Leeds United Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours 2024/25

Hijpo

Harrison looks a bit shaky. Few bad balls, not tracking 100%.

If we can get bissaka to dive in a few times we might have some joy down the left.

c.p.w.g.w

Hijpo wrote: »

Harrison looks a bit shaky. Few bad balls, not tracking 100%.

If we can get bissaka to dive in a few times we have some joy down the left.

Was Utd youth player, wonder if he just trying to hard, and not play his natural game

whiterebel

That Fernandez should take supplements to help him stand up in a stiff breeze.

newhouse87

harrison should have closed Henderson down way quicker.

GoldFour4

Discipline is poor so far. Lucky not to have conceded from set pieces. Great save from Meslier .

10000maniacs

Llorente and Meslier awesome first half.
We were 4:1 down at this stage in the corresponding fixture 3 months ago, so we are doing good here.

event

Pablo and Poveda at some point hopefully

newhouse87

looking ominous

GoldFour4

Need a sub to shake things up.

Mushy

Fair play to Alioski there

newhouse87

fcking costa

NuckChorris1

Don’t know if Cooper will get back into this team.

newhouse87

llorente, great calm presence on the ball back there

Hijpo

My god, Uniteds options on the bench alone....

Meslier coming and catching the corners, fantastic stuff.

is_that_so

It's been a very good month despite the daunting fixtures. 5 excellent points and now unbeaten in 6.

newhouse87

Hijpo wrote: »

My god, Uniteds options on the bench alone....

Meslier coming and catching the corners, fantastic stuff.

great addition and relieves a lot of pressure for the defense. If bielsa was giving a top team and got top players to play with the effort our lads put in, it would some team. Delighted with the defense and effort all around.

blueser

Well done lads!

Zaph

That was awful muck from both sides, but that's now 5 points that we probably couldn't have dreamed of getting a month or two ago.

Ceist_Beag

Pretty dull game but we looked really solid defensively. Agree with the comments on Llorente, he looks a proper footballer. I also agree with previous comments on Poveda, he always looks better than Costa.

NuckChorris1

Wasn’t keen on Carragher laughing at the boring game and lack of quality. We stifled them completely and if you swapped in Raphinha and Rodrigo (fit and in form) we’d have had a lot more to offer up front. Very happy with that.

Unbeaten at home to the top 6 is a nice target to have now.

10000maniacs

Five points from the three main Super league teams. Nothing to be sniffed at.

Mushy

Don't care how bad it was, not losing was the best bit about it. Managed to gain a place in the table since the run started, so hopefully get up near the 60 point mark

Damo 2k9

We've become so much more comfortable at the back, it's unbelievable. Absolutely delighted, the heart rate can relax a bit now during games when were passing it around...

Not a great game of football, but happy with the point regardless.

c.p.w.g.w

Young Pascal has really progressed a massive amount this season...proper impressed with his progress and his mental fortitude considering getting hooked against Villa so early and his game against Cardiff?(a few years ago)

downthemiddle

Good read.
https://www.leedsunited.com/news/team-news/28016/angus-kinnear-s-manchester-united-programme-notes?fbclid=IwAR33snMrKUIjDV7CCtwSZubmBopDnTvasUAY0ckSE8JuK5aqLNKHBLG2A_o

The fact that the whole Leeds fan-base has been united by the brilliantly impassioned words of Gary Neville illustrates how desperate the plight of European football became this week.

A fortnight ago we left the Etihad with an instinct that Manchester City didn’t take well to being humbled by lowly Leeds United, but we could never have predicted that it would be the catalyst for them creating their own league where they would never have to be inconvenienced with the spectre of on-pitch failure again.

The audacity of a resurgent Leeds United, an ambitious Aston Villa, a brilliantly managed Leicester City, a Champions League-bound West Ham United and an Everton with bold stadium plans have clearly overwhelmed the self-proclaimed “big six”. The timing of their plan combined with the turmoil of a global pandemic was not coincidental it was deeply cynical, and the clandestine plotting of fellow Premier League shareholders made it all the more seditious.

Whether the collective intent was a genuine move to breakaway or the act of playground bullies seeking negotiating leverage at European and domestic level by threatening to take their ball home is irrelevant. The result was a betrayal of every true football supporter. However, this astonishing ingordigiouness has been the unexpected catalyst of creating a furious unity across nations, leagues, players, owners and fans.

I was proud to see Leeds United and Liverpool supporters stand shoulder to shoulder in protest before a game which once again showed we are already in a Super League and making it all the more bizarre that, in the world envisioned Liverpool’s ownership, the same fixture would have been a meaningless dead rubber.

It was a disgrace that managers and players were left to defend the indefensible in front of the media while their owners cowered at home. Full credit to Leeds’ own James Milner for being the first of many players to speak out and to the supporters clubs and the trusts of the clubs involved who voiced their objections so passionately and unequivocally. These clubs are great institutions that we admire and have long aspired to compete against. The 14 “other” Premier League clubs want and need their brilliant teams and wonderful fans in our league but these teams and supporters deserve custodians who share the belief in the football pyramid and the abhorrence of the prospect of pulling up the drawbridge to create a sporting cartel. The Premier League and European qualification has never been a closed shop. It has had 49 members, 29 of which have played in Europe and 37 of which have played in League One, proving the dreams of every football fan in the country has the chance to be realised.

Hopefully the speed in which the initiative was quashed has helped everyone in the game to appreciate that while there will always be differing opinions on the validity of the pursuit of wealth within football, we are unified in our belief that this can never be done at the expense of the spirit of competition in sport, victory is nothing without the spectre of defeat. However, it would be naive to believe that the threat has been extinguished forever and we still face European qualification that will be partially based on historical performance as opposed to in season merit and a Premier League where some shareholders still want to abolish the enshrined democratic principle of “one club, one vote”. This week’s battle against elitism may have been won but the war needs to be relentlessly and vigorously fought.

In bigger footballing news our Under-23s secured the title and won promotion. Congratulations to the team, Adam Underwood, Mark Jackson and all their staff who are ensuring the culture of excellence is running all the way through Thorp Arch.

So the week ends with the big six only being able to get fatter by having to eat generous helpings of humble pie, our crest launch no longer being the biggest U-turn in English football history, football’s principles of competition, hope and merit being heroically and successfully defended by all those who love the game and Leeds United sides at all levels showing that we have the potential to be great again. What a time to be alive!

Marching on Together

Angus Kinnear

Seathrun66

Zaph wrote: »

That was awful muck from both sides, but that's now 5 points that we probably couldn't have dreamed of getting a month or two ago.

Again I must ask why all the pessimism approaching these matches. We're a super-fit team playing eight less matches than last season. And up against teams drained by European football who were all going to rest players due to more important upcoming matches.

I didn't expect the City win but we were always going to take a scalp, and it could have been two.

Next month we could potentially win all our matches. Won't happen but none of them is as tough as we've just been through and we should have a strong finish to the season.

Jimmy Two Times

c.p.w.g.w wrote: »

Young Pascal has really progressed a massive amount this season...proper impressed with his progress and his mental fortitude considering getting hooked against Villa so early and his game against Cardiff?(a few years ago)

Thought Pascal was man of the match. His looks far more composed now than he did when he first came into the team. That Cardiff game was in December,2019 but you're right,it does seem like ages ago.

I'm crossing into Seathrun66 territory now in saying that I was a little disappointed that we didn't make the best of some of the attacking positions we got into.

First half,it's all to Dallas's right and he tries to find Alioski and passes it straight into touch. Then Ayling in the second half with that outside of the foot attempt.

At that stage,just cross it into the box, it's Harry Maguire they have in there,not Virgil van Dijk. Pity we couldn't get at Maguire more,he's an accident waiting to happen.

Having said all that,delighted with the result and the defensive performance.

Free count was 21 - 11.That wrestling move on Costa by Wan Bassaka..........how we didn't get a free for that.

Seathrun66

Jimmy Two Times wrote: »

Thought Pascal was man of the match. His looks far more composed now than he did when he first came into the team. That Cardiff game was in December,2019 but you're right,it does seem like ages ago.

I'm crossing into Seathrun66 territory now in saying that I was a little disappointed that we didn't make the best of some of the attacking positions we got into.

First half,it's all to Dallas's right and he tries to find Alioski and passes it straight into touch. Then Ayling in the second half with that outside of the foot attempt.

At that stage,just cross it into the box, it's Harry Maguire they have in there,not Virgil van Dijk. Pity we couldn't get at Maguire more,he's an accident waiting to happen.

Having said all that,delighted with the result and the defensive performance.

Free count was 21 - 11.That wrestling move on Costa by Wan Bassaka..........how we didn't get a free for that.

Very poor refereeing again I thought. Shaw leaned into the ball and I don't think our defenders would have got away with that. Yellow cards completely imbalanced and MU got free-kicks very cheaply. Hard to be objective but the niggling feeling remains that you don't get decisions against the bigger teams.



.

Jimmy Two Times

Seathrun66 wrote: »

Again I must ask why all the pessimism approaching these matches

Hard to break the habits of a lifetime I suppose.

I've a good mate who supports Chelsea. We can both trace start of our allegiances to the 1970 Cup Final.

He just wanted to support the winners, has a bobble hat and now watches a few games on telly whereas I ( even at a very young age ) for some bizarre reason,saw the merit in feeling sorry for the gallant losers and now kick every ball with them and go over every chance I get.

It's hard to get past the ingrained pessimism that's comes naturally I suppose.

Leeds that

Seathrun66

Jimmy Two Times wrote: »

Hard to break the habits of a lifetime I suppose.

I've a good mate who supports Chelsea. We can both trace start of our allegiances to the 1970 Cup Final.

He just wanted to support the winners, has a bobble hat and now watches a few games on telly whereas I ( even at a very young age ) for some bizarre reason,saw the merit in feeling sorry for the gallant losers and now kick every ball with them and go over every chance I get.

It's hard to get past the ingrained pessimism that's comes naturally I suppose.

Leeds that

Yeah, I get that. The first Leeds game I ever watched was the Sunderland FA Cup final and I was hooked. No idea why. Fast-forward two years and it was the Paris debacle.

I'd not have been confident going into the play-offs last Summer, nor any future cup finals or semis, but in terms of the league this team and management are so good that any bad days are going to be offset by many more good ones. We're ninth, and we could be higher.

Nevertheless it's still hard to forecast next year but I think we'll get the three players we want and several youngsters will come through. We may lose Rodrigo but we'll replace him if necessary and MB can surely hold onto the two Brazilians for at least another season. I don't see us going backwards and top six is achievable. There really are very few teams that are better than us and we're steadily improving.

jacool

Where were you 29 years ago today?

I was in the Skeff in Galway, in the middle of a hundred Man Utd fans to watch Liverpool vs Man Utd.
To those of you too young to know football before it was invented, this was the only game on TV and there was no internet.
I had been at home listening to an old radio that had the BBC on it and knew that Leeds had beaten Sheff Utd 3-2.
That result put Leeds Utd onto 79 points, 4 ahead of Man Utd, who had lost back-to-back games, with the title at their mercy before that.
In the pub, they put on the highlights and when the whole crowd roared the Blades first goal, I turned to my brother and said "They haven't a clue. This is going to be great."
Leeds scored two, that we cheered in, as did one or two Liverpool fans, and then again they roared home the equaliser.
We went bananas when the third goal went in, that bizarre own goal.

Liverpool won the second match 2-0, the second goal being in the 87th minute, and we went nuts.
Out on the motorbike driving up and down the city streets in a yellow Top Man jersey!!
It was only after about an hour that I realised that there were loads of Leeds fans in a pub called the Yacht!!!
Was sweeter though to watch it where we did!

Happy Days!

Seathrun66

jacool wrote: »

Where were you 29 years ago today?

I was in the Skeff in Galway, in the middle of a hundred Man Utd fans to watch Liverpool vs Man Utd.
To those of you too young to know football before it was invented, this was the only game on TV and there was no internet.
I had been at home listening to an old radio that had the BBC on it and knew that Leeds had beaten Sheff Utd 3-2.
That result put Leeds Utd onto 79 points, 4 ahead of Man Utd, who had lost back-to-back games, with the title at their mercy before that.
In the pub, they put on the highlights and when the whole crowd roared the Blades first goal, I turned to my brother and said "They haven't a clue. This is going to be great."
Leeds scored two, that we cheered in, as did one or two Liverpool fans, and then again they roared home the equaliser.
We went bananas when the third goal went in, that bizarre own goal.

Liverpool won the second match 2-0, the second goal being in the 87th minute, and we went nuts.
Out on the motorbike driving up and down the city streets in a yellow Top Man jersey!!
It was only after about an hour that I realised that there were loads of Leeds fans in a pub called the Yacht!!!
Was sweeter though to watch it where we did!

Happy Days!

In the house of my girlfriend at the time in Brighton. She didn't like football. Mine never do. But she was one who had the foresight (for which I'm eternally grateful) to live literally 20 metres from a pub that was showing both games.

The first game started at mid-day I think and was so so stressful. I thought we were screwed several times during it but a lot of luck went our way that day. The rest of the day is a blur and I don't really remember much of the Pool v MU game as the league was ours after the early game.

The following Saturday I went to Elland Road to see us beat Norwich and parade the trophy but it was all an anti-climax. The game was dour and the team didn't walk around with the trophy as too many fans had invaded the pitch. Great to be there of course but the place to be was Bramall Lane the week before.

event

Just see that Phil Hay has a brain tumour. In for surgery tomorrow. Hopefully gets sorted out, only a young man

Zaph

event wrote: »

Just see that Phil Hay has a brain tumour. In for surgery tomorrow. Hopefully gets sorted out, only a young man

Yep, but thankfully it's benign and he won't need chemo or radiotherapy afterwards. Still scary though, hope it all goes well for him.

Jimmy Two Times

His piece in The Athletic says he was diagnosed around Christmas yet he continued to do his weekly podcast with not a bother on him.

Fingers crossed he comes through it in one piece.I'll miss his articles.

Love this quote.

" An astonishing number of people despise Leeds United or what Leeds United stand for. But this club was never made for them "

event

For a man that didnt grow up supporting us, he writes incredible pieces

PabloAndRoy

event wrote: »

For a man that didnt grow up supporting us, he writes incredible pieces

He's as Leeds as they come. His knowledge is second to none. I was shocked reading his piece until I saw "benign". Phew. He will be fine.

is_that_so

Legia Warsaw apparently making an offer for Bogusz.

Jimmy Two Times

PabloAndRoy wrote: »

He's as Leeds as they come. His knowledge is second to none. I was shocked reading his piece until I saw "benign". Phew. He will be fine.

But still on his podcast show he says " you " whereas Michael and the two Dan's always say " we ".

Keeping up his professional standards.

Hopefully the Square Ball lads will keep us updated on his recovery.

NuckChorris1

Brighton feels like a bit of a non-event after the opposition of the last few weeks. Rodrigo back is good, have a feeling Raphinha's season is over and that's also a good thing if it stops Liverpool etc from seeing any more of his talent until the next transfer window closes.

The return of Ben White looms and I agree with the Square Ball lads that it doesn't feel like a big thing anymore. Llorente and Struijk have stepped up so much that we don't need Ben White now (although I'd gladly swap him in for Cooper just based on age and potential) compared to how desperate we were to get him after promotion. Nice of Brighton to not sell him to a "direct rival" though

Just looking at the table and a win now would make Spurs a really interesting game. Win this and Spurs and we are 3 points off the Europa Conference League place. Everton there too but Spurs still have to play Wolves/Leicester/Villa after us and Everton have City/Wolves/West Ham still to play. Given our fixtures, apart from the Spurs one, it's not beyond the realms of possibility to make 7th. Had to look up what the Europa Conference League is and I'm not sure we really want to be in it unless Bielsa lets the U23 lads at it. Assume there's money to be made and we shouldn't mock getting to any level of European competition but it's hard to judge a new competition like this one that's clearly 3rd ranked and just there to give European football to smaller nations that they've cut out from other competitions.

Ceist_Beag

I really wouldn't want to be in that European competition. Our squad is too small to take on more games next season. I would much rather we concentrate on establishing our position next season, adding a few more (3 would do me) players to our squad and aiming to do next season what West Ham have shown is possible this year. LB, DM and a replacement for Costa would be good business this summer (plus moving Kiko on). We might not even need a DM if Bielsa sees Koch as cover there, now that we have good options at CB.
So 8th place this year would be an excellent finish.

NuckChorris1

Do we need an "8" midfielder or is Dallas/Klich enough? Maybe someone that covers there and Phillips' role too.

If Rodrigo/Bamford/Roberts are our cover for 2 positions I'd like one more quality option.

4 for me in LB, CM, Winger, Forward. Replacement keeper would be good but doesn't seem to be a worry for Bielsa.

Ceist_Beag

NuckChorris1 wrote: »

Do we need an "8" midfielder or is Dallas/Klich enough? Maybe someone that covers there and Phillips' role too.

I saw Bielsa suggested that Phillips could play the 8 role if needed - personally I'm not sure he has the engine/pace for it so yeah that's possibly a position we could look at instead of DM.

NuckChorris1 wrote: »

If Rodrigo/Bamford/Roberts are our cover for 2 positions I'd like one more quality option.

Personally I'd like to see if either Greenwood or Gelhardt could get into the mix here.

event

NuckChorris1 wrote: »

Do we need an "8" midfielder or is Dallas/Klich enough? Maybe someone that covers there and Phillips' role too.

If Rodrigo/Bamford/Roberts are our cover for 2 positions I'd like one more quality option.

4 for me in LB, CM, Winger, Forward. Replacement keeper would be good but doesn't seem to be a worry for Bielsa.

I'd be the same

NuckChorris1

Ceist_Beag wrote: »

I saw Bielsa suggested that Phillips could play the 8 role if needed - personally I'm not sure he has the engine/pace for it so yeah that's possibly a position we could look at instead of DM.


Personally I'd like to see if either Greenwood or Gelhardt could get into the mix here.

Think Bielsa was asked by Adam Pope about that role for Phillips rather than being interested in it himself.

The talk around Gerhardt is that he's insanely talented and the new Wayne Rooney. Hopefully that comes to pass and no better man than Bielsa to get the most out of him.

event

Im always cautious of strikers breaking through who have been brilliant at youth level. Midfielders and defenders, yeah but strikers, its such a huge step up.

You see the likes of Solanke and Brewster, very good but dont always make it. I'd love to see Gerhardt or Greenwood start a game by end of the year just to see, even though I know they wont

is_that_so

This may be elsewhere but seems to have emerged from the paywalled Times.

Premier League clubs are set to be allowed up to 500 away fans at matches in the final two rounds of the season as part of crowds of 10,000 supporters.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/up-to-500-away-fans-set-to-be-allowed-at-final-two-premier-league-matches-0pjqwqr52

Seathrun66

Delighted that Rodrigo is back but surprised that neither Gelhardt nor Greenwood make the bench. Time for them to have a run out.

NuckChorris1

Alioski had looked pretty decent the last few weeks but jaysus that's awful play there for the penalty.

Zaph

Bollocks