Not only Leeds fans on here......

[1964white]

Chatting with three Leeds fans locally over the last week, one in Tesco this morning on our weekly shop.

Meslier & Phillips are our only two consistent players.
Why risk Kalvin in a cup game, lose him to injury & we are up the creek.
Missing Llorente big-time.
Deigo & Pascal are our best CB paring.
Why did we sign another winger, Dan James?
We needed to strengthen the central midfield position.
Dallas, Klich, Bamford & Ayling not showing last season's form.
Rodrigo & Roberts are not prolific goalscorers.
Where are the goals coming from?
Forshaw is not the answer.
Our best U23's need to be integrated into the first team rather than making three changes when only one is only required.
Bielsa needs to be more flexible.

So it's not only MOT members who are concerned.

[mentalcase]

Common sense, why would it only be MOT members who can see the big picture ??

[1964white]

Common sense, why would it only be MOT members who can see the big picture ??

Some of our members are accused of being negative, it seems generally the majority of Leeds fans are singing out of the same hymn book to me.

On my journey to Newcastle last Friday, our fans were making similar comments.

[billysboots]

I wouldn’t call any of those comments negative, just sensible observations.
The lack of goals and midfield especially .

[Johnboy1965]

All valid points but god forbid we dare to mention them on here less we get accused of promoting an atmosphere of negativity!

You'd think we were top of the league and playing better than Brazil according to some folk.

[White Riot]

All valid points but god forbid we dare to mention them on here less we get accused of promoting an atmosphere of negativity!

You'd think we were top of the league and playing better than Brazil according to some folk.

The usual knee-jerk stuff, this forum is depressing, we need to be positive, blah, blah, blah

[1964white]

All valid points but god forbid we dare to mention them on here less we get accused of promoting an atmosphere of negativity!

You'd think we were top of the league and playing better than Brazil according to some folk.

I'm generally a positively minded fan. I predicted us to finish 6th last season & to be honest we didn't end up that far behind the likes of West Ham, Spurs & Arsenal. Had we been in a position to field our best XI for the majority of 2020/21 who knows what we may have achieved back in the prem.

I very much doubt we'll get that close this season, also will be surprised if we'll attain eleven points from the Citeh, Chelsea Manure, Liverpool, Spurs & Arsenal games this time.

[White Riot]

Chatting with three Leeds fans locally over the last week, one in Tesco this morning on our weekly shop.

I have regular conversations with many Leeds fans and I have to say you're correct.

Meslier & Phillips are our only two consistent players = Both shine like diamonds.
Why risk Kalvin in a cup game, lose him to injury & we are up the creek = Fair point, to counter that I would say that we may well have lost that tie without him. God forbid he gets injured long-term, or we're in big trouble.
Missing Llorente big-time = Of course, he's a class player both defensively, building play from the back and a threat at set-pieces, but so far he's struggled to be available for us.
Deigo & Pascal are our best CB paring: Probably, I still don't think we've seen the best of Koch, and if Llorente is unavailable and Koch available, we may yet see that he is a great defender. Charlie Cresswell looked awesome to me the other night and very capable.
Why did we sign another winger, Dan James? I really do think that James will shine and prove his worth to us, Competition for places is always great. But other than shoe-horning Rodrigo, and Roberts (I hope that was his curtain call the other night) into ACM, we still need an ACM and barring Forshaw (whose miles off the pace, and been out for two years) who have we got as cover for KP?
We needed to strengthen the central midfield position = A number of us have been saying this ad nauseam so I'm not gonna bother repeating myself.
Dallas, Klich, Bamford & Ayling not showing last season's form: Out of those 4 Klich for me has looked the best, at times the others have just looked knackered and completely out of form. But up until now MB has stayed loyal, maybe the Fulham match will have washed the scales from his eyes. These guys have lacked competition, but with the young hungry guns, we can see there is competition available, that's a great thing.
Rodrigo & Roberts are not prolific goalscorers.
Where are the goals coming from? = Something must Klich soon and we find our shooting boots, if the guys up top can't manage it, give some of the kids a go, they looked ready the other night, particularly Jimmy.
Forshaw is not the answer = Of course he isn't, as above, plus he's liable to blow up again under the first strong challenge. That was an idiotic tweet from Radz, guaranteed to wind us all up.
Our best U23's need to be integrated into the first team rather than making three changes when only one is only required = Yes, get them seeded in gradually, 20 minutes here and there and then a start.
Bielsa needs to be more flexible = Absolutely tur, and he showed he could be towards the end of last season, when we coincidentally picked up plenty of points.

So it's not only MOT members who are concerned = Exactly, being concerned does not indicate a lack of support for the players, team, coach and club.

[1964white]

Meslier once again puts in a classy display of goalkeeping.

Raphinha a cut above the rest.

Not Kalvin's best having to work his b*ll*cks off in our midfield

[White Riot]

Meslier once again puts in a classy display of goalkeeping.

Raphinha a cut above the rest.

Not Kalvin's best having to work his b*ll*cks off in our midfield

I agree on all that Leon

We've unearthed a real diamond in Meslier, he's just growing and growing in terms of stature, performance and reputation. I love him to bits

Raphinha is our flair player and his skills are amazing. He also brings a real goal threat in terms of creating and finishing, which combined with determination and will to win is a perfect mix. We really have struck gold with him. It shows how committed he is when he is playing injured week after week, I still think that's related to that assault by that Man City twat

KP is awesome for me, and the heart of our team, just as Raphinha carries our attack, KP carries the midefield every match, and this is too much. Shackleton had a reasonable game at right back, but he's a midfielder with some very classy touches, so get him in that midfield to help KP out. Otherwise, as I've said before, it's KP vs the cavalry charge.

Regardless of age, class players can make the step up immediately, we've saw it with Meslier, Struijk and Shackleton. Yes, we've got unavailability of senior players, but some of our senior players seem to be really struggling for form, fitness and confidence: Ayling, Dallas, Cooper, Firpo (Admittedly he's hardly played first team footy for Barca), Rodrigo, Klich, Harrison, Bamford, Roberts.

To create depth and competition, MB really needs to start using the young uns. Taking Raphinha off for Roberts to appear on that right wing is madness, it didn't work against Newcastle and same against West Ham. It won't work, because regardless of where you put Roberts he ain't up Championship standard never mind EPL. When you have other young, hungry, and in form players available like Summerville, Gelhardt, Greenwood, McKinstry, Drameh, Kenneh, etc, why would you persist with out of form senior players that are costing us performances and points?

I thought Cresswell was great against Fulham, who had largely an EPL side out, and against a real quality side in West Ham, but that change was forced on MB, similar to how Struijk and Meslier got their chances, So if MB, and maybe our financial situation, means we lack quality and depth in our first team squad, then MB needs to start using these young uns very quickly or we're heading for big trouble in the shape of a relegation battle.

I've stayed positive throughout pre-season and the first 6 matches, but we're now coming to the acid test of Watford, Southampton, Wolves and Norwich. If we're hoping to avoid a relegation battle and get up that table we need full points from these 4 fixtures and at an absolute minimum 9 points.

Against Watford I would go with:

Meslier
Drameh
Cresswell
Struijk
Firpo
KP
Klich
Shackleton
Raphinha
Rodrigo
James

Subs:
Gelhardt for Rodrigo (Looks knackered as each game progresses)
Summerville for James (Still getting used to our system)
McKinstry for Raphinha (Rapha is still carrying an injury)