Disappointed with Brighton, what better opponents to play than a team that can't win, at Elland Road.
Right from the off though, the performance felt the same...possession but ineffective.
Felt very much that Aaronson off the boil, passes going astray, lack of energy.
Beckford said the time wasting is part of football, get on with it, but I agree with Marsch trying to highlight it, if team are taking the mick out of the rules, draw the ref's attention to it.
Davie takes cheeky kick at Meslier and then grins after receiving the card, you know what I hate this attitude of disrespect, gamesmanship and just trying to rile other players up, it is an awful example to be setting to kids and I would like to see players who do this being charged with bringing the game into disrepute. You did a foul, you got a card, stop still trying to wind the opponent up.
Koch looking like mr consistent, Struijk looked more comfortable at left back but you compare to Alioski and you appreciate how much difference a more mobile and forward thinking player in that position can make.
On the other side Kristensen, seems to offer very little and is regularly being left for dead, I see him as a cover player only and hope Ayling is back soon.
In the middle though, you can see why some of us have doubted Llorente for a while, he's just unreliable and makes the simple complicated and was completely ineffective for their goal.
Rodrigo injury was a bizarre one and I feel he could be out for a few matches with that but was surprised that Gelhardt came on, it indicated that Bamford not fully fit at all.
But a great chance for Gelhardt, but he was ineffective, didnt win the free kicks he usually did and combine that with Aaronson below par and Harrison being double upped against (a testament the threat that he is viewed as) and we were impotent up top with zero shots on target in first half but we did learn that when Harrison and Aaron tap their head when preparing for a corner it means corners will be cut. back to in front of penalty box.
Second half was better, more pressing but I don't see much from Adams or Roca, I think they're going to take some adjusting to this league. Aaronson was coming more into it and despite Sinisterra being a bit quieter, he gets a chance and from nowhere we're right back in it, left footed could be deemed to be Raphinha-like but I dont feel he's the same quality and we need to be careful with expectations.
Meslier really solid in goal, wins us points and we were really lucky goal was chalked off for offside and I liked Marsch's honesty about that.
I really think that these marginal calls spoil football. If its that marginal give the benefit to the attackers, we want to see action and goals, they have to find a way to make it more clear cut.
I would have loved to see Gelhardt and Bamford together but replacing Gelhardt with Bamford denied us that and it feels we took off our one player who might make something happen in that box.
I'm glad Klich is getting some minutes, and if we get more performances like this I would look at starting him but then comes the admission that new players not as good as theyre meant to be, but at least now we do have some options.
Talking of options though, really poor comments from Angus Kinnear. proven internationals is not really honest, Rodrigo yes to a degree but not Bamford who has one cap.
After season finished AR said we'd learnt our lesson about not investing in players, now Kinnear trying to justify not investing in players.
Post match Marsch said we need goals, then kind of realised he needed to backtrack a little but he's right, we need goals and that just became ever harder with Rodrigo being out.
Post match Lampard...every time I hear him he sounds worse, I just cannot warm to him at all, really classless.
Post match Marsch, sounding better but telling us team are getting better and better....I'm not sure at moment, we've failed to build on great Chelsea result, that isn't looking quite so great now, as everyone is beating Chelsea it seems
Thoughts from last night
posted on 31/8/22
I actually thought Roca got more forward in the second half and started joining in on the attacks more. I think thats a key for teams who defend - he needs to be more attack minded or we play Klich from the start.
We play so high though we are always open to attacks
posted on 31/8/22
60m pound man Gordon running his socks off, obviously wants that move. Lots of Everton players wound up for this game, but they are a poor side who sat with 11 men behind the ball and tried to match our intensity for 92.5 minutes.
Refs need to get a grip of timewasting and kicking the ball away.
posted on 31/8/22
Ref was garbage last night. He should have booked Pickford for time wasting and that might have put a stop to it. He just seemed to allow them to time waste all the time. I actually thought it was a foul on Rodrigo for his injury as well.
posted on 31/8/22
I felt it could have been given as a foul as well Outwood.
posted on 31/8/22
comment by Elsbels - El Jugador (U21658)
posted 20 minutes ago
You need to rewind for the Gordon goal, all the blame being laid on to Llorente, the threat starts with Gordon losing Rasmus who then runs into no man's land. Adams is way out of position and doing nothing, Sinistere is making no effort to track back and Koch is way out of position. Llorente is left covering several positions, terrible defending but not just him to blame.
Compare it with Everton who defended well all night as a unit and stifled us.
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Not sure on that assessment of everyone’s jobs. We had loads of numbers back, generally we try and press the man in possession and block passing lanes. Which is what we did but one of the blockers was nutmegged.
It was a bit clearer to attribute blame under bielsa but under marsch I’m genuinely not sure whether kristenson should have tracked Gordon or whether it’s expected that one of the other defenders pick him up.
So positional mistakes may have been made elsewhere but the only thing that’s unarguable is that the obvious playing error was llorente’s.
posted on 31/8/22
Meslier is proving to be a real quality keeper, five million for him was a steal and he is getting better and better.
Defense.
Kristensen to me is nowhere near the level of ayling, it massively worries me that ayling has less than a year to run on his contract when this guy is his replacement. I've seen people saying he had a good game, but I just didn't see it, I said on the match thread that he comes across as a player who people will let slide poor performances for because he is a hard man. I honestly believe if James performed to the standard that Kristensen did yesterday (all be it in a different position) then those same fans who praise Kristensen would slate James.
Llorente - awful, just awful, ive said how much I like him in the past, but it hard to defend that performance. Anyone else noticed how he seems to be making a habit of looking to pass to a player, only to decide against it halfway through his kick so he ends up trying stop the pass only to fail and kick the ball lightly to the opposition, its weird.
Koch - will most likely be captain this weekend and you can see why, played well and to me has shown why he should be considered our first choice centreback, its now a competition to partner koch at the back for the rest of them.
Struijk - we need a leftback so he can play in the centre. Can't fault him yesterday, he is being played out of position and it shows, but he is giving it his all and doing a good job for us. To me he has the look of a player who knew all things considered he was going to go into this season as fourth choice centreback so is on a mission to prove himself and thus was more than happy to play at fullback as it meant he was going to get game time.
Midfield
Roca - steady game, got the feeling this lad will be one of those players who we all love but opposition fans, who don't watch him every week, will not understand why we love him so much and try to claim he isn't good. Sort of player you see on the team week after week and that makes you happy cause you know he will be always be a 7/10 and its that consistency that you live for in life.
Adams - something about him could be special, the partnership with roca is hopefully something we can build the team around. Thought he had a good game and want to see more of him.
Sin - very, very early days, but he gives me that tingly feeling that very, very early days Raph also gave me.
Aaronson - didn't really do much and thats two games in a row now after he was amazing at Chelsea, if klitch, who I will come onto, is playing like that off the bench, and he's willing to drop James when sin looks good I would hope JM has the same approach to dropping aaronson if he goes another game or two like he has these last two, would be a test to see if JM is a proper manager and not just a jobs for friends manager... hopefully it won't come to that and he gets back to his Chelsea best sharpish
Harrison- would have been my man of the match last night, probably our most dangerous player and the one ill be happiest to get trough tomorrow without selling...
Striker
Rod - really, gutted for him, it starts to fall into place for him a little and bang he gets an injury that might keep him out for a bit
Subs
Geldheardt - looks like a player who is still developing and you would be worried if he was leading the line each week. Looks good, but not in a 20 goals a season striker, way, at least not yet
Klitch - has now played has way into the plans of two managers who didn't really see a place for him in a row, that should say it all really. Such a useful player to have at the club and we should enjoy him for ad long as we have him cause I doubt he will stay beyond this season as a bit part player. Loads of clubs will want him too.
James i think he is a decent player who is quick but he needs a little more to his game, if he picked up an injury that resulted in him losing a yard of pace would you keep him in the side? He needs to be more tricky for a winger and use his feet and head better. Seems like a good option though to play against tired defenders in the later stages of games though.
Bamford - the fact he came on as soon as it was 75 minutes and the ball went out of play pretty much says to me that was a pre match plan, I dot get people who said how much that would knock geldheardt been taken off. Geldheardt got 40 minutes under his belt he wouldn't have got otherwise, he will have known he was going to make way on 75. In the same way I'd expect he will know that the next game, if he starts, he will make way probably little earlier to give bamford more minutes before he is ready to start. Hard to judge him, but at least he got through it without doing more damage so that's good.
posted on 31/8/22
I'd rather not buy anyone this window than sell. I also think our best cb pairing is Koch and struijk but until firpo is back and Cooper is unavailable lorente has the job. He got turned horribly but it was a total team failure of a goal.
Sinisterra will help us forget raph a bit and I think he'll bang in more goals than him too.
Meslier is great but his kicking is woeful. No one gave the ball away more than he did with his panicky distribution.
If bamford can stay healthy will can have a winning season. Being kind of light up top we need all our strikers available. Joffy missed some chances but at least he's getting into positions to have them.
Were looking ok so far but have thrown away some points we should have put in the bank.
posted on 31/8/22
Yeh Meslier is a very good shot-stopper. He's much improved on crosses too which has helped our historic defensive set piece woes. He's still very young but his distribution is... well... a work in progress. Would help if defenders remembered he's left footed but even so - he was everton's most creative attacking force yesterday.
posted on 31/8/22
While we are on the theme of Llorente bashing, why isn't he communicating with colleagues when he had the opportunity to head it and Klichy gets in his way and where the hell had gone when Pascal was last line of defence and almost let their attacker through.
posted on 31/8/22
comment by Outwood White (U9610)
posted 13 hours, 16 minutes ago
I actually thought Roca got more forward in the second half and started joining in on the attacks more. I think thats a key for teams who defend - he needs to be more attack minded or we play Klich from the start.
We play so high though we are always open to attacks
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Roca had a great second half. He’s a quality player for sure. Adams too.