Finished on court, we were 1-0 up, finally, we can get some points on the board.
Hoping we can hold out, we get pegged back, overhauled and sound like we're in disarray and out of energy.
We can say we're too good, we can say the play was as good as last year, we can say we have long injury list, but reality is, more than 10% of season gone and we are in relegation form.
There seem to be little energy about the team and I cant imagine that confidence is high.
Meslier is keeping us in games otherwise we'd be losing 4-1 every match.
Rodrigo looked good yesterday in the creation role, how can we use him in a Pablo type role?
Raphinha was brilliant, I hope he can overcome the niggle of injuries, but what about Dan James? How can we use his pace which is great and not his trying to beat a man 1 v 1 which isn't?
Midfield looks non existent, defence was awful and one really has to wonder if Firpo is going to break this long run of poor left backs we've had, Douglas, De Bock, Borthwick Johnson etc.
Great that Cresswell got some minutes, but where does Gelhardt get his chance from as it looks like he's our 4th choice striker.
With training hard, results not going our way, offers elsewhere look more tempting than ever for the likes of Philips (who was poor yesterday) and Raphinha and I wouldn't blame them.
We're in a dangerous rut, but we have a quality coach and quality players. Can Bielsa freshen up what feels a bit stale? Have we been found out rest of division who have learnt from last season?
Where is this famed fitness, press and speed of play?
I'm struggling to see where we get the points now. People seem to feel Watford is 3 points in the bag, I would say Watford are probably feeling that about playing us right now.
I hope there is no panic in board room, stick with Bielsa, players need to trust in this and once we come through it with that support we might just have a reason for Bielsa to want to stick around after being show support when he needs it most.
I say that with a word of caution though and I have said this before. Bielsa is a world class coach and these problems on pitch are coaching problems, especially the way the defence is working and a great coach has to find a solution to this, we've had this defensive issue for 3 years now.
Thoughts from last night
posted on 27/9/21
Just looking at our fixtures and taking our form and injuries into contention and assuming we won't be adding much in January I have actually only got us scraping 40points and so ultimately safety with our final home game of the season.
I don't think many of us thought we would be struggling this season but seeing Wolves nick a valuable win at Southampton using bandit type methods to waste time and hang on to their lead I don't think we possess that and can see us drawing more than we win.
Ultimately though a packed Elland Road in our final home game clinching us survival would be a site to behold and make up for fans missing our Championship success.
Who here would take that now? I know I would.
posted on 27/9/21
I think that we cannot take anything for granted now.
Teams that have come up are hard to beat and we are there to be shot at, I don't se Watford match as 3 points for us, far from it, we are going to have to fight for everything and Bielsa is going to have to weather criticism from press and pundits, but also grumbling fans at matches if we're not careful.
He's surely smart enough to know these things and have confidence in support from club and his own ability, but at almost every club he's been at results have gone south and he hasn't weathered those storms.
We can say wait till these games or wait till those fixtures, but table doesn't lie, we need uptick in results quickly.
posted on 27/9/21
Such a poor start to the season points wise
I think we have enough to turn it around and we will have a good patch, hopefully the next set of games.
First have on sat, I thought we would score a few more and win, but a poor second half, all credit to west ham, cost us.
posted on 27/9/21
Im in no great panic tbh. We hugely over achieved with that squad last season
We are in amongst the group we should be and all in takes is a win out of our next few winnable games and we're back in that mid table after some tough games
The gap from the top 4 to the rest is huge. There is rhen 3 or 4 clubs in Arsenal, Spurs, Leicester and WHU and then the rest is a free-for-all.
Perhaps a few clubs who look out of their league here.
Our issues are fairly obvious:
1: We have one goal scorer up top. Nobody can cover for Bamford
2: Defensive injuries are a massive concern. We look terrible without Llorente
3: Most importantly we only have one quality midfielder in Phillips. We need a box to box midfielder of quality alongside him. We more urgently need a 10. We've never replaced Pablo and trying to shoehorn Rodrigo, who is a good player is not the answer
One last point - We lost yesterday but didn't deserve to. Klich takes that chance before they scored the winner and we take the points and are safe in mid table
That's the difference in quality in having an Antonio.
posted on 27/9/21
Point 3 for me Yorkie has always been my major concern.
It was very interesting listening to the Pundits after the North London Derby yesterday. - In a nutshell Souness said that they were taught that if all was not going well swamp the midfield and force the opposition out wide and try and be quickest to the ball. The open spaces we are leaving is frightening at times.
posted on 27/9/21
"We are in amongst the group we should be and all in takes is a win out of our next few winnable games and we're back in that mid table after some tough games"
A win takes lifts us from 18th to the dizzying heights of 15th and that of course assumes that no one else around us wins.
What are our next few winnable games?
We've played 6 league matches and not won any of them, I don't see anything winnable right now, we are going to have to fight for everything.
The problems you list about us, no cover for Bamford etc are all attributes of Bielsa wanting small squad.
If we want Bielsa, we have to accept that's how it is, but it is not easy to manage at all.
posted on 27/9/21
Jonty
Rodrigo was signed as a striker so ideally he should be scoring when he covers up top or 10
In terms of winning, not sure you watched the last match based on your original comments but I did and at times we were excellent. We didn't deserve to lose. So with Watford, Southampton, Wolves, Norwich next I have confidence.
posted on 27/9/21
comment by Yorkie_116 (U2965)
posted 3 hours, 58 minutes ago
Jonty
Rodrigo was signed as a striker so ideally he should be scoring when he covers up top or 10
In terms of winning, not sure you watched the last match based on your original comments but I did and at times we were excellent. We didn't deserve to lose. So with Watford, Southampton, Wolves, Norwich next I have confidence.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
no reason we wont win all 4 of those games.
we were better than west ham and if klich could have scored from his chance to make it 2-0 we would have won. personally i think we should have won 3 or 4 of our games so far.
thought firpo played well and is coming along fine.
nowhere near panic stations.
posted on 27/9/21
Anyone know why Gallagher turned us down?
I assume he was told by the club that they couldn't
guarantee him a starting spot. Which if true seems
comical now. He'd start every week for us based
on the current situation.
On our CB woes, I've thought and said for a while
now, if you're not available as a player, you're just
a waste of valuable resources. Llorente's a quality
player. But, he's hardly ever available. On balance,
not a good signing. Same goes for Koch. And I know
it's hindsight, but I said at the time, and this summer,
I would've rather invested in Ben White when we
had the chance. He knew the system and is almost
always available. And we could've had him for the
cost of Llorente + Koch.
There were signs of life last game. However, after
a few more hours to think about it all, I think we're in
quite a bit of trouble. Unlike some, I don't look above
us and think "that's a win". MB's going to have to
pull several rabbits out the hat next few months.
posted on 27/9/21
I'm assuming Saturday that Struiyk now available slots in the side ahead of Cresswell which would be Unlucky for the lad.
Unless he plays Struiyk alongside KP in the middle with Klich Raph James and Rodrigo.
Surely Bielsa can see the midfield needs strengthening.