The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Mon 22nd June)

Good Morning. It's Monday 22nd June, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road


Bluebird curse strikes again

Leeds missed the chance to go back to the top of the Championship, and go ten points clear of third place Fulham as the Bluebirds made the Whites pay for individual mistakes.

Leeds have not won against Cardiff City since 2016; even when Bielsa's side were three goals to the good just before Christmas, somehow they managed they avoided victory.

As far as the stats go, Leeds dominated the game in every department except the one that really mattered. They were made to pay for their complacency in front of goal ten minutes before half time when a stay pass from Phillips was intercepted by Hoilett. The 30yo ran twenty yards before dispatching the ball into the roof of the net from the edge of the area.

Having watched the reply again and again, the Leeds defenders could have done a lot better in closing the Canadian International down.

Leeds should have been level in injury time. Roberts pass found Harrison, who struck the ball cleanly from 12 yards, only for Bamford to get in the way on the goal time and prevent Leeds from going in at half time level.

Roberts almost levelled on the hour mark. Phillips pinpoint cross was nodded down by Bamford to the right hand corner of the Cardiff goal mouth, only for Bluebirds Alex Smithies to perform heroics by managing to block Tyler Roberts from netting from two yards out.

Cardiff doubled their lead 20 minutes from time after Coopers pass was intercepted by Mendez-Laing who crossed the ball to Glatzel on the edge of the area. The former Bundesliga 2 forward took a touch before half volleying the ball past a helpless Meslier.

The Cardiff duo had only been on the field for five minutes when they put the game to bed.

Is Bielsa's use of substitutes poor, compared to other teams?

Do Leeds need plan B to get promoted?

Bielsa's post match press conference

A clearly frustrated Bielsa discusses errors, fitness and chances missed. Interestingly the Argentine said it’s not a normal game to concede twice from two mistakes. Where was he when during our previous eight defeats?

He also felt Leeds should and could have created more chances, been more accurate with crosses but overall felt his players ran well considering the break from action.

Weren't we led to believe our our players were in the top condition?

If you were in charge of the Fulham game.

Let's say Bielsa had to attend to a family emergency back in Argentina, and he placed you in charge of the Fulham game.

What changed would you make to the starting line up?

Would you play a different formation?

What about use of substitutes?

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Morning all..

Someone on Twitter pointed out that Cardiff have had 5 shots on target against Leeds this season and all 5 have gone in.

If we were going to win one of our two opening games the Fulham game is far more important but now we’ve heaped pressure on ourselves.

At this moment in time I don’t care if we go up in second place so I’m hoping WBA beat Brentford or we’ll have two teams to worry about.

We were the fitter team by a long way, my other concern is how much other teams will catch that fitness level up, it was our chance to steal a few points early on and poor finishing, good goalkeeping and individual errors cost us.

I noticed too watching the game how close we nearly misplaced a pass across the goal face. There were a few nervy passes at the back, on at least three occasions my heart sank as I thought the pass was too close to a Cardiff attacker.

We knew before a ball was kicked that drink breaks and extra subs would hamper us more than many other teams

 

Good morning,

If before the weekend someone had told me we'd be no closer to third, with one game less to play and one of our most difficult games out of the way I'd have settled for that. Yes it was a missed opportunity but luckily with other results going our way we're not too much worse off.

On the one hand it's nice to see us dominate a game again, we take that for granted now but I'd bet in all hundred years of Leeds history we've never dominated the possession, territory, shots, corners etc in the way we have this year and it's likely we'll never see it again.

On the other hand it's still concerning that we can do all that and not really look like scoring. Bamford has fluffed a few chances this year but I think most of the time it's the final pass not getting there rather than the actual shooting.

Other than Hernandez going back in when he recovers I'm not really sure what else we can do with the current squad. We seem to have the same problem no matter who plays.

 

Morning all. Nothing new to report here. Lest face it, most teams Ive watched in last week are clearly out of sorts after the break. Poor passing, defending, shooting etc., were no different. Liverpool were awful yesterday. I wouldn't read too much into first game but we badly need Pablo as always. Seldom look great without him

 

Morning all.

We handed that to Cardiff on a plate. We were the better team, fitter and playing good football. Two incredibly stupid mistakes let us down.

There is a marked difference on twitter in people's reactions to Phillips mistake and Bamford unluckily stopping the ball on the line.

Philips the golden boy is getting a kiss, cuddle and a there there. Bamford is, as usual, receiving a lot of hate. Guess it pays to be the golden child.

Next weekend could be season defining. 1st v 4th and 2nd v 3rd. Potential of a 10 point gap opening up. I don't like using this phrase but Fulham game is must win now.

 

Just my take... We’re a better team with Phillips but he had a bit of a stinker yesterday. His pass got us in trouble for the first but White was poor defending it and our keeper should have done better, three errors with the one by Phillips the most costly. The second we conceded was probably a worse pass.

It wasn’t the error that concerned me with Phillips, it was the lack in quality of his set pieces and how easily he started losing his head. He did a few okay passes, a few good tackles but in general he was below par a bit more than those around him.

I’ve defended Bamford all season but his lack of quality shone through yesterday. The shot he blocked, there was no need for it, he is a striker, he should be aware of where there keeper was, if he’d jumped or avoided the ball it would have went in. He wouldn’t have touched it so wouldn’t have been offside.

Instead he tried to “steal” the goal going for a fancy flick. There was another chance when he kicked at an open goal and missed the ball completely. He looked the least fit, he hardly tracked back, he never held the ball up, he was a passenger.

I know he has 12 goals but if we’d have had a striker of the quality on offer at West Brom, Brentford or Fulham our three nearest rivals we’d have had double or more from our front man and we’d be champions already

 

We could furlough Bamford?

 

I’ve heard they kept the grass long (I sound like dean smith) probably didn’t water it... all fair game to help play to your strengths and nullify the opposition. But it might account for some of the sloppiness, ball getting stuck under the foot, underhit passes etc.

we have a terrible record in coming from behind this season... which really just demonstrates that our system which is great Generally, isn’t so good for breaking down packed defences.

To be fair that’s hard for most teams, unless you have top level players at your disposal in the final third. We slag our crossing off and whilst it could certainly be better, we have no ‘target’ man and are regularly trying to thread the eye of the needle.

We need Matt smith on the subs bench for games like this if we go behind! Not the bielsa way.

 

I had one big concern regarding Phillips mistake yesterday.
Ok, it was a silly pass to make. But once he realised what he had done there seemed to be a lack of busting a gut to get back and help rectify it.
Yeah the defenders should have done better but Philips should have been desperate to get back but it didn't seem like it.

 

Forgetting the performance and result for a moment let's look forward.

We are all 7 points clear of third with now one less game for them to catch us.
The top four play each other next week.
The players will be sharper for playing a competitive match, something that clearly lacking yesterday.
This will have been a wake up call for everyone at the club and I think we will come into our next game stronger for it.

 

Morning fellow sufferers

Still gutted after yesterday, but thankful the seven point gap is still their with a game less to play, I like everyone else, was worried about this game, our two main bogey items, (Cardiff & Harris) so always feared the worst.
Must not lose against Fulham, and a Brentford poor run is what we need now just to cover ourselves, for promotion to the promised land is in our own hands and ours to lose, it surely can’t happen again can it ? but this is Leeds were talking about, and I won’t be counting our chickens before it’s a mathematically impossible for us not to go up.
In the meantime it’s a case of, biting our fingernails,higher blood pressure, sweating brows, hiding behind the sofa and looking over our shoulder, in other words just the usual emotions of being a Leeds fan.
MOT everyone just eight games to go.

 

Morning troops.

We are still too reluctant to have a pop from outside the area.

Both Cardiff goals yesterday were good hits from 20 yards - at the 18 yard line we re constantly trying to play a short diagonal to Harrison or Costa so they can cross within the 6 yard box for a tap in. If I can see this, so can every manager in the Championship. Too predictable, we need to vary our attacks more.

 

Brentford are a better side than Fulham - and Wba in my opinion and they don’t have the toughest run in on paper, but they seem to have regular slip ups. They certainly could put a run together though if we slip up.

I’ve read some nonsense about us not being good enough, but we outplayed Brentford twice, had the better of West Brom.

We’re the best side in the division and if we don’t go up it’ll be because we choked like last year, not because the football isn’t good enough.

 

Morning sparks, fancy your chances for that last play off spot?

Really disciplined performance from you lot. Got a foot hold and dug the trenches.

 

Your football is good, but it doesn't vary enough. It seeems to be set up in a set pattern that is pretty consistent and can be countered.

You shouldn't pay any opposition too much respect, but you need to find a way to win games under different crcumstances.

Having said that, it would be a travesty if you fail to win one of the auto spots.

 

Morning Milkshake. It's down to us both now.

You should take a top 2 spot no problem, and if we can get a result at Preston next weekend then I do fancy us for a top 6 finish.

 

Morning all.

Wasn't yesterday great ?

After being bored witless for months we finally got back on the field and now have some football issues to discuss. Ok seems most of us, as usual, have differing opinions but that's what the forum should be all about, football and where did it all go wrong/right.

Having slept on it my view is that without those 2 individual mistakes from Phillips and Cooper then Cardiff are never scoring in a million years. Which means we wouldn't lose the game and even though we were a little sluggish we actually played not too bad, just not fully up to speed yet. Obviously we did make those mistakes and we did lose the game, but hey ho that's the ying and yang of football.

If we lose to Fulham next weekend and Brentford win as well we'd still be 4 and 5 points in front of them respectively with easier games on paper to come for the final 7 matches. If that happens then we really need to all pull together both on and off the pitch and support the players as that's when they would need it the most. We can't support them in the stadiums, so social media and forums etc are the only methods available to us at the moment. Why be overly critical and negative when it can only be detrimental the team, unless you think that well constructed criticism will have the desired effect and improve performances ?

Brilliant to be back and loving football again.

 

Klich and pablo are our two main good strikers of the ball outside the area. Klich was given no room by a packed cardiff defence they knew his game. Without pablo we have no class and i must question why he is injured he should be wrapped in cotton wool not trained to death.

 

If we were given the same two opportunities that Cardiff had, would we have put them away?

 

We need to get teams guessing from the outset. Teams have analysed our play so we need to change, Bielsa is the best thing since O’Leary BUT he needs to dig deep and get the opposition guessing a bit, didn’t he state that things were going to be different!! well from my armchair I couldn’t spot it, could any of you?
Said it many times, will say it again change Costa and Harrison wings, or even start Poveda on the right and Costa on the left.
Philips taking a corner reminds me of Kane taking them for England, sorry not effective..... change it.
Bamford.... put on the bench and play who ever there, can’t be any worse ffs.
I specifically watched Cooper and listening for his rally cries of encouragement and direction...... nothing, he is not a captain and not good enough, simple.
I have read many comments this morning and if we have to depend on Hernandez, a player who is well into his 30’s then we are in a poor place.
Hold tight the ride is going to get bumpier, oh and fingers crossed.
MOT