Leeds Utd v Newcastle Utd Match Thread - Rodrigo starts, Joffy on the bench

[Bongo1874]

He doesn't, that's the point. Which of them get a chance without injuries? None. Favouritism over dross like Roberts preventing exciting talents like Gelhardt is what's costing us points.

Fair enough feel its harsh to say he doesn't give youth a chance but.

[SG90]

Fair enough feel its harsh to say he doesn't give youth a chance but.

In four seasons under Bielsa, the only young player to get a real chance is Jack Clarke. The rest only get a few mins off the bench or play because of injuries.

[whiteswan]

The dilemma facing Bielsa is how he can play 3 wingers in the side. He is determined to do so when they are all fit and has chopped and changed them in various positions. Ultimately it is a dilemma which needs to be solved soon or dispensed with.
James will never be a 9. He does not have the composure or the nous to play in and around the 6 yard box. But that is not to say he doesn’t deserve his place in the side. His pace creates panic in most of the opposition. Is he worth what we paid ???? To early to answer that for me.
Gelhardt is young, but so was Owen, Fowler, Rooney and countless other forwards when they broke onto the scene. He is ready to play in my book and deserves his chance.

You can add Smith and Milner to that lot as well....

[Bongo1874]

In four seasons under Bielsa, the only young player to get a real chance is Jack Clarke. The rest only get a few mins off the bench or play because of injuries.

The Premier league is ruthless, imagine he starts Gelhardt ahead of Rodrigo who's on 90k a week it wouldn't make sense.

You have been very unlucky with injuries this season, if Bamford was fit he wouldn't play ahead of him.

[Cjay]

Rome wasn't built in a day, you can only piss with the c**k you currently have if you want to take the next step, keeping Marcelo is needed but also more investment into squad , Marcelo has to bite the bullet and agree to a larger squad of players between 26/28 if you aspire to play European football.

It's a process trust it.

Hopefully you're board and investors can deliver it, you have the man in place to do it, but he needs backing.

Bielsa wont be here next season, 90% certain.

Even if he was he would never agree to have a larger squad which would mean a European challenge would be unsustainable.

I don't think a squad this small makes top 7 ever.

Also our next prospective owners are an American venture capital fund, large squad investment will never happen.

Teams like you, Villa and Wolves will always have a huge financial advantage and I think that will keep us out of Europe especially if the 49ers investment group becomes majority owner.

Nice attempt to be positive though

Lived in Newcastle for few years so have a soft spot for the team and place (although I struggle to see why you guys would rather be owned by ultimately a murdering dictator over Ashley, footballing perspective I get but being the face of a murdering regime I can't quite get my head around).

But have a lot of affection for the people and city so we'll done today.

Game plan was decent and had that bit of luck.

[whiteswan]

In four seasons under Bielsa, the only young player to get a real chance is Jack Clarke. The rest only get a few mins off the bench or play because of injuries.

Struijk? But we'll have to wait and see if he keeps him once Cooper is fit

[SG90]

Good to see journos are finally starting to question these decisions, rather just licking his arse.

[Bongo1874]

In four seasons under Bielsa, the only young player to get a real chance is Jack Clarke. The rest only get a few mins off the bench or play because of injuries.

My Scottish team is Hearts, we had a young lad come on the scene who was 16 year old at the time, he scored on his debut against Celtic, he's now playing in a division below us but was Hyped up to be the next big thing my point you don't want to put a young player in to early, Gelhardt is 19 and will have plenty opportunities to play for Leeds.

[SG90]

Struijk? But we'll have to wait and see if he keeps him once Cooper is fit

Injuries. Cooper will waltz straight back in.

[60sUnited]

Strip everything out.... if we had a natural striker we would have won....Full stop.

[White Riot]

For me this just circulates back to the lack of correct investment in the squad.

We have 17 senior first team players, if you don't count the kids, and a good percentage of those players are regularly unavailable.

Five of those players were injured and unavailable today, leaving us with Tyro and the kids on the bench.

Bearing in mind that during Bielsa's three and a half season tenure we average 4 senior players being unavailable for each match.

You could include Kiko n Costa, but they're out on loan.

Whose our back up striker to Paddy? Gelhardt?

The back up goalie is Klaesson, who from what I've seen is miles off it.

We needed to have recruited wisely, which we did with Meslier, Struijk, Hjelde, Bate and Gelhardt, but these guys have only been given a chance because of senior players being unavailable. We have spunked some pile of money on players that are not what we needed like Rodrigo, James, Costa and Kiko.

Barring Meslier, if we have 10 senior outfield players available they start, doesn't matter if they're ineffective in the hole they're shoved into, and despite the fact that we have young and talented specialists like Bate and Gelhardt available.

A lack of quality, specialism and depth is why we're witnessing what's occurred this season.

We were still the better team today, but a specialist ACM and CF would have ensured that we won comfortably.

[onemoreslogan]

We looked very good in the first half. The second was more even and once again our lack of a goal scorer came back to haunt us.
Did VAR check their goal? Looked very close to offside to me.
Putting Roberts on before Gelhardt, when it was obvious that we needed to improve our chances of scoring was a huge mistake in my opinion.
The fact that we were playing one of the teams below us and that they played us pretty evenly is not very reassuring for the remainder of the season. It would have been much better for us to lose to West Ham and pick up 3 points today instead. Two of the teams below us gained 3 points on us this week. Not good.
This is a massive loss for us.

I thought Rodrigo had an excellent game today. His was decisive in the middle and his quick long passes constantly unlocked Newcastle's defence and led to most of our best chances. While I agree he hasn't (yet) lived up to the fee we paid for him I thought that today he was Pabloesque.

[Bongo1874]

Bielsa wont be here next season, 90% certain.

Even if he was he would never agree to have a larger squad which would mean a European challenge would be unsustainable.

I don't think a squad this small makes top 7 ever.

Also our next prospective owners are an American venture capital fund, large squad investment will never happen.

Teams like you, Villa and Wolves will always have a huge financial advantage and I think that will keep us out of Europe especially if the 49ers investment group becomes majority owner.

Nice attempt to be positive though

Lived in Newcastle for few years so have a soft spot for the team and place (although I struggle to see why you guys would rather be owned by ultimately a murdering dictator over Ashley, footballing perspective I get but being the face of a murdering regime I can't quite get my head around).

But have a lot of affection for the people and city so we'll done today.

Game plan was decent and had that bit of luck.

Disagree massively, if that's the case why are you planning to expand you're stadium?

[mentalcase]

Honestly - every player loses the ball. Gelhardt did a couple of times when he came on.
How you can attach the blame for their goal on Roberts losing the ball is tenuous and really just a way of pouring out your hatred for the fella.
Kind of thing a 10 year old comes out with.
We lost because we were not clinical enough when we had chances. James as a 9 does not work. For me it has to be him or Harrison and play Gelhardt up top from the start. We all want that because if Bamford was for one would be on the bench. Hard to drop Harrison with 4 goals in last couple of games and then you have a 25 million player- who for me does work hard but should not be playing 9 in a million years. But playing a kid in his place seems to be a step too far for MB.
When Will Gelhardt start a game we are expected to win and be given an opportunity to make himself undroppable ??

The other players losing possession didn't amount to the opposition scoring though did it !!!
Even his Argie step-dad was furious at losing it where he did, although I fully expect him to be CF next game instead of DJ.

[Cjay]

Disagree massively, if that's the case why are you planning to expand you're stadium?

Because we are getting ahead of ourselves?

A new stadium will take money away from the playing side and makes an asset more valuable and commercially attractive.

All things that appeal to investors. All the debt for the stadium will be put against the club anyway.

It's not a positive from a competitive and footballing perspective at all.

We need to establish ourselves as a consistent top 7 team before we should be going near any new stadiums. It's great PR but dig deeper and it is a massive risk.

Run before you can walk comes to mind, the teams who have new stadiums planned or in progress are all established top half Premier league clubs.

[Bongo1874]

Because we are getting ahead of ourselves?

A new stadium will take money away from the playing side and makes an asset more valuable and commercially attractive.

All things that appeal to investors. All the debt for the stadium will be put against the club anyway.

It's not a positive from a competitive and footballing perspective at all.

We need to establish ourselves as a consistent top 7 team before we should be going near any new stadiums. It's great PR but dig deeper and it is a massive risk.

Run before you can walk comes to mind, the teams who have new stadiums planned or in progress are all established top half Premier league clubs.

You will stay up you don't have to worry about that mate, you have a waiting list on matchday tickets as far as I'm aware, I could be wrong but?

So having a bigger stadium will allow you to bring in more matchday revenue, which in turn will allow more money to be available for the playing squad.

[BGwhite]

Good to see journos are finally starting to question these decisions, rather just licking his arse.

Yes and then the panic set in so he threw on Joe to try and rescue the situation instead of bringing Joe on in the first place.

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[BGwhite]

My Scottish team is Hearts, we had a young lad come on the scene who was 16 year old at the time, he scored on his debut against Celtic, he's now playing in a division below us but was Hyped up to be the next big thing my point you don't want to put a young player in to early, Gelhardt is 19 and will have plenty opportunities to play for Leeds.

If he's good enough he's old enough.

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[Bongo1874]

If he's good enough he's old enough.

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Agree .

[CHAPELALLMAN]

For me this just circulates back to the lack of correct investment in the squad.

We have 17 senior first team players, if you don't count the kids, and a good percentage of those players are regularly unavailable.

Five of those players were injured and unavailable today, leaving us with Tyro and the kids on the bench.

Bearing in mind that during Bielsa's three and a half season tenure we average 4 senior players being unavailable for each match.

You could include Kiko n Costa, but they're out on loan.

Whose our back up striker to Paddy? Gelhardt?

The back up goalie is Klaesson, who from what I've seen is miles off it.

We needed to have recruited wisely, which we did with Meslier, Struijk, Hjelde, Bate and Gelhardt, but these guys have only been given a chance because of senior players being unavailable. We have spunked some pile of money on players that are not what we needed like Rodrigo, James, Costa and Kiko.

Barring Meslier, if we have 10 senior outfield players available they start, doesn't matter if they're ineffective in the hole they're shoved into, and despite the fact that we have young and talented specialists like Bate and Gelhardt available.

A lack of quality, specialism and depth is why we're witnessing what's occurred this season.

We were still the better team today, but a specialist ACM and CF would have ensured that we won comfortably.

and probably also 16 or 17m on JKA if the court case goes against us - which looks likely.