Great performance. Did everything right and one of our best of the season.
Also confirmed that the Brighton game was less about us and all about their system. We played the same 11 in the same way and the outcome was the complete opposite. It does go to show how important tactics are.
Alioski had a brilliant game, again complete opposite to his performance against Brighton. And these two games proved exactly what the problem with him is though. He's great when a side drops off and gives him time on the ball (Bale took this one step further and disappeared completely). But he's terrible on the ball when put under pressure and pressed intelligently. In these games he becomes a liability when we have possession and makes it very difficult for us to play out from the back. I think his best position is left back and would be good cover for next season, but we need better despite how good he has been in certain games this season. The fact that it is so easy to predict when he will have a good or bad game based on the opposition is the problem. One criticism of Bielsa hasn't he used Alioski against opposition that will suit? Bielsa doesn't seem to select his side on this basis and appears to value loyalty more.
Thought Koch was excellent. And has shown to be more than suitable cover for Phillips which will hopefully mean we do not need to spend money on a player to sit on the bench as cover for Phillips in the summer. We do have to remember it is a very small sample size though and Koch could turn out not to be good enough in this position.
Dallas on the right worked! Something I never would have expected.
Klich back towards his best. Great to see and I hope he can out a couple more performances in like that before end of the season just so that the fans with very very short term memory can accept we are more than happy for him to continue to have a decent role next season.
Harrison was MOTM and showed how difficult he is to defend against when given a bit of space.
I do think we will try and return to the football from the first half of the season next season. We will want to stretch the game more and be more creative, but do it better and reduce the weaknesses in defence. The players made it quite clear with the interviews around the game that we have not created enough in the last 5 or so games before this.
Looks likely we will be signing 2 midfielders in the summer. One that will cover both wings & 10, eg; Kent, Faivre, Noa Lang. And the other looks more likely to be an 8 to play the role of the less attacking midfielder in front of Phillips. For me this signifies that Rodrigo will be competing with Bamford for the No. 9 role. He came on for Bamford and got the goal and did look more threatening. You can see how good a player he is. He's one of the best in the squad definitely. But we are yet to see how effectively he can fit into how we play. Needs to improve his press for a start, but also influence games more from the No. 9 position if he will be used there.
Think the game and the season has proved that we are not that far behind the sides finishing in the UEFA cup spots. That we can also significantly improve the starting line up with 2 or 3 signings in our weakest areas. And that on the whole everything we were doing in the Championship works in the Premiership. We do need to resolve the problems against sides such as Brighton as a priority, but this is not a new problem. We had managers who played in a certain way that repeatedly worked against us the Championship too.
57 Points won by Wolves is the most points achieved by a newly promoted side since 2001 with Ipswich (66). We have a chance to beat or at least equal Wolves record. To be the best promoted side of the last 60 would be another huge achievement for this club to go with several others in the last 3 years.
Hoping to have been plucked out of the hat for the West Brom game. And cannot wait for next season. With the right handful of signings we might just have a chance of closing the gap to the top 6.
Spurs Game
posted on 10/5/21
I know it seems that a lot of us (me, for one) are on Alioski's case whenever he has a bad game, and that we don't give him the credit he deserves. Every Leeds fan worth his salt has to love the guy for his passion, skill and sheer likeability. But this club is moving up a gear and that's a gear that Gianni just hasn't got. At best he's held his own this year and certainly hasn't been our weakest performer, but he's not a Jack Harrison or KP, both of whom are on an upward curve, performance-wise. Tbh I'm not sure what Alioski's best position is but the left back position has been a vulnerable one for us for some time now. I believe that getting someone in who's a specialist in that position could improve our goals against rate by 5-10 next season. We love you Gianni and owe you so much - but it's time to say farewell.
posted on 10/5/21
comment by AndDonRevieistheKing (U7852)
posted 1 hour, 51 minutes ago
Club looking at a kid from Dynamo Kiev name begins with T, right footed wide man
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Viktor Tsyhankov?
posted on 10/5/21
When thinking about Alioski, how would you compare his impact this season with that of, say, Roberts?
For me Alioski has had far more impact on results (both positive and negative I suppose) than Roberts has.
If I had to chose which of those two to keep, it would probably be Alioski as I see little reward for all the minutes Roberts has had on the pitch this season.
posted on 10/5/21
comment by LeedsFanFor46Years - Prem4harj (U6871)
posted 25 minutes ago
When thinking about Alioski, how would you compare his impact this season with that of, say, Roberts?
For me Alioski has had far more impact on results (both positive and negative I suppose) than Roberts has.
If I had to chose which of those two to keep, it would probably be Alioski as I see little reward for all the minutes Roberts has had on the pitch this season.
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I would say that Alioski has had more impact than Roberts yes, but would definitely keep Roberts ahead of Alioski.
Roberts likely to be cheaper to extend his contract. But not the biggest reason.
Roberts has a far higher ceiling to his potential than Alioski. It's very likely that Alioski is as good a player as he ever will be at this stage.
On the other hand it's obvious that Roberts has areas to his game that are very very good. He had a poor game against Tottenham and made too many mistakes. He makes too many wrong decisions and this season he has lacked composure. Last seen a lot of people on here wanted him to replace Bamford because of the composure he had shown infront of goal though. Decision making and composure are aspects of his game that he can improve and will improve with game time.
His strengths in being able to play through great balls, receive the ball on the move/half turn, very quick feet, good touch, good ball carrier etc are all harder to teach and find though.
So would make perfect sense to give him another season to learn the game more. Given that he has had lots of injuries and changed position I think that's fair.
If he sorts out the weaknesses he's a player easily worth £20M. Alioski will never be that player. If we give Roberts another season and he doesn't improve then of course he can go. But what is there to lose?
I do wonder why it is that so many want rid of Roberts, yet don't have any concerns about Shackleton?
posted on 10/5/21
I agree that holding onto Roberts is a low-risk strategy, but I've seen little improvement in him for a couple of years now, so won't expect much from him.
I truly hope I'm wrong (I normally am!) as he's a nice guy and can't fault his effort or energy levels.
As you say, key things lacking currently are his decision-making and composure. Fingers crossed - if he begins to work those sides of his game out he will be a great asset.
posted on 10/5/21
I do wonder why it is that so many want rid of Roberts, yet don't have any concerns about Shackleton?
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That's easy surely, Shackleton hasn't really shown any improvement to his game this season but he is only 21 and whilst there are no indications that he has what it takes to be a premier league player, he was born in Leeds and for some that's enough.
posted on 10/5/21
It's easy not to fully appreciate the patience of Bielsa sometimes. After studying the games where we were soundly beaten, he didn't panic - as many coaches do - and make rash changes or an overhaul of the 1st XI. Instead he has taken his own time to analyse everything in detail how to adapt and change the system according to the way many top way teams play in the Premier League. That process will only continue and surely stands us in good stead for next season.
Regarding certain members of the squad, the simple fact is that without substantial time on the pitch, it is hard to make a judgement about their value to the squad.
I can't think of any fringe players who have been abjectly abysmal when given a rare chance to play. Shackleton, given a rare chance against Villa away had a great game. Players like Klich and Costa were played regardless of their obvious fall away.
We all think differently on a wide variety of topics discussed, but either way, Bielsa has delivered the goods, so we can't argue that the decisions he has implemented have not been, on balance, effective.
On a note of caution: Wolves and Sheffield United could be on Bielsa's radar if he gets bored; perhaps he can analyse if there was a reason why they performed so badly immediately after they both had strong seasons. Either way, let's hope we don't become victims of 'second syndrome' season and can push on and upwards next season. Leicester have shown us what is possible and I think is a reasonable model about what we could achieve with the right investment.
MOT
posted on 10/5/21
comment by Elsbels - Just Some Guy (U21658)
posted 4 hours, 14 minutes ago
I do wonder why it is that so many want rid of Roberts, yet don't have any concerns about Shackleton?
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That's easy surely, Shackleton hasn't really shown any improvement to his game this season but he is only 21 and whilst there are no indications that he has what it takes to be a premier league player, he was born in Leeds and for some that's enough.
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I think it's also because he's not playing regularly. Roberts is a key part of the first team squad and Shack isn't.
posted on 10/5/21
If we have the same second season syndrome as last time we got promoted that will do nicely,
posted on 11/5/21
comment by LeedsFanFor46Years - Prem4harj (U6871)
posted 21 hours, 38 minutes ago
When thinking about Alioski, how would you compare his impact this season with that of, say, Roberts?
For me Alioski has had far more impact on results (both positive and negative I suppose) than Roberts has.
If I had to chose which of those two to keep, it would probably be Alioski as I see little reward for all the minutes Roberts has had on the pitch this season.
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odd comparison given their different positions, age brackets and levels of experience, no?