Don't know what happened today, I saw very little of what is hallmark of Bielsa's style, passing was wayward all over the pitch, pressing was ineffective and very slow team meant very little movement.
Thought Alex Neil really did his homework and his smaller, more mobile team was cutting out passes everywhere and creating chances which meant that the Preston goal was no surprise.
Coper and Ayling seemed completely off the pace, Bamford plays too deep at times and so then we have no presence up top, Costa's pace not being used, Klich and Dallas were anonymous first half, whilst you're thinking at some point a ref is going to lose up to Alioski and he's going to get a red for his feigning injury or raising hands to opponents.
Last season Bielsa would have been changing things earlier but with such limited options all he can realistically do is bring Eddie on, so then the choice is with Bamford or instead of?
Dont think we had a shot on target in first half but had more efforts second half after Eddie came on, one in particular caused by Costa's pace. Don't understand why we can't make better use of these two quick players.
Alioski was most threatening of our players, with 3 decent chances and Eddie winning a header to draw save from keeper.
With only a couple of minutes to go, I was feeling it wasn't going to be our day, but a deflected shot from Dallas gave us a point.
Preston are a team who hardly ever score away from home, yet it's another game where we concede and we really laboured to get on level terms.
We looked nothing like Leeds at their best, keep Eddie or get a replacement straight away but we cannot afford to sit on our hands this window, especially if we're going to have so many players on bench that we're simply never going to play.
Thoughts from tonight
posted on 27/12/19
comment by Afridi14... ( ليدز_يونايتد )You gotta love it!! (U2805)
posted 4 minutes ago
We need to sign players that are going to get in the first 11 in the premiership next season. Most of these lads are good enough championship players, but I can’t see more than 4/5 starting first game should we go up.....
They’ll be players out there but apparently Bielsa is obsessed with the current bunch and wants to keep it that way. I take that view with a pinch of salt
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I disagree, I think we need players who can get us out of championship. That’s not necessarily the same thing.
posted on 27/12/19
comment by Jonty (U4614)
posted 5 minutes ago
comment by Afridi14... ( ليدز_يونايتد )You gotta love it!! (U2805)
posted 4 minutes ago
We need to sign players that are going to get in the first 11 in the premiership next season. Most of these lads are good enough championship players, but I can’t see more than 4/5 starting first game should we go up.....
They’ll be players out there but apparently Bielsa is obsessed with the current bunch and wants to keep it that way. I take that view with a pinch of salt
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I disagree, I think we need players who can get us out of championship. That’s not necessarily the same thing.
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Yeah, I get that view but don’t agree. If your Radz why would you spent £5m on a player that could do the job in the championship but then possibly be a benchwarmer or negated altogether in 4 months??
With your view Jonty, would only be possible through loans. So far, Bielsa has been reluctant to play the loanees so why would big clubs give us quality players to sit around?
posted on 27/12/19
We get player to get us out of division, once were out we can change players, it’s not hard, clubs se
players after getting promoted all the time.
Why does the solution player have to come from s big club?
Are Brighton a big club?
posted on 27/12/19
When I say big club I mean those in the premiership which will likely have players with the X factor. Brighton aren’t a big club, but who would you take from their bench thats going to get us the extra bit of quality?
posted on 27/12/19
We took White from them, why are you narrowing search to just players on bench from Prem clubs?
posted on 27/12/19
Let's get into the PL first then worry about the standard of players when we cross that bridge.
Doesn't getting to the PL add £100 million plus?
posted on 27/12/19
Great to see the players warming up with
Rob Burrow emblazoned on their warm up gear,
smashing touch by the club.
A lot of Rhinos players, local Leeds and areas lads
are United fans...Rob recently diagnosed with MND,
a disease Don Revie died from.
posted on 27/12/19
comment by Jonty (U4614)
posted 3 hours, 7 minutes ago
We did fine with Pablo missing earlier in the season... he’s a big miss but it is possible! Better if we have Roberts fit though .. and this is the problem... our two 10’s are injury prone.
——
We only won 2 out of 6 matches when Pablo was out.
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Fair enough, I was surprised by that stat too... but they can be a bit misleading. During that time we lost with 10 men at millwall, and lost at charlton... a game I was at, they had 1 chance and scored, we weren’t great but should have won easily. We also had 2 tough away games at promotion rivals that we drew and a couple of wins including beating WBA. Our subsequent winning run was against mid/low table sides.
Of course we miss him, though he’s still quality when on his game.
posted on 27/12/19
comment by The Very Rev Wilko (U21072)
posted 6 minutes ago
Let's get into the PL first then worry about the standard of players when we cross that bridge.
Doesn't getting to the PL add £100 million plus?
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My thoughts on it exactly.
milky, I don't know if there is an exact correlation, but certainly, then and now, we're not yielding as many points per game as when he is in the team.
I like that it gives Costa a chance, but pointless if we're not playing to Costa's strengths.
posted on 27/12/19
In our position, jan should solely be about insuring against our position. No thoughts of next season required... loan/buy whatever is needed to cover injuries, loan returns, goalkeeper suspensions etc. Straightforward business decision to get to the promised land. Worry about next year when you know what division you’re in.