The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Friday 30th July)

Good Morning. It's Friday 30th July, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road

Leeds in race to land City ace

Various media outlets are linking Leeds will a move for Manchester City's midfielder Yangel Herrera. The talented Venezuelan International has many admirers having impressed whilst on loan with La Liga outfit Granada. The 23yo made 62 appearances, netting 5 times during his two year stay.

Herrera signed for the blue side of Manchester during the 2017 January transfer window, age just 17. Since then, he has spent almost all of his time on loan, enjoying successful stints at New York City, Huesca and finishing off with Granada. City value the defensive midfielder at 20m; rich pickings for someone who has never played for his own club before!

Atletico Madrid and West Ham are also in hot pursuit. Let's hope Bielsa can use his persuasive powers!

Leeds close in on Terriers talisman

Having missed out out on starlet Conor Gallagher, Leeds have immediately turned their attention to Huddersfield Town's prized asset Lewis O’Brien. The Colchester born midfielder rose through the ranks at the John Smith's Stadium to become not just a fans favourite but the first name on the team sheet.

The Terriers will want a substantial sum for the 22yo; unfortunately for the, he only has twelve months left on his contract though they do have the option to extend his contract by a further twelve months.

Talks between the local rivals are believed to be at the preliminary stage. Huddersfield fans have taken to social media to express their anger and dismay at potentially losing their talisman to their arch enemy!

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Morning Elland and all to come. There are so many stories linking us to so many players that I now just wait for an official announcement on the Leeds Utd site so I won't be putting my tuppence worth in regarding these stories. Non footy talk, but what a win and gutsy display from the Leeds Rhinos against a team and supporters I can't stand. Proud of the lads.

 

I wonder ……
On thisDay in 2017: Jack Harrison & Yangel Herrera lead #NYCFC to victory in a five-goal thriller at Historic Crew Stadium

 

Doesn't narrow it down Shaks who were they

Morning btw

 

Lewis O’Brian I mentioned a month ago but if Im honest I cant see it happening unless Bielsa has seen something he can change/improve. Bielsa normally says any player we bring in must be an improvement on what we have. Yes this kid could be better than what we have in the U23s but is he better than Dallas or Klich right now?

 

Very much doubt he's better than those two otherwise there'd be a lot more interest in him and he wouldn't still be playing for the Tesco bags.

 

They beat Hull 22 -12 Forza

 

Cheers Olof

 

I personally think who we have on board now. will go to war in our first month of action.
still got another month to search in the transfer window for who we need. but, obviously they will need time to learn the Beilsa way.
I don't think we have an urgency to sign anyone because we have enough to play with it's more of waiting and finding the right player and right deal.
Clubs now are starting to show their hands on who they want and don't. New players push other players back etc etc.
names will get thrown at us in every direction till Aug 31st.
Love to know how many we have been so called interested in by the media.
We have signed 1 player so the media are very close lol.
What will be, will be. 95% of these stories are complete jackanory. but their stories must be told nanananananaaaaa

 

ull

 

Morning all

I dread to think how many players we’ve been linked with yet signed just the one.

I’m okay with that but I’m going to put this out there, gone are Alioski, Pablo and Berardi from the first team, in we have just Firpo - That’s not a huge improvement some might argue we’re not stronger we’re a bit weaker.

Will we improve on last seasons position? For me we are relying on an awful lot of “Ifs” If Bamford scores as many, If Rodrigo shows what we hope he has, If Firpo is better than Alioski and settles quickly, If Bamford and other key players remain injury free….

As it stands 10th must be our realistic aim?

 

Although I haven’t seen Firpo play I’d assume Bielsa thinks he’s better than Alioski, so I’d say we’re slightly stronger, particularly with the emergence of Struijk.

Hernandez hardly featured and Berardi only had an end of season appearance, so not really weakened there.

As far as where we finish, you know what people are like. 10th will be seen as going backwards, 9th will be seen as stagnating, and 8th or above will be seen as progress. But to keep our better quality players we should be aiming for a European place. Otherwise in 12 months time we could have a new manager with a bit of rebuilding to do.

Fine lines.

 

We were fortunate last season with injuries, I know we had problems with Koch and Llorente but I don’t believe that affected results with Struijk and Cooper stepping up.

It’s another “if” though, if our central midfield players remain injury free then it doesn’t matter that we don’t have a “Pablo” replacement. I totally agree with you, we didn’t need Pablo or Berardi but that was because our important players managed to play most matches.

I’d take 10th with this team, I’m the same as you though, I’d fear that wouldn’t be enough to keep the best players in 12 months time. I just can’t see Firpo alone is going to be the difference between same again and top 6. Our depth is going to be Costa, Poveda, Shackleton and the U23s

 

Morning all

Like everyone else, I would take one or two more stellar signings (providing we can afford them), but that is exactly what they would have to be, stellar. If not, wait until the absolutely right signing is available.

Last season, my only hope was that we finish at least 4th from bottom or above and was realistic enough to think that could be the case for 2 or 3 seasons. Didn't even want to be a Norwich and hope for a bounce back, because that easily falls apart if you fail to get promoted straight back. The one thing Norwich right did was largely hold the squad together and try to evolve whilst understanding the odd Godfrey or Buendia may have to go to keep the money coming in. Compare this with Huddersfield who threw money at foreign imports, many of whom simply didn't work - they may never get back to the Premier League now and, in my humble opinion, would have had a far better chance if they had used the Norwich blueprint (runs a canny ship that Delia).

Our team were superb last season and (without fact checking) I would have a wager our form over the last 10 games was not far off Top 4 level? Why? Again, in my humble opinion, Llorente had his first proper run of the season and was one of our better players. Raphinha looked like one of the best players in the league. The team grew together as the new signings integrated. Players like Bamford, Dallas, Harrison looked like they evolved from giving every match our best shot to actually believing they should win every match.

Pablo was fantastic for Leeds but realistically waned 2 years ago. Berardi looked a yard slow in the Championship never mind the EPL and was decent at best. Alioski, lovely guy, immense effort, not a bad player but I will eat my hat if Firpo is not better all round. I think it was Phil Hay that wrote the plan has always been to gradually shed our Championship skin and this is part of the process.

My last thought on this is Gelhardt and taking him as being representative of the cream of the youngsters (so the same logic applies to the others). If we keep adding expensive signings they may never get the chance. Grealish started at Villa and is still there, same with Kane at Spurs (indeed, our very own Pirlo). They wouldn't be if no-one ever took the chance to let them play and grow.

 

Agree with much of Ristacs words and everything Marcos said, but I would add that we will be stronger than last season because when everyone is fit you will see a full bench of first teamers. Due to injury and suspension last season we had a bench full of kids.

Cooper was out injured twice and suspended, Phillips out suspended and injured too. llorente and Koch and indeed Rodrigo missed most of the season, so a lot of players, important players missing. If everyone is back fit we will more than likely see Koch, Klaesson, Dallas, Roberts, Costa, Poveda, Struijk on the bench

if we sign a midfielder expect to see Klich added to that bench and if we sign a winger expect to see him or Harrison on the bench too….

A much stringer team this season unless we lose half the team again

 

My

Part of me is excited about this season, for as you've noted, half the team were missing for protracted periods. Hopefully, we'll never get such injury problems of this magnitude again.

However ..... my concern for this season is Bamford. When people are discussing incomings, it's often forgotten that Bamford had the season of his life last season, and it's expected that he'll be equally as good, if not better this year. Big hope, & in some cases, a big assumption. What if he has an absolute stinker this season? What if he's out long-term injured? That's when you look at your bench & hide your face in your hands. Aside from our unproven u23s,we have Roberts & Rodrigo. Both can 'play' up top. But sadly, as we all know, Roberts has scored 1 in 10 since he came here, playing CF for most of his appearances. Rodrigo himself has declared that he's not a CF, & his goal-scoring record supports this. It's possible that Bielsa might wave his magic wand for Rodrigo, & who knows? Roberts? Well, Bielsa is still getting physio for his wand arm after the thrashing it took waving it at Roberts last season, & Roberts returned the compliment by rising to play a couple of 'ok' games at the end of the season.

So if Bamford is out for a protracted period through injury or form, who would you play instead - & what do you think the impact would be? (personally, I'd explore the u23 possibilities. I note with interest that the pre-season games have yet to feature Bamford. To me, that suggests that he's not fit enough for some reason, or more likely, Bielsa taking the opportunity to assess ALL of the replacement candidates, hopefully either finding a solution, or signing a striker).

 

If Bamford fires blanks we will probably see Rodrigo go up top and even though he says he isnt a CF he can clearly score goals. The chances this team will give him will see him take a lot of them. Rodrigo is different gravy and will score goals. Roberts scored one in 26 last season whereas Rodrigo scored 7 in 21 with most from the bench.

Pointless us buying a new CF because it would need to be agreed that he was starting and Bamford on the bench. So that would mean a £40m striker because nobody else would come as Bamford starts every game under Bielsa, so far. However when you have Gelhardt and Greenwood waiting you would hope they would get a chance at some stage. Heres hoping we get to see more of them over the next pre season games

 

If Bamford fires blanks we will probably see Rodrigo go up top and even though he says he isnt a CF he can clearly score goals. The chances this team will give him will see him take a lot of them. Rodrigo is different gravy and will score goals. Roberts scored one in 26 last season whereas Rodrigo scored 7 in 21 with most from the bench.

Pointless us buying a new CF because it would need to be agreed that he was starting and Bamford on the bench. So that would mean a £40m striker because nobody else would come as Bamford starts every game under Bielsa, so far. However when you have Gelhardt and Greenwood waiting you would hope they would get a chance at some stage. Heres hoping we get to see more of them over the next pre season games

 

I always felt Rodrigo was signed to be our first choice striker but Bamford threw a spanner in the works hitting the form that he did.

 

Looks like the U23s again at Fleetwood and maybe Lewis Bate too.