Guest breakfast debate 09/02/21

Leeds breeze past Palace.


Last night saw Leeds beat Palace 2-0 with goals from Jack Harrison & Patrick Bamford.

We have scored more against other team. Does anyone else think that was the easiest game we have had all season?

Palace offered very little threat and I found myself at no point worrying that we would not get the win. Would anybody have liked to have seen Ebereechi Ezi in a Leeds shirt. We were after him when he was at QPR, but wanted to move to move to another London clu


Klich/Raphinia/Harrison.


After much debate recently it was good to see Klich playing well again last night.
How good is Raphinia and if stories are true of Liverpool sniffing about then last night added another 5 million to his price tag.
Another goal from Harrison really compounds the fact that we have a bargain at 10 million. I have asked before what would a player with his goals and assists cost if we went into the market today?



Should have been 10?

Should the score line been greater? With the chances created and efforts taken we should have put Palace to the sword.
Bamford should have had a couple more, the one where he put the ball past Cahill himself was a gilt edged chance. Struijk, our CB, should have had an hat trick and will need to work on his 50p head. And the stats for us huitting the woodwork this season speak for themselves after striking it again last night.

 

Morning all....

Palace are very poor without Zaha, statistics back that up but they still needed beating. Dallas and Klich work better than Rodrigo and Klich against teams like Palace.

I think our slippery pitch hinders our style of play, teams trying to hit us on the counter are facing one way, our high fast press relies on sudden changes of direction.

Phillips being injured is a concern, not so much as in he needs replacing, more so I can see Struijk being the one to step in, Ayling moving to CB and.... you know the rest.

Our delivery of corners was spot on but the finishing and heading was poor, maybe Struijk needs a hair cut.

 

Good morning.

That's the most comfortable I've felt at 1-0 up for a long time.

I think we'll do well to keep hold of Raphinha for another season. We need him here to continue improving otherwise we'll need another equally good find just to stay still. At the start of the season I was hoping we'd get the better of teams like Burnley, West Brom, Fulham etc and stay up. Now I make us the favourites against most teams in the league with one condition... we need Phillips fit. He hasn't always been at his best this season but when he's not playing we look a completely different side.

I hope the slippy pitch the last couple of games has been more down to the weather than the turf itself. A bad pitch can be a bit of a leveller. It didn't matter last night but I think on a perfect pitch we play them off the park even more than we did yesterday, not to mention with the pace we play we're the ones likely to get injured on a slippy surface.

 

The Sky commentary team highlighted the importance of Phillips and Klich I think it was for the second goal (might have been Struijk).

The Palace guy had the ball in his own third, our guys were immediately man marking the two players who should have been the easier pass out, when I say man marking they were on their shoulders. Cooper was 10 yards further back ready to mop up any ball over the top.

This enabled our attackers to then press the man on the ball who was looking around for a pass that wasn’t on, we hustled the mistake and it lead to a goal. I’m guilty sometimes of knocking certain players but when ex pros point out things happening off the camera in regards to positioning and movement it’s a joy to watch.

Phillips is exceptional at making himself available and reading a game, yes he might get done for pace a few times but he plays a pivotal role in a Bielsa team and a lot of it is unnoticed off camera. Because he doesn’t do the stuff Raphinha does or he doesn’t run like Harrison he sometimes gets knocked for it.

 

If Phillips is going to be out I wouldn't put Struijk in to replace him as I believe we now have a settled CB pairing. We get more width with Ayling at RB, so who goes into the DM role. Shaks? Jenkins? Dallas? With Pablo back into the 10 spot

 

I think Shaks would be the answer. Plenty of energy and pace.

If my memory is correct did he not come on to replace Struijk early in the villa game in that role?

 

Think you’re right but I keep wondering why Bielsa has Jack Jenkins integrated into the first team bench now. He plays the DM role for the 23s and does a decent job quaterbacking but is he ready for the big step up? Shaks needs to do something to cement his place or I can see him not making it at Leeds. Seems to be sliding backwards like Davies

 

This. The 'water carriers' are always fair game for criticism. His passing was off yesterday, but some of that was after picking up a knock. Seems to get criticised for 'strolling', because of his running style. He's not perfect but there's a reason why a lot of clubs want him and he's won England caps. Not at his best yesterday and he certainly isn't above criticisim but some context required.

 

Struick is going to take some shifting from his starting spot,should have opened his goal account also, coops had a very good game as well...we seem to be strong in that position when llorente/Koch are back.
Raph not only has skill,vision and a bit of fire in him he also takes a better corner than kalvin! He is an absolute steal at the price and the "bigger" buzzards will certainly be sharpening their claws for a swoop,we must fend off the attack to show we mean to be here for the duration. he is shaping up to be a pivotal player for us.....as the song goes "the boys are back in town"

 

Yes agree Struijk will take some shifting, going about his game quietly, but making us forget about White, there's no bigger compliment.

 

Hadn’t thought of that, agreed and I’ve not seen a single comment anywhere here or on other forums with someone suggesting where we’d be if we had White

 

Have to agree re struijk. The lad’s done great at cb and has done a brilliant job of making us not notice we have two international centre halves missing. Actually to the contrary, we looked defensively frail with Koch playing.

Cooper was excellent yesterday

 

None of us knew if White could do it in the Prem and with BHA fighting relegation maybe he cant? I do however agree with Bielsa that he could.

Cooper
Struijk
Koch
Llorente
Cresswell
Casey

Not bad for a club that only had one CB season before last

 

Good Morning evertone from a snowy Bardsy could you show me the nhighlights Doc and I hope you have a swift recovery Matt

 

Morning all.
I was working last night so couldn't see the game. I heard bits on 5 live as I was driving but not as much as I'd have liked. When I got in I saw 2 mins highlights and the Paddy interview.
Looking at the 2nd goal, that was a great pass by Klich to Raph. Hopefully he's back.
I think the problem is that Klich is restricted when Rodrigo is playing. He likes to be everywhere and alongside Dallas he has the freedom/confidence to play his normal game. With Rodrigo being a similar player to him he has to be a bit more careful not to leave gaps in midfield.
I think it will come down to a choice between the two with Dallas. I think we'd miss Dallas in midfield now. He's an ideal CM, defends well and can get forward. I think he just needs to add some long passing and he's got the lot.
I liked the Paddy interview. He comes across as a really nice lad and it was interesting to hear what Bielsa asks of him.
He's the first defender, which takes it out of him so he can't do it for 90 minutes.
Gutted I missed the game but we should be targeting a European place now.
Come on Leeds.

 

Looks like were going to have to make a decision as to how we progress to the next stage.

1) Invest heavily again this summer to sign the 3 or 4 top quality players required.
2) Sell players at huge profits to invest and build the squad more slowly and sustainably.

My view is;

All the stars are perfectly aligned...we Have Radz & the 49ers, Kinnear, Orta, Bielsa, some great hot prospects in the Academy and it's therefore an opportunity that must not be wasted or passed up.

 

There you go mate

 

morning all having watched the match yesterday i was really impressed with the work ethic and togetherness the team has in overcoming opponents, Bielsa has a team now which is a joy to watch so rather than criticise, i tend just to watch and enjoy. Everyone can judge as is their right, but for me i know the manager knows full well what the restrictions are in his team and already has his desired players identified for next season. for this season I'm very happy with the magic carpet ride he has provided long suffering fans, and under his leadership we will see Leeds become the force it once was in the premier league once again

 

Paddy Bamford has scored 13 goals and got 5 assists so far this season. His record is way better than last season however Paddy has had more shots than anyone in the top 20 scorers chart, 65 with a 52% shots on target. But hes bottom of the top 20 for conversions at 18% whilst Salah is on 16 goals from 35 shots and a 30% success rate. So well done Paddy but just wish sometimes like last night you were hitting the target more, you would have had a hat-trick again

 

Just watched the highlights briefly again, in particular the goals............
You may remember me posting a little while ago that i was concerned that Rodrigo and Raphinha did not seem to pass the ball to Bamford!!!
Well when Bamford scored the second goal last night, his 12th of the season Raphinha did not celebrate or congratulate him, is there a rift there? maybe a bust up?? some jealousy?? if there is Mr. Bielsa needs to intervein very quickly and have them in the office together, get it sorted big time.