target. The Whites have now scored 22 goals; looking at the Premiership table, you have to go all the way up to 6th place (Chelsea) to find a team that have scored more. Conceding has been Leeds problem this season, especially from set pieces, but is this a new problem? A staggering 37.14% of goals conceded came from dead ball situations last season. It did not matter so much last season as Leeds were able to outscore their opponents. If truth be known Leeds under Bielsa has never been good at defending set pieces! During Steve Bruce's presser he thought the Barcodes had matched Leeds for the first 78 minutes. Thoughts? please log in to view this image Post match reactions Leeds Manager - Marcelo Bielsa Newcastle Manager - Steve Bruce Hernandez is back, but for how long? Pablo Hernandez became the oldest player (35 yrs 249 days) to assist twice in a Premier League game for Leeds since Gordon Strachan (age 36) in November 1993 v Swindon. He was bought on by Bielsa with just eight minutes and injury time remaining. In that short amount of time the Spanish veteran set up the goals for Alioski and Harrison. Should Hernandez be starting games, and coming off after an hour, or would he have more impact from the bench? Have Leeds missed Hernandez over the past 6 games? please log in to view this image
Morning all... Steve Bruce needs medical assistance for his tunnel vision No Pablo should not be starting, he replaced Rodrigo who was instrumental in last nights win. If anyone feels Pablo should start please say in replace of who? I know Pablo got the assist on paper but it was Raphinha who set that up. Bielsa won’t change the man for man marking at set pieces so it’s always going to be a weakness. Ayling and Alioski were getting the finger pointing treatment for last nights concedes.
Morning all, Well that was disappointing. We need to sort out this defending. To give for goals away in two games is simply not good enough. We desperately need Koch or Llorente back to allow Ayling back into right back and to add a bit of height to the middle. Anyway, rant over. Well that was a bit good wasn't it? What a reaction from the last game. Respect to Bielsa for having faith in the same starting 11 to make amends for their last performance. When the team was announced Facebook/twitter exploded with leeds fans slating Bielsa and the players. Going back over the comments after the game really highlighted how fickle most fans are. This brings me to the pundits. There are very few good pundits out there these days. Neville and Carragher are very good for sky. The match of the day lot are mostly good but after that the quality goes down rapidly. They clearly don't research properly and most just trot out lazy comments ie- burnout or the Sherwood classic from last night "blown a basket already. " These people are being paid good money to say nothing more than we discuss on here today.
What we saw from Pablo last night is exactly what his role should be this season. Bring him on late in games either when we need a little bit of something special or someone to take control of the game and see it out.
Welcome back Matt I thought Newcastle were poor & we were the team that gifted two soft goals Definitely a penalty as Cooper has gone into the back of Wilson with no contact of the ball, thankfully we got away with that incident which may have made us nervous at 1-2 down, would have been a total injustice had the barcodes led for a 2nd time. Nice to have a bit of luck for a change! All those knockers who said Pablo is finished is complete rubbish, with the clock running down many players would have just cleared their lines, not Pablo he provided a great measured pass for Harrison to continue his run with Jack going on to score an absolute beauty! Hernandez also showed is composure not taking on the shot himself, no he plays in Alioski one of three Leeds players begging for the ball. Believe me Pablo will be pivotal in some of our games this season, he may not have the pace of his younger teammates however he is one of the elite in our squad possessing a football brain Great performance & we'll be fine, but I'm not getting carried away as our defence is a major concern!
Morning, Would've been a soft penalty had it been given. People saying it would have changed the game at 1-2 to Newcastle, well if Bamford's first goal at Palace had rightfully been allowed to stand that would also have changed the flow of the game and we'd more than likely gone on to win that - so kind of evens out.
That was a penalty without a doubt. No contact with the ball and kicked the attackers foot. Imagine your reaction if that had been their defender on Bamford and then decide whether you think it was a penalty or not.
Scrap VAR and the referees/linesman’s decisions, for both last night and Bamford’s goal at Palace, would have stood on both occasions. Fair for all.
The problem with var is it still comes down to human interpretation. Another ref would have looked at the replay and given the pen. The idea that var will eliminate errors is false. It is just giving referees twice the chance to make the wrong calls.
On the penalty, the ref as in the right position and saw what he saw. The ref didn't have a rear camera angle, he didn't have slow motion replay and he didn't have a gadget that circled the feet and then blew the picture inside the circle up. Therefore no penalty end of Pablo is 35 and not played much this season and in fairness last season. He is now an impact player off the bench unlike Roberts who hasn't had an impact on anything since last season and only twice even then. Last night Roberts came on and lost the ball resulting in almost conceding a goal. He had a gilt edged chance to score from in front of goal and tripped over his feet. Sorry but for me he needs to go elsewhere to save his career. What will Pablo be like next season? I think he may be sold or he may pack it in and go take over the club he part owns in Spain. If we survive this season both Roberts and Pablo will need to be moved along and replaced. Either Gelhardt or Greenwood would have been a mile better than Roberts last night. For those who say he is still a kid, yes I agree but at most 21his shelf life is waning and nowhere near as good as the 2 kids mentioned. Look at the 18yo kid Wolves signed, he is a handful, skilful and looks a top quality player. There are kids of 17,18,19 and 20 playing regular for Prem teams but Roberts isnt cutting it Last night Bamford didnt get a chance except for the one he scored. Really unusual that we had so many chances and he wasnt one if them. Rodrigo had 2 chances and failed but scored one nobody expected him to, a fantastic goal. Raphinah was gutted as he should have scored a hat trick and in fairness deserved at least 2 goals. Harrison scored one and made one but missed a chance and screwed up final balls all night. Bamford was brilliant as he spent a lot of time tracking back and getting big tackles in on the half way line. I believe Bielsa may be using Bamford and Rodrigo in tandem, so one to keep an eye on. Rodrigo and Bamford run their asses off
VAR is ruining the elation I used to get when Leeds scored, I'm now waiting for a replay to confirm the goal was legit. Terrible thing it is. Still, 5 goals and 5 different scorers but it wasn't easy viewing for most of the game. I thought Alioski gave the ball away too easily last night but he made up for it with his goal and his endless energy. Harrison was excellent, he gave their defence a torrid time and I was delighted he got his goal. And I will never second guess Bielsa (I've said that before), I was amazed that he stuck with the same starting 11, that's why he's a footballing genius and I'm not.
Anyone who is worried about us being relegated should look at some pointers from the season so far: Relegation favourites are Fulham, WBA, Sheff Utd, BHA & Burnley Leeds beat Everton Everton beat Leicester Leicester beat Leeds, Leeds beat Newcastle Newcastle beat WHU WHU beat Leeds So plenty of stupid results happening in the league but not for the teams at the bottom. In fairness to Burnley they have 2 games in hand but cannot see the other 4 from breaking away from the drop zone. Bamford has now scored more goals for Bielsa than any striker Bielsa’s had before. Llorente scored 34 goals for Bielsa at Olympique Bilbao and Bamford scored his 35th last night
I think the below statement sums up the difference in how Leeds can get results. Man City did what Leeds did last night but couldn't score because WBA parked the bus and had no tall strikers against a tall defence. If a team we play parks the bus it means they dont attack us so we concede less. We concede more when teams attack us like Chelsea and WHU last week and we fail to score. As long as we score goals against those teams that come to attack us like last night we will be fine and those who want to park the bus its a gamble for them but makes us fav to take at least a point As per FBRef, Leeds United players carried the ball progressively towards the Newcastle goal for a total of 1,979 yards last night. Newcastle didn’t even muster half of that at 776 yards. The figure is almost as high as the one-sided Man City game against West Brom on Tuesday, where Man City managed 2,295 yards and still only scored one goal.
That's how Pablo should be used. The man is a genius and although his legs might not be what they once were, his intelligence and composure shone through last night. He came on at the right time and just found the space and saw the game out just like he did at the end of last season. Bring him on after 70 minutes and watch him thrive. The youngsters must learn so much from him.
Only 5 times this season has a team had 25 shots or more in a game, Leeds have done it 3 of the five.
Llorente, Koch and a few other players congratulated each other and the team performance on Instagram and Twitter last night. Costa also took to social media to mention one of his “away from Football” friends and no mention of the Newcastle game. Bielsa was asked if Costa was injured as he hadn’t made the bench, Bielsa simply replied no he is not injured. I think this is the end of Costa in a Leeds shirt myself.