Marching On Together

Good Morning. It's Monday 20th January, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road...


Gap narrows to just four points as Leeds undone at QPR

The gap between automatic Promotion and the play offs has narrowed to just four points as Leeds disastrous form continuous. The Whites had won once (in all competitions) in seven outings, so the last thing they needed was a trip to London where the West Yorkshire outfit had not recorded a win for over two years. Unfortunately for the Whites, Saturday was going to be no exception.

The only goal of the game came on 20 minutes when the Hoops were awarded a free kick on the edge of the box. The ball was whipped in, hit Ayling in the face, and was intercepted by an in rushing Nahki Wells. The ex Bradford City starlet controlled the ball with one hand and then the other before finding the back of the net!

Once again, although obvious to the crowd and the Commentary box, Leeds did little to complain. Most teams that concede a goal will throw their hands in the air at the ref in a desperate ploy of putting doubt in the mind of the ref but for such a blatant error from the officials there need to be 11 players surrounding the ref. Is this against the rules - yes; but so were the handballs. This is one of the toughest leagues in the World to get out of, and its time to see some Yorkshire grit.

Leeds best chance of an equalizer came in the second half when Hoops keeper Liam Kelly upended Bamford in the box. The Scottish keeper made amends however, by pulling off a breathtaking fingertip save. To complete Leeds afternoon of misery Kalvin Phillips was given a straight red card two minutes from time for an ugly challenge on veteran defender Geoff Cameron.

Conceding a goal via two blatant hand balls, Missing guilt edge opportunities, Missing from the penalty spot, Sending off... This sounds like the Leeds of old!


Bielsa's post match reaction



Alarming statistic reignites burnout worry

Looking through the statistics over the weekend, I was gobsmacked to discover that only 14 players have started five or more games for Leeds this season! Hasn't Bielsa got trust in his squad? How long can this continue before burnout!

Leeds best performances this season have been high intensity, hard pressing games. This style of play uses up a lot of anaerobic energy (short length with high intensity). There is absolutely no chance that the players can find that energy over 90 minutes when they are being over used!

Is the squad not good enough or is that that Bielsa has his favourites?




QPR, Nahki Wells, Penalty, Handball, Burnout, Squad, Marcelo Bielsa

Morning EB et all wonderful Leeds supporters

Trying to write this without getting angry, we should have left London with at least a draw, can’t believe the ref and his assistant missed the two handballs before the goal, to cancel it out he gives us a soft penalty but our one and only centre forward decides to pass it back rather than smash it into the net, then due to the frustration of it all, possibly our best player (of the game and season) throws himself into a miss judged tackle and gets sent off.

Some will say we can’t put this all at Bamford feet, correct Bielsa keeps picking him so should take some of the blame but Bamford is our only recognised centre forward and the main job of a centre forward is to score goals, yes without service it’s difficult to score but he had two glorious chances, a delicate chip over the keeper, he blazes it high and wide, then the pen he should have scored at least one if not both of them, he accepts the plaudits and cheers when he scores and no doubt the bonus as well, he should now accept the criticism and hand back his wages for that game

Morning,

We did look a bit leggy on Saturday.

Only one more trip to London.

I hate seeing players surround the ref and wish they would book more when they do do it.

In this case the linesman was at fault, if the glare from the sun was an issue it was there before they scored so he should have flagged (sorry) it up.
Unprofessional.

Squad rotation (or lack of) It was an issue last time due to the same reasons it is an issue this time, injuries and a small squad. How much planning can be done to mitigate these? Dunno about the first one but we definitely are a light weight squad.

We play a 46 game league Marcello and you are running these guys into the ground.
Should MB fail this season this is what history will remember you by.

Ellandback1 wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2020 9:16 am

God some of them are ridiculously young to be playing in the Championship

On a serious note EB I’d love anyone of them at Leeds currently

I don't buy the burnout theories. I would if teams were battering us and we were looking dead on our feet. The truth is however we are playing exactly the same as we have done all season and the problem remains the same, putting the ball in the net. Don't forget we had a poor run earlier in the season and again it was because we were scoring 0 or 1 goal per match. During that run we were still playing the same way as we are now. We were also doing the same thing during our winning run and don't forget that in a couple of those matches we got late breakaway goals to get the wins, apart from Middlesborough we weren't blowing teams away. You can also throw in the usual story of bad decisions, v Sheff Wed we had a goal chalked off for offside, at 0-0, that looked debateable at the very least. If that stands we are 1-0 up and Bamford has stopped his poor run. Against QPR we are denied a penalty and then Wells handles the ball twice when scoring. Contrast that with Luton and WBA scoring the own goals for us and it shows how much luck and bad decisions can affect the outcome.

So the problem is the same problem we have had all season. A striker not scoring enough goals and a team that doesn't score enough goals. The build up play is still great, the defence is fairly much okay despite the recent wobbles so we need to forget the burnout nonsense, forget the London record, forget all the other theories and just try to rectify the lack of goals. Hopefully we will make a couple of signings that can help address this problem because it doesn't seem like the problem can be rectified internally.

Wot we 'ave 'ere is your oxymoron "Burnout reignited"
If this 'ere team 'as fallen into the fiery pit, to fraternise
wif ol' Nick 'imself, to be consumed, and spontaneously
combusted, going up in a wiff of smoke, so that only
charred remains, and dusty ashes are all that is left, then
it would be super 'ard, and quite possibly beyond the
powers of the almighty to reignite sumfink from nuffink.

Just kidding but I think some forumites must have a google alerts set to burnout or one of its derivatives.

At the first sign they appear sliding down the pole, onto the fire engine and straight to the latest emergency.


You know I love you anyway.

You What....! Rab.

Monk built a decent side until we dismantled it

Pontus, Bartley, Wood, Taylor & Roofe are all better than we currently have, we'd have walked this league by now if Bielsa had this type of quality, height & power in his squad

1964white wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2020 11:18 am Monk built a decent side until we dismantled it

Pontus, Bartley, Wood, Taylor & Roofe are all better than we currently have, we'd have walked this league by now if Bielsa had this type of quality, height & power in his squad

I'd have to agree, and alluded to similar yesterday.
You never get anywhere constantly shipping out the best bits in any kind of business.

Did we ship Bartley out? IIRC he was a loan. Bielsa let PJ and Roofe go. Taylor and Wood went to the Prem...You know, a promotion, more money bigger stage and all that. Not sure what the point is here..

paddy parrott wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2020 11:05 am You What....! Rab.

it wur a 'ellish twist to the dead parrott monologue.

Height and power, we lack much of it and in this league it is a necessity. I also think we're too bloody honest for our own good ie when we're fouled instead of writhing around in agony (let's face it every other team does it to get players booked) our players tend to spring up as if nothing happened. Harrison twice on Saturday jumped straight up limping away which got the QPR player off the hook. I'm quite sure Costa did it when he didn't get the penalty. What is it with our players ? It's all part of the game now (think they call it gamesmanship) . Anything to gain an advantage is vital in these tight games and it could easily be the difference from getting 1 PT or 3 or even 0 in our case atm.

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Bartley considered to expensive by the owner at that time,. His partnership with Jannson made them both look better imho. Others leaving probably shows a lack of ambition on the clubs part. Point t being inferior players have come in apart from maybe White.
Last on the subject for me.

Bartley considered to expensive by the owner at that time,. His partnership with Jannson made them both look better imho. Others leaving probably shows a lack of ambition on the clubs part. Point t being inferior players have come in apart from maybe White.
Last on the subject for me.

IIRC Swansea elected to keep Bartley

faaip wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2020 12:23 pm Did we ship Bartley out? IIRC he was a loan. Bielsa let PJ and Roofe go. Taylor and Wood went to the Prem...You know, a promotion, more money bigger stage and all that. Not sure what the point is here..

Point is apart from White we haven't replaced those I mentioned with better quality players, striker, LB & CB positions are all weaker plus no leader in our current squad

faaip wrote: ↑Mon Jan 20, 2020 1:13 pm IIRC Swansea elected to keep Bartley

And we didn't pursue his availability, West Brom did & Bartley was the difference between us drawing & not winning at the Hawthorns recently. One of best commanding CB performances I've witnessed this season.

Alot of great debating but in simple terms we only have one problem to solve....IF WE HAD PUT AWAY OUR CHANCES WE WOULD BE STREETS AHEAD OF 3RD PLACE......SIMPLES !! The rest of the play is way above all other teams in this league imo !!