Leeds Banter Archive December 12 2020

12 Dec 2020 20:17:54
I get all the concern about set pieces because I hide behind the sofa every time we concede one, but to be fair to Bielsa / Orta they bought two centre backs who are both supposed to be good in the air but hasn’t been able to play them together or indeed even one of them most of the time. Think we should perhaps give him some credit (Bermo etc) that he may have recognised the problem, tried to sort but been thwarted by injuries. That is £30m of centre backs sat on the table so I can understand why he might feel a little forlorn.

12 Dec 2020 22:16:07
Unfortunately we keep buying lame ducks. Look at how many players failed to start or went on sick leave after we bought them. Roberts and Agustin for starters. Is it training, medical staff or medical assessments or a combination. I joked it was an ongoing problem including getting players like Cooper fit. It's not a joke anymore. Skippy (Old persons experience) would do better than Cooper. m.

12 Dec 2020 23:43:08
mate three years and Cooper is stll playing. that is not acceptable. three tears and if anything we are worse at the bak and at set plays


I know soukek is good In the air so why was Dallas on him? not acceptable in any way shape or form. sort it out or leave our club for me. who to replace belisa. me. I would put two people on soukez or at least one of our better players in the air. not Dallas. never Dallas. but then what do I know. oh wait I know more that our manager who apparently is top three I the world. what a joke.

{Ed0666's Note - how can you doubt bieslas credentials and nous? You’re lucky to have him mate. You’re issue is your signings you made for the premier league haven’t really come off. Give Biesla a better canvas to work on and he’ll make a masterpiece.

13 Dec 2020 09:36:22
Berm old chap listen to yourself. it’s you who sounds like a joke, you shouted for him to leave last season and ended up being proven wrong. Just chill pal all teams have bad runs and we will be fine.

13 Dec 2020 09:54:12
Hindsight! What a beautiful thing 😂
How smart of you Berm to think of putting TWO players on Soucek at the corner! Maybe you should get in touch with Bielsa before Wednesday to give him the benefit of your wisdom 😂.

13 Dec 2020 11:21:06
Down south it wasn’t hind sight I called it before the game
It’s called basic knowledge of football.

13 Dec 2020 15:15:19
And yes Martyn male you right had a few too many baby shams when I posted this

I
Have become calmer now but few more corners going in and I’m sure I’ll be angry again.

13 Dec 2020 05:20:47
You make a good point Ed about quality of players and signings not ( yet) coming off
# Victor Orta.

{Ed0666's Note - new signings are like Xmas presents. Some are good and some well not so good. You just got the not so good ones. Hopefully you can get some good presents in the January sales. Keep the receipt this time tho

12 Dec 2020 19:35:40
I hope the Leeds 2 fund quickly comes to fruition. Seems like it's our only financial lifeline as Qatar has gone worryingly quiet.

{Ed0666's Note - you are such a ripe club to buy for potential owners. So much potential a large and partisan fan base...

12 Dec 2020 17:14:21
Bad day at office for Carlos.

12 Dec 2020 15:26:10
Anyone calling for Bielsa to be sacked right
now should be absolutely ashamed of themselves . He's not perfect ( no one is ) but if any manager can get us back to winning ways and keep us in this division it's MB for me . No other manager in the world could have done more with these players than him over the last two and a half years .

12 Dec 2020 15:55:56
Actually makes me angry that anyone could think that the solution would be to sack the manager! Get a grip!

12 Dec 2020 16:03:57
Red don’t think anyone is calling for him to de sack, but things need changing, we don’t know if he will be here next season also adds to the problem on a yearly contract don’t help, but something had a happen as team looks out of salts, if it keeps going the way it has he will walk for sure look at his record,

12 Dec 2020 16:07:27
You lot would be crazy to call for MB head, you guys will probably finish around 12-13th, yes ye had a bad game last night but overall this season ye have being great to watch and didn’t deserve a couple of those losses, keep the faith UTV.

12 Dec 2020 16:07:51
RHC Good post. We're simply in transition as a club and everyone in the team is sensing it. They know a few shall be moved on in the summer. Alioski, Cooper, Pablo, Roberts and even Dallas all look like summer sales. That's bound to affect team morale. I think the Pablo spat started the whole thing off and no coincidence we've been in decline since bar against Toffees. Bub will probably retire in May.

12 Dec 2020 16:17:21
RHC see my comment below for starters. For now it was a suggestion let's see how we do in the next 4 games for a definitive answer. He is certainly far from perfect and his stubbornness with Jan window and continued failures
with resolving the offensive and defensive set pieces is detrimental to our EPL survival. I suspect his stubborn mishandling of the Pablo situation has not helped either with team spirit.

I think your last sentence is possibly a little OTT too.

12 Dec 2020 18:36:50
Whackattack, we are not, one thing you should understand with MB he will never be we love him to much! MB will just walk away make no mistake about that.

12 Dec 2020 22:36:42
There will be lots of odd results this year is my guess, not easy with injuries we’ve not got the biggest of squads either, nice to see all the bigger teams dropping points hopefully some of us can take points off Liverpool and Spurs to keep the top tight anyone but those 2 for the title I hope, imagine Liverpool winning back to back😱 they won 1 in 20 years and already think they own the league.

12 Dec 2020 23:48:26
nope sack the manager sort out set plays don't matter how good the football is if you let one in every time they get a corner

appoint me. and for my first call in the job I put Bamford on there best attacker of a ball in the air. I have already improved us and I know little about football

if everyone knows it why don't our completely clueless joke of a manager

and it has been three years. three years.

{Ed0666's Note - someone’s been at the cooking sherry

12 Dec 2020 10:23:23
Horrible start to a Saturday after a loss, like others rewatched it again and better team won, other than Ayling and Messlier incredibly poor performance.

Most worryingly in both Chelski and West Ham we have not looked the fitter team whether that’s international fixtures or more likely a lack of confidence, fear even is very troubling.

We are worst in league at conceding at set pieces well joint with Leicester but they’re making up for it in other areas, the best two teams at scoring from set pieces in the league yep Chelski and West Ham so we knew but couldn’t stop them.

I think when our confidence and energy levels are at it, the set piece issue is not so evident or it appears so, Leicester are fourth with same amount of goals conceded at set pieces, therefore, I do think loss of confidence may be the biggest difference just now.

But what do we do, I cannot defend some of those performances last night and respect people’s right to have a go. For me if they wear the shirt and give everything i’ll always back them but that wasn’t the case for a few last night.

But going forward for a month or more at least both Koch and Lorente won’t be available. play Struick? or Charlie Cresswell meant to be exceptional in the air?

January a rubbish window to buy but possibly loan decent defenders?

Then I actually recall an old Berm suggestion from way back, and whilst we often criticise Berm he does always say how he proposes to fix improve a situation.

One or both Millwall centre backs, buy them in Jan talking £4million for both? (jake cooper the better one excellent in the air) and whilst I appreciate Bub likes ball playing centre halves but I don’t see us losing either of last two games if we had that sort of defender in place. so i’d go championship fix in january just until both our shiny international centre halves are fully fit.

Not Pontus, think he’s not side before self same with Danny Rose prefer Rico Henry at left back.

See Berm i do read and take in your posts 👍

Appreciate Bubs stubbornness won’t permit this and I still believe Bub is our greatest single asset but this is how I (well Berm) propose we address things in the short term.

12 Dec 2020 11:03:54
Has it got to the point where we are just relying on Sheff United, West. Brom. and hopefully Fulham or even Burnley accumulating less points than Leeds come end of season.
And a bottom four or five relegation battle for the rest of the season.


If Bielsa was sacked right now as Berm. wants at least the new manager would hopefully sanction the urgent need to sign a CB, a lb cm, and CF in tbe Jan window. plus he would play Pablo.

12 Dec 2020 12:50:13
Do we have the money Baz? C'mon 49ers. Fingers out.

12 Dec 2020 13:24:22
Are you actually serious about sacking Bielsa? I know football fans are fickle and have short memories but come on! 🙄.

12 Dec 2020 13:38:18
Leo the problem is that Bielsa likes a small squad and has already stated he doesn't want another CB and probably doesn't want any other players in this window

I think Leeds are now in big relegation trouble with Bielsa's stubbornness and weaknesses.

12 Dec 2020 14:54:48
I know we've had a couple of bad games but talking of sacking is a bit steep! We were singing are undying love for him 2 month ago.

12 Dec 2020 23:51:43
cheers mate been saying for ages to get in the Millwall cb they are class hence the clean sheets.

13 Dec 2020 00:45:28
BV appreciate it’s really tough watching the lads just now.

However, I think it’s reasonable to assume we were candidates for relegation from the outset, any team coming up would naturally fall into that category, with a finite amount of money as is our situation.

We remain ahead of the other promoted teams, but cannot believe you could contemplate sacking Bielsa? And who is the managerial replacement? How many players can the new Manager bring in? Do we have the funds? I said in my own earlier post, we know why we’re losing games at present and we know why we’re currently weak in that area.

What we don’t actually know is if Bubs, Orta or Radz will take on new recruitments in January?

We’re all guessing a few said Pablo was being ostracised by Bub but yet he was back in squad as soon as he was back to fitness, personally, I think Bielsa deserves our respect and patience to turn this around.

Without him we would not even be having this debate.

12 Dec 2020 08:55:54
Right now I'm afraid I can only see the negatives of which there are many . The only players to come out with any credit last night were Meslier, who kept the score down, Ayling who adapted well to CB and KP who fought hard . The rest were poor with particular woeful mentions for Cooper, Harrison, Costa and Rodrigo . To be fair Bamford had little service and Raph wasn't a disaster but isn't the world beater some claim him to be . Hangs on to the ball too long, too selfish for me and didn't once get to the bye line . Our poor recruitment is coming home to roost . No new striker ( where would we be without Bamford's goals? ) , Rodrigo I'm afraid can't finish and isn't a midfielder either! So we failed to sign a striker and didn't get that Pablo replacement either! The two new centre backs whilst currently injured, haven't made us more solid at the back and our wingers look one dimensional . Teams are lining up to score from set pieces and this was even before we lost Koch and Llorente . Worse still the spark from the first four or five games have gone and we seem to have lost our confidence and zip . Long, hard season ahead . These next few fixtures were meant to provide opportunity but just imagine Andy Carroll and Chris Wood licking their lips at the thought of those corners!

12 Dec 2020 09:38:50
Red : totally agree, Rodrigo full of eastern nothing , Meslier man of the match, Radz needs to think very hard in where this club is going, I do understand that is only our first season back but you can see the big difference starting to show, bam bam for a start he should be on the bench, only coming on when we need him. To keep Pablo out is a big mistake by our manager who I will say is great but not bigger than our club, and needs to think about the team let differences go. Can’t see as said winning the next two, but come the window Radz need to buy to save the second part of the season.

12 Dec 2020 09:40:31
Have to agree with pretty much everything you have said RHC On the flip side Bielsa has to work with what he’s got! We didn’t have 500 million to spend in the summer to build him a top six team so we have what we have and that is probably the most honest, hardworking squad in the league! We bought 2 international CH and both are currently out! We can’t do much about that except try and get by for the time being! My weekend has been severely spoilt by that result/ performance but realistically we are going to have games where we are not 100% on it.
I’m going to mope for a couple of days and then trust in Bielsa and the players to go again! MOT.

12 Dec 2020 10:29:53
Good post RHC
Whiteman completely agree re Bielsa and Pablo.

12 Dec 2020 12:30:57
Just to add for the first time in ages Bielsa’s substitutions were appalling . I was waiting for his usual first sub Poveda and may be Pablo . But to put on Shack, Costa and Roberts killed any chance we had as far as I’m concerned . Shack did good but it’s plain to see Costa was completely lacking in match sharpness and confidence after having been dropped and probably needed a 23 game or two before playing in the first team again . As for Roberts, well doesn’t it just make your heart sink when he comes on with ten minutes or so to go . Like he will effect anything at all .

12 Dec 2020 08:46:39
After a night sleep, rewatched the game through gritted teeth, heres my personal thoughts
Firstly we were shocking, costa, cooper, klich, harrison the worst offenders in my opinion, and personally they should offering there weekly wage to charity, but it won't happen

Secondly, Berm I have massive respect for you, but MB out, really, were we would we be today without him, wycombe away today maybe, yes he is stubborn and needs to change (but wont) and who we going to get if we did pull the trigger, (please no one respond with poch)

Next, worried 4 Newcastle and Burnley game because they will lump it up and we will struggle again, will probably lose both but beat Utd

In regards our style of football, do we want to see hoof ball again, negative defensive football, I had a 1 hour argument last night with a west ham fan, who in the summer wanted moyes out for howe, now he thinks he is better than sliced bread, your happy when your winning games but attitudes change when u lose a few, we all loved Bielsa ball when we win, lose and we criticise it

Finally, are there 3 worst teams then us, yes and plenty more.

Hoping last night was the kick up the arse we needed, we aren't the top six great team some think we are.

MARCHING ON TOGETHER.

12 Dec 2020 09:42:56
Great post Richie✅.

12 Dec 2020 10:42:02
Richie re ' worst teams '

so which 3 or more teams are you CERTAIN ( ie you would put your mortgage on it ) will finish below Leeds United on points accumulated.

13 Dec 2020 12:14:26
West brom, spent hardly any money
Fulham, coach not good enough
Sheff utd, 2nd season syndrome.

12 Dec 2020 07:39:23
{Ed's Note - Ed001 has posted a new article entitled, Review Of The Day 11th December 2020

12 Dec 2020 01:26:08
Poor.
Worst performance for a long while.
We are in trouble.

{Ed0666's Note - I’m not sure you’re going down mate. but you may flirt for a while.

12 Dec 2020 01:52:49
You jinxed it Aus with your 5- 2 outlandish prediction . I winced when I saw that . there are no easy games ' bankers ' ( as you put it) for a newly promoted team.

12 Dec 2020 04:09:27
I’m not so sure Ed.
We were outplayed by an average side.
Only ayling and kp any good tonight.
We just didn’t have a clue in my opinion.
Passing was appalling. Crossing useless.
Shame we couldn’t have made 7 substitutions at half time.
We can’t defend full stop. Get out passed and out jumped.
At no point in that game after they equalised did I think we would win. It was more about how many they would score.
I know it’s only one game and one really poor performance but just got a bad feeling.
Apart from obviously Koch and loirente I think that was our strongest 11 at the start.
No Pablo at half time was a crime. I don’t think biesla tried to win that game. He can strut and shout as much as he likes. He made bad decisions in that game.
I also have the feeling he will be on his way soon. Hopefully before pochetti gets a job.

{Ed0666's Note - forget about Poch mate you haven’t got the transfer kitty for him. I’d be surprised if Biesla doesn’t stay till season end. You will surely recruit in Jan and I’m sure life wil be rosier. Sometimes It just takes one or two players to get the master plan moving and grooving again. Besides who would you rather have in the trenches when you’re fighting for survival Parker, Bilic or Biesla.?