Regarding Roofe, exactly what I saw, first game dominant and one of the best games I've seen any player play and second game not quite as good despite the brace.
BPF - Beradi - Jansson - Forshaw - Cooper - Douglas - Hernandez - Klich - Saiz - Roofe - Clarke
Not only his tactics on the field but also during interviews.
You get the usual questions that are divisive about whether
to play Roofe or Bamford... surely you can let a 7 million man
warm the bench? Or equally stupid after winning three games
will we win the league? Or do you have enough cover if players get
injured? Or will you be getting loan players in before the end of August?
Bielsa has a smile and a titter to himself and gives a reply that is completely
delightful and unexpected, and you get the feeling that he is some University
Don bringing enlightenment to a stupid student, and the reporter is left
feeling embarrassed and inadequate for ever having asked such a question.
He will not be not be drawn into the mealy mouthed, politically correct
evasive statements that you usually get from football managers. He inhabits
another world of philosophy and the art of war. He is a combination of
ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu and the Argentinian poet
Jorge Luis Borges who though being blind was director of the National Public Library
and professor of English Literature at the University of Buenos Aires.
Now it takes someone special who is blind to oversee a library full of books.
That takes a special skill that mere mortals can never understand, and so it
is with reporters, they expect to trap him with their weasley words, and the replies
he gives are as mystifying as quotes from One Hundred years of Solitude by
Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez.
He is a scholar and a gentleman... something you rarely see from English football managers
whose replies are on the level of jerseys for goalposts variety.
We have a mystical treasure on our hands... I would not be in the least surprised if the Pope
hails him as the patron Saint of football.
Scottish Steel and Irish Fire that's the weapon I desire.
The tactics from this man are spot on but the other thing in his favour is the respect / fear from the players , if 12 months ago Pontus had been warming the bench up for 3 matches he would of been on social media telling the world that he does not know if he has a future at Leeds etc etc , not now though as he knows Bielsa has the balls to tell him to go , we also now have serious contenders for places in a winning team that people want to play in , I think the players realise now you play to full potential or get dropped which is why Roofe looks a different player this year , Anybody who cant see the quality and class that Bielsa brings must be blind , were only 4 games in but I can sense the optimism slowly building with the players and the fans .
Last edited by beer belly bert on Sun Aug 19, 2018 10:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
Well done to the club for managing to bring him in, it’s almost like they wanted us to do well!
You risk upsetting a lot of fans with those sorts of comments. Don't you know it is better for the club to never get promoted as there is a clause in Seth Johnson's contract that if we get promoted to the premiership before 2049 we have to give him £47, a fishtank and Alan Smith's car parking space in the McDonalds near ER.
You risk upsetting a lot of fans with those sorts of comments. Don't you know it is better for the club to never get promoted as there is a clause in Seth Johnson's contract that if we get promoted to the premiership before 2049 we have to give him £47, a fishtank and Alan Smith's car parking space in the McDonalds near ER.
Three Orta signings from last year playing key roles too; Mateusz Klich, Samuel Sáiz and Ezgjan Alioski. Less scatter gun this season and looks like Barry Douglas and Patrick Bamford could be good buys. All three loan signings should play a significant part too.
All in all Radrizzani, Kinnear and Orta nailing it so far this season. Some mistakes last year but obvious they want to build and we are heading in the right direction now.
You risk upsetting a lot of fans with those sorts of comments. Don't you know it is better for the club to never get promoted as there is a clause in Seth Johnson's contract that if we get promoted to the premiership before 2049 we have to give him £47, a fishtank and Alan Smith's car parking space in the McDonalds near ER.
Reaping a lot of benefits from the work that has gone on behind the scenes over the past 18 months, work, had it not been done, would have seen us miss out on Bielsa.
I realised I was dyslexic when I went to a toga party dressed as a goat..
Just a shame we didn't get him in January instead.
I think if he had come in instead of Heck, he wouldve been gone after the first game, the pre season work he did away from the limelight with the players seems to have been the key, wouldn’t have been able to do that mid season and the way the squad was at the time would have seen that bucket thrown at any one of the players on the pitch
I realised I was dyslexic when I went to a toga party dressed as a goat..
You risk upsetting a lot of fans with those sorts of comments. Don't you know it is better for the club to never get promoted as there is a clause in Seth Johnson's contract that if we get promoted to the premiership before 2049 we have to give him £47, a fishtank and Alan Smith's car parking space in the McDonalds near ER.
Looks like open space is the key to the Swansea attack.
Draw players out of position during the high press
which then creates wide open space for players to run
into unopposed.
I hope nobody reads that article, or we could be in trouble
Scottish Steel and Irish Fire that's the weapon I desire.
Bit different, .this is what Swansea did to counter us and Bielsa.
I wouldn't be overly concerned (yet) as I feel a lot of our problem stemmed from not being able to play it out from the back as effectively as we had previously and a huge part of that was because Ayling was centreback so effectively we had 2 positions in defence (centreback and rightback) that weren't as fluent as normal. I feel that if we had known Cooper was going to be out a few days before the match then Ayling would have been able to have a couple of training sessions at centreback and also not sure whether Shackleton is training as a right back or midfielder but even if he is training as a right back he has only started doing that this season. As such we weren't able to start our attacks as fluently from the back and it had a knock on effect all over the pitch. When the defence is struggling then other players end up dropping deeper and getting themselves into the wrong positions. Alioski was probably trying to help out but in some ways it made it worse which is why Bielsa brought Harrison on as he wanted our wide player to be getting the other side of the Swansea team.
I doubt that Swansea's game plan would have been as effective if we hadn't had to make the last minute changes due to Cooper's injury. Note Swansea dominated the match early on whilst we were uncertain, due to the changes, but once we started tweaking things and correcting mistakes it was a fairly even game. Indeed the last 10 minutes of the first half and first five minutes of the second half we were on top but unfortunately we conceded against the run of play which gave them a huge lift.
You also have to acknowledge that Swansea have players that are comfortable on the ball so were often able to pass their way out of trouble - they may be the best passing team in the division.
