Thought it would be a good idea to allow people to keep up to date with our U23 sqaud after their superlative season last year. Most games are free to watch on-line, well the first half anyway on LUTV and some streams available, and then worst case scenario if you live miles away there are regular updates from all the usual places, especially Joe Urquart and this season Bryn is with LUTV...... Always a good way with Bielsa to keep your eyes on certain tactics and up and coming players who break into the first team August 19th Milwall H 1pm 26th Ipswich A 7pm Sept 1st Bristol City H 2pm 9th Palace A 1pm 16th Watford H 7pm 20th Hull City A 7pm 30th Crewe H 1pm Oct 4th Birmingham H 1;30 18th Birmingham A 1:30 28th Burnley H 7pm Nov 4th Forest A 7pm 15th Barnsley H 12:00 25th Wigan A 7pm Dec 2nd Sheff Utd H 12:00 9th Sheff Wed H 12:00 16th Bolton A 7pm Jan 6th Hull City H 12:00 13th Crewe A 1pm 20th Birmingham H 12:00 Feb 3rd Sheff Wed A 7pm 10th Bolton H 1pm 17th Barnsley A 2pm 24th Forest H 1pm 28th Barnsley A 2pm March 9th Wigan H 7pm 16th Sheff Utd A 1pm 23rd Cardiff H 1pm 30th Coventry A 1pm April 6th Colchester H 1pm 17th Charlton A 1:30 27th QPR H 7pm
Only a friendly this mate but against a full semi-pro outfit. Jordan Stevens and Kun doing lots of damage
Half time 1-0 Leeds with a great goal from skipper Pascal Struijk. Stand out players on the pitch are Illan Meslier, wow what a talent this keeper is. Bryce Hossanah who was named as the best right back at the club 18 month ago is playing CB along With Struijk and he is an amazing talent. Costa, Clarke and Alioski are having a beano too. Leeds should be further ahead but Jordan Stevens is playing CF today which is his first time as he usually plays on the wings. Kun is playing at 10 instead of CF and where is Edmondson? Expecting to see Costa go off and Fast Eddie to come on so that Stevens can play wing and service Eddy. May even see Bogusz for Kun?
Costa, Alioski off with Fast Eddy and Bogusz on. Berardi replaces Skaks which means those 3 coming off will be in the squad for Brentford along with Fast Eddy, Bogusz and Alioski Right 2nd half
Well a strange 2nd half but a win for Leeds 3-2 with goals from Struijk, Fast Eddy and Bogusz. 2nd goal for Leeds was stonking as Ckarke picks the ball up just outside his own box beats 2 players and threads a delightful ball through to Stevens on the left wing who beats a player and plays a great ball in for Eddy in a blink of an eye. Few minutes later Eddy should make it 3 but misses and Leeds seem to go to sleep thinking it was over. We then give away a penalty and Meslier makes a stunning save onto the post but rebound is put in. Then we give the ball away from being too clever and a fine finish from Milwall makes it 2-2 when it should be 5-0 to Leeds. In the 94th minute Bogusz wins a free kick on the edge of the box and blasts the free kick in with the last kick. Good performances from Meslier who is a top top star. Struijk, Hossanah, Clarke, Eddy, Costa, Alioski and Stevens
Thanks for the report doc. As you know I have an Interest in keepers. What did Meslier do to look such a standout talent at half time if we were drubbing them?
Confident, brave and dominant. Came out and either caught or punched away everything. Couple of saves in the first half too as the Wall were a tough team to beat.
Went to the match. Spoke to a couple of players too. More on that later. Overall, I thought we had quite a disappointing game, particularly in the first half, when Bielsaball was nowhere to be found. Second half was an improvement on the first, even though we conceded two. Not a great deal of Bielsaball in this half either. And I have to hand it to Millwall for killing the Bielsaball aspect. If intentional, they did a great job. 'Keeper looked ok to me. Not outstanding, imo, but impressive for a first match in a Leeds shirt. Hosannah & Struijk were solid for most of the match. Struijk in particular was excellent. Gotts at RB impressive as ever, Alioski misfiring at LB, but did ok at this level. As CDM, McCalmont had the poorest game I've watched him play. Seemed to be overwhelmed with little or no control over the game รก la KP. In midfield, Costa, was again unimpressive, Clarke more so - in fact I think there were only 2 moments of 'magic' from him, 1 in each half, and both were in the middle of the park, not the wings. Think you could put your house on him not even making the bench on Wednesday. First half he just looked totally uninterested. All that was missing was the pockets for him to shove his hands in. I'd say he has serious mental-side problems atm. Wonder if he's been getting abuse for his regrettable remarks about always knowing he was leaving? Shackleton? Brilliant as ever. Didn't recognise him at first. Always thought he had darker hair & was shorter. Heard someone comment on him 'filling out', and they may be right there. Guy beside me agreed about the hair. Think it was probably down to it being dry & most of his napper now being shaved. Kun was prolly the pick of the midfield. Industrious, hard as nails, can pass a ball & scores. What else can you ask of a player, particularly as he's fairly consistent week after week. It's a funny thing watching the u23s. You sometimes see absolutely outstanding performances and think to yourself 'this guy should be in the first team'. And then you look at our first team & can't see whose place he'd take. Kun conjures this question more than most. Up front, Stevens proved conclusively that he's no CF. Eddie came on in the second half & was very lively, but in a traditional CF-type of way rather than a Bielsaball-type of way. First time I've seen him play in the flesh & I was seriously impressed by his pace. No, really, his pace is like nothing I've seen at ER, particularly long runs. Spoke to Shackleton briefly today. Asked 2 questions & the answers were - Huffer is indeed injured, and didn't know anything about Edmondson not having a 1st team number allocated. He assumed he retained last season's number. Edmondson was actually there today, but not even on the bench. Wasn't even watching the game, just sat with pals over by the main building. Makes me wonder if he's made the bench for Wednesday, is injured, or is going out on loan. Costa left in his white (good colour!) Porsche after half time, round about the same time as Ayling. Sadly Ayling had a lackey load his stuff into the boot, and he was driven home. Guessing he's not going to be playing for a while if he can't even drive. Hope I'm wrong. Spoke to Eddie after the game & welcomed him to Leeds. Not the chattiest. Meant to mention that his knee was strapped for the match. Think it was his knee. It was one of these black tape-type jobs that goes Finally, I had a chat with Struijk. Really nice guy. Asked him how to pronounce his name, as I'd heard 2 different versions on tv. So, was it Strooo-eek or Stroy-k? Neither. Apparently it's Strooo-uck, if I remember correctly. Chap beside me from York was there with his kids (there were loads, being the hols. Bloody murder trying to get parked). Told me a couple of stories about Clarke. Tee first was that he was playing 5-a-side, and as they came off, Clarke & his mates came on. Obviously keen on football, but reckless risking your career in such a(n uninsured) match. The other story was a rumour about his 'virus'. Apparently he was out the night before with his mates & stayed out a lot later than he should have, getting little sleep. Tried to remedy this with 6 cans of Red Bull. Failed. True or false? No idea.