With the dust having settled and having had time to sleep on it, do we feel any less emotional about yesterday’s result and, more importantly, our performance against Crawley? Personally speaking, that’s a no. Since his arrival Bielsa has brought a new work ethic. If nothing else, we’ve run and run and made even the fittest teams work for their points. But yesterday, against a team of journeymen three leagues below, where the difference in fitness levels should have matched the difference in playing ability, the boys from Crawley seemed to barely break sweat. Even if they did outthink us tactically (that one’s down to Marcelo, I’m afraid) and play with more guile than we could muster, our fitness and energy levels alone should have ground them down as the second half progressed. But not being able to string a decent run of passes together in the second half meant we rarely ran at them. All in all, it seemed the effort levels were way below that required, begging the question, how seriously did Bielsa and the boys take this competition?
posted on 11/1/21
comment by Mirrorman (U21921)
posted 10 hours, 9 minutes ago
No, I’m still smarting. Having tried to laugh it off yesterday, I find today that I still want Bielsa to come out and explain himself, and apologise, for an awful personal performance.
Jack Harrison as CF. There you go Marcelo, start with that one.
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Bielsa has been quoted in the past that he thinks Harrison can play all across the front line. Yesterday probably wasn’t the right time to try it but then again Rodrigo was treading syrup and we had no Bamford on the bench.
He got it wrong. No need for any enquiry. Just learn a d move on.
Interesting that I read in the paper yesterday that one PL manager had offered to resign over some of the bad results he’s had and the stick he’s taken. The owners declined. Could that be MB I wonder?
posted on 11/1/21
No I reckon the manager who offered to resign was the Sheffield Utd boss.
Anyway fa cup draw Crawley away to Bournemouth and the winner faces Fulham or Norwich away
posted on 11/1/21
comment by ruphio (U16205)
posted 12 hours, 38 minutes ago
Nope, still feel very disappointed. In my mind it's far worse than Histon/Sutton etc. We weren't beaten by a smash and grab 1-0. We were well and thoroughly beaten, 3-0!!. We barely had a chance on goal. Dreadful performance. The resources we had available, there's absolutely no excuse for that scoreline. Poor decisions (on and off the pitch).
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Lucky you missed out on Colchester in 71 Ruphio. Some pain never heals.
posted on 11/1/21
comment by Macca: Emily Bishop's love child (U8194)
posted 2 hours, 14 minutes ago
No I reckon the manager who offered to resign was the Sheffield Utd boss.
Anyway fa cup draw Crawley away to Bournemouth and the winner faces Fulham or Norwich away
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Meant Fulham or Burnley away.
posted on 11/1/21
Of course Bielsa's not leaving. But hopefully a few of the players are, two of whom played (if you can call it that) on Sunday. I'm sure nobody would be more pleased to see Kiko leave than Kiko himself. The writing's been on the wall for the guy for over for over a year now and the poor bloke must feel like he's on death row. He certainly signed his death warrant with his performance in front of the Crawley firing squad.
Verdict: SELL
The other main guilty party in the match was Costa. I've defended Costa a fair few times on here but I can't see a way back for him – yesterday's performance was criminal. After a decent opening few games, he seems to have literally given up trying – or lost all confidence. He's not short of talent and his jinking runs up the wing can be amazing, but these days he's a liability, and it hurts me to say that.
Verdict: SELL or LOAN
Another player who is failing to live up to early promise is Tyler Roberts. He's had his moments, and scored a few crackers – alas in the Championship. He's got potential but we can't afford to give him the runouts he needs so I feel it's only fair on the lad to give him the chance of game time elsewhere for a season.
Verdict: LOAN
I find all of these players likeable – yes, even Kiko – but when results are on the line, you take no prisoners.
posted on 11/1/21
comment by All the Bielsa ringing (U19827)
posted 4 minutes ago
comment by ruphio (U16205)
posted 12 hours, 38 minutes ago
Nope, still feel very disappointed. In my mind it's far worse than Histon/Sutton etc. We weren't beaten by a smash and grab 1-0. We were well and thoroughly beaten, 3-0!!. We barely had a chance on goal. Dreadful performance. The resources we had available, there's absolutely no excuse for that scoreline. Poor decisions (on and off the pitch).
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Lucky you missed out on Colchester in 71 Ruphio. Some pain never heals.
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Christ you're so right – I was in the butchers buying some pork chops for my mum and I heard the announcement on the radio that Leeds were losing 3-0. I was rocked to the core and even though we pulled it back to 3-2, that was a shocking event that I'll always remember. Sounds silly after all these years but that was the magnitude of the defeat.
posted on 11/1/21
Lorra, loving the vivid detail you painted of buying pork chops in the butchers for your mum.
I was only 3 when we lost to Colchester in 71 and didn't give a monkeys about football until I was 7 and remember crying behind the G plan orange sofa losing to Bayern Munich in the European Cup Final.
posted on 11/1/21
comment by Macca: Emily Bishop's love child (U8194)
posted 6 minutes ago
Lorra, loving the vivid detail you painted of buying pork chops in the butchers for your mum.
I was only 3 when we lost to Colchester in 71 and didn't give a monkeys about football until I was 7 and remember crying behind the G plan orange sofa losing to Bayern Munich in the European Cup Final.
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Ah yes that was momentous, too, Macca (hey we had a G plan coffee table!). But at least we did all we could have done to win that match - we were never going to lift that cup with a corrupt ref in charge. May he rot in hell. Not that I'm bitter...
posted on 11/1/21
When you look back on the clubs history and all the near misses caused by dodgy refs in this country and abroad, a spiteful FA that wouldn't give us an extra day's rest after the 72 Cup final to try and win the double and of course our friends at the football league that did their very best to scupper us in any way possible no wonder a lot of people are convinced the club is cursed by that Gypsy curse all those years ago.
Whether that's true or not it is certainly a labour of love supporting Leeds.
posted on 12/1/21
The Colchester result came just as I was getting interested in our club. I threw a complete wobbler after the Bayern cheat and got a clout for my trouble! There have been so many, of course, but Histon was one of the worst.
I don't really give a hoot about the Crawley game, even if it is a bit embarrassing - getting so royally shafted by Man U was much worse.