Leeds United Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours 2024/25

event

He's only completed 90 mins 6 times this year. He's what I'd call a luxury player, wont get stuck in. Klich is probably on the wind down. He'll be 31 in the summer and I think he's just burnt out. The amount of ground needed to cover in this midfield is massive. And over the last few seasons I would say he has started more games in midfield out of him, phillips and Dallas.

Ceist_Beag

is_that_so wrote: »

Looks like Raphinha is out for a while with a thigh injury, Liverpool game for sure, after the scything Fernandinho tackle. Could be up to a month so may be a season ender.

is_that_so wrote: »

https://www.premierinjuries.com/injury-table.php

That website is showing old information, from last week?

Player|Reason|Further Detail|Potential Return|Condition|Status
Raphael Dias Belloli|Thigh Injury|Apr 10: " haven't asked, but don't have the feeling it is serious."|16/04/2021|Late Fitness Test|50%

Given that he did actually play the match against City I'm not sure I would be putting much faith in what that website is saying.

PabloAndRoy

Ceist_Beag wrote: »

That website is showing old information, from last week?

Player|Reason|Further Detail|Potential Return|Condition|Status
Raphael Dias Belloli|Thigh Injury|Apr 10: " haven't asked, but don't have the feeling it is serious."|16/04/2021|Late Fitness Test|50%

Given that he did actually play the match against City I'm not sure I would be putting much faith in what that website is saying.

Bielsa confirmed he is a doubt

Jimmy Two Times

So Cooper gets sent off for a genuine attempt at an honest tackle during which he gets the ball first and maybe loses control and which probably / possibly justifies the red card. City player gets up like has risen from the dead ( see what I did there ) and plays on,not a bother on him.

The game is almost over,Fernandinho lines up our player, cynically and deliberately takes him out with a knee to the thigh,causing a potentially season ending injury or at least one that might keep him out for a couple of games and all he gets is a yellow.


Game's gone Jeff.

whiterebel

Reports of a 2 year deal being close not true.....https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/56764100

Ceist_Beag

Adam Pope @apopey
·

Bielsa on reports in La Nacion in Argentina that he is close to signing a 2 yr deal at #lufc :

“This information is not real. I ignore the origin. These things only either the club or I can say as we possess the information. If any information is to give I will give it.”

is_that_so

PabloAndRoy wrote: »

Bielsa confirmed he is a doubt

https://twitter.com/Worville/status/1381881617275367427

The Golden Miller

Well he would say the 2 year rumors are untrue anyway, but I'd say they very well could be true. I wonder how far he could take the team if he did stay for 2 years?

One thing that needs to happen, is Bamford moved to second striker or gone. His goal scoring has improved from last year, and aesthetically amazing, but still not good enough. When you look at the scoring charts it's brilliant, but not good enough for the huge amount Leeds actually create. Need a real poacher.

Hard to complain when we're mid-table in the Premier League first season back, but objectively we're better than out position suggests if we're to be honest. We'll continue to drop points in games where teams park a bus and hit us on the break, after having 30 chances and 5 being guilt edge, that we really should win. Everything else is perfect, just need a top class poacher. The traditional poacher type, while going out of fashion, is perfect for the Leeds style, getting on the end of those through the eye of a needle passes. We lose so many cheap points in this area imo, and will continue to do so with Bamford up front.

Bamford does bring alot, surely he'd be a great second stiker, no?

event

Bielsa doesnt play with a poacher though. Never has. He demands a striker that works the channels, closes from the front and can link the play.
Second striker, do you mean one who plays in behind the main striker? So take a player out of midfield. MB doesnt do that, he demands control. We play with Kalvin sitting back and then 2 from Dallas/Klich/Rodrigo in front. To play a second striker would mean taking out one of them and Kalvin moving forward, meaning he isnt there to take the ball from the centre halves like he does.

I mean, we could look for a Bamford replacement but I personally think there are other gaps in the team that are a bigger priority. Namely LB and centre midfield. We signed a bamford replacement last year in Rodrigo who hasnt worked out yet, but he might.

Who would you have in mind? Considering that not only does he have 14 goals, he has 7 assists. I dont want to see us spend about £50m on a problem that for me, doesnt need fixing yet.

Of course he misses chances, but so do all strikers. Harry Kane isnt that much better this season. If he had the same ratio as Kane, it would only be 2 extra goals. Yeah maybe he could have gotten those instead of passing and creating an assist.

Name Shots Goals Ratio
Kane 112 19 16.9%
Salah 99 19 19.1%
Bamford 93 14 15.1%

Jimmy Two Times

To lose Bamford means we have to change the whole style of play as mentioned above which is highly unlikely to happen while Bielsa is in charge.

To change the way we play,the way we press and transition would most likely lead to less chances being created for a poacher type striker to score from.

Both Salah and Kane take the penalties for their respective teams.If you include Kilch's two penalties against Fulham and West Ham ( both won by Pat, who is now the peno taker ) in Pat's statistics,the ratio becomes 16 from 95 a percentage of 16.8 % ( assuming he scores them ).

It's too simple to say that an Aguero type player would score more if given Pat's chances. While that is definitely a possibility,its also fair to say that if we don't set up the way we do,we don't get the chances.

Having said that, I'd take a 24 year old Jamie Vardy all day long.

Could Bamford play the 10 role successfully ? Maybe he could but don't think we're going to find out while Bielsa is here.

jacool

is_that_so wrote: »

Looks like Raphinha is out for a while with a thigh injury, Liverpool game for sure, after the scything Fernandinho tackle. Could be up to a month so may be a season ender.

With rumours about Liverpool and/or Man Utd. looking at him, I'd say Leeds keep him "injured" until August.

adaminho

Forshaw starts for the U23's live on facebook. A draw see's us promoted.

https://twitter.com/LUFC/status/1383103293614923776

Hijpo

adaminho wrote: »

Forshaw starts for the U23's live on facebook. A draw see's us promoted.

https://twitter.com/LUFC/status/1383103293614923776

Where are the u23 games being shown?

is_that_so

Hijpo wrote: »

Where are the u23 games being shown?

Twitter as above or LUTV

https://video.leedsunited.com/live/Zml4dHVyZSU3QzBfeTdwaTAxa2s%3D

is_that_so

Greenwood again!

adaminho

Hijpo wrote: »

Where are the u23 games being shown?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJ50RSkypRs

purple hands

Finished 2-1 to Leeds. Great achievement for the U23s. Romped it, as Forshaw would say.

event

Great to see. Be interesting to see how do next year vs the big boys.

Did forshaw play the Full 90?

adaminho

event wrote: »

Great to see. Be interesting to see how do next year vs the big boys.

Did forshaw play the Full 90?

Came off with about 10 to go.

Seathrun66

event wrote: »

Great to see. Be interesting to see how do next year vs the big boys.

Did forshaw play the Full 90?

Very well you'd have to assume given the team ethic and talent is very comparable to the senior team. Jenkins, Greenwood, Gelhardt, Huggins and Summerville could be looking at Premier League time next year.

Carcharodon

Dumb question, is the pl2 division basically just U23s division, I’ve never really thought of it as an actual up and down type of competitive league

event

Yeah I think so. Think there's 2 leagues and when we got made category premier league (not just cos of promotion, an audit was done) they were put in the lower one. Then got promoted cos we battered them. We sometimes put senior players in it, harrison played last week cos missed city game and MB likes them to be fresh.

Next year up with city, pool, Man u etc. Considering we are just a promoted team, it's really good. Radz, Orta and Kinnear have been working for years on it, starting to bear fruit. Even if don't make it to the first team, you'd hope we can sell some of them and it's another way to earn income. Not saying this would happen but when you see pool selling Brewster for 20m, it can be worth it

adaminho

https://twitter.com/RobMitch92/status/1383335682379108361

Zaph

One of the English tabloids is linking us to Ajax left back Nicolas Tagliafico. He's a current Argentina international, but tbh I don't know anything about him. However his Wikipedia says he is noted for his "lung-busting stamina, excellent technique and continuous enterprise". That would suit Bielsa's style of play, but he's also racked up 41 yellows and 2 reds in the last three years. Berardi would be jealous of those stats.

Ceist_Beag

I suspect we'll be linked with every Argentinian between now and the end of the summer.

Seathrun66

How serious is this? You've got to assume that this will happen sooner or later but it's something that would kill my interest in football, even if we were involved. It's a very Americanised elitist format that would finish any smaller clubs overnight. Please let it not happen.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/56794673

Hijpo

Seathrun66 wrote: »

How serious is this? You've got to assume that this will happen sooner or later but it's something that would kill my interest in football, even if we were involved. It's a very Americanised elitist format that would finish any smaller clubs overnight. Please let it not happen.

https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/56794673

The only thing that has me any way interested in soccer this year is how Leeds play and the quarters of the champions league.
Linesmen not being allowed raise the flag, VAR, the carry on of players screaming and roaring and play acting, the ref decisions, slowing the game down, international games (sweet jesus christ!!). Its getting increasingly difficult to watch a full match. I don't know what to make of it but my interest in the sport is waning.

It could be a good thing seeing the biggest clubs in the world always playing against each other. Smaller clubs might not die out but they certainly wont ever improve to the standard that this competition wants.

Who's even trying to set it up?
FIFA, UEFA and domestic leagues are against it.

Seathrun66

Hijpo wrote: »

The only thing that has me any way interested in soccer this year is how Leeds play and the quarters of the champions league.
Linesmen not being allowed raise the flag, VAR, the carry on of players screaming and roaring and play acting, the ref decisions, slowing the game down, international games (sweet jesus christ!!). Its getting increasingly difficult to watch a full match. I don't know what to make of it but my interest in the sport is waning.

It could be a good thing seeing the biggest clubs in the world always playing against each other. Smaller clubs might not die out but they certainly wont ever improve to the standard that this competition wants.

Who's even trying to set it up?
FIFA, UEFA and domestic leagues are against it.

Look at the owners of the English clubs. There's little respect for the traditional domestic league and it's all about money. A European Super League along the lines of the NFL holds no allure for me.

And in terms of clubs surviving what's the attraction for fans of Leeds and Newcastle in a PL without the big six? How much will the TV money drop and who'll want to play for those clubs. Go down thee divisions and the money issues become even more intense. Football, as we've known it in our lifetimes, would not survive this.

Zaph

Gary Neville was absolutely seething about this, and interestingly Radrizzani tweeted his support. It's greed, pure and simple, and I don't care how the clubs involved try to dress it up, that's all it'll ever be seen as. At the moment it's just 6 English, 3 Spanish and 3 Italian clubs involved. Bayern and PSG have said they don't want to be involved.

https://twitter.com/andrearadri/status/1383880689695674372

Hijpo

Seathrun66 wrote: »

Look at the owners of the English clubs. There's little respect for the traditional domestic league and it's all about money. A European Super League along the lines of the NFL holds no allure for me.

And in terms of clubs surviving what's the attraction for fans of Leeds and Newcastle in a PL without the big six? How much will the TV money drop and who'll want to play for those clubs. Go down thee divisions and the money issues become even more intense. Football, as we've known it in our lifetimes, would not survive this.

So is it the owners of those clubs that want to make their own league with only them in it?

Zaph

Hijpo wrote: »

So is it the owners of those clubs that want to make their own league with only them in it?

My understanding is that they're trying to do is have their cake and eat it. This is intended as a replacement for the Champions League, so presumably they want to stay in their domestic leagues too. Why wouldn't they, the Premier League is incredibly lucrative to the English clubs involved in this. However I can't see the domestic leagues allowing them to continue to play on, and the clubs know that. So what I think this really is is a shakedown of UEFA, they want a bigger share of the pot from the Champions League or else they'll take their ball and go home. Hard to know what might happen next if UEFA tell them to f*ck off though.

whiterebel

Bundesliga clubs can’t go in for it. Pure greed out out of these clubs. Spurs, European elite? Who are they kidding. Very surprised to see Barca mentioned in it with the fan ownsership.

Hijpo

Zaph wrote: »

My understanding is that they're trying to do is have their cake and eat it. This is intended as a replacement for the Champions League, so presumably they want to stay in their domestic leagues too. Why wouldn't they, the Premier League is incredibly lucrative to the English clubs involved in this. However I can't see the domestic leagues allowing them to continue to play on, and the clubs know that. So what I think this really is is a shakedown of UEFA, they want a bigger share of the pot from the Champions League or else they'll take their ball and go home. Hard to know what might happen next if UEFA tell them to f*ck off though.

Ah okay, so they play their own tournament and then Europa league becomes the champions league equivalent?

I feel this is either blown out of proportion or I'm missing a vital part of 15 clubs wanting to play in their own tournament while everything else stays the same??

Just heard the press release about it.
Sounds like a big shout of no confidence by these teams in the UEFA model and are confident they can push on globally on their own if they get turfed out of the domestic leagues.

is_that_so

whiterebel wrote: »

Bundesliga clubs can’t go in for it. Pure greed out out of these clubs. Spurs, European elite? Who are they kidding. Very surprised to see Barca mentioned in it with the fan ownsership.

Their finances are in the toilet and the other two Spanish clubs are not a whole better.

Ceist_Beag

Gary Neville was spot on. This would kill the game. These greedy owners are only driven by money, tv rights and global brand concerns. They don't give a crap about the fans, traditions, the clubs themselves and their history, none of that is important. They see it as like the NFL, a closed league of franchises.
What they fail to see is what most fans get from the game. It's the local rivlalry, the slagging in the office or the pub with fans of other teams, the oneupmanship after victory in a local derby, showing your calls in front of mates, neighbours, colleagues. None of that would survive in a European Super League. Who really cares about Juventus in Manchester? They won't see Juventus fans each day of the week so who can they brag in front of or trade jokes with?
I appreciate the irony of me saying this as someone who doesn't even live in Leeds but I'm not the lifeblood of Leeds United. The 20K season ticket holders and their families are the lifeblood. They are the ones who really love beating Sheff Utd., Sheff Wed, Man Utd., etc. because they are the ones who see the other fans each day.
All of that goes with this ESL concept. It would be an asbolute disaster for the game but even the fact that this has now been put forward I think is a major issue. I already thought the rumours about increasing the Champions League format to a 36 team league was a rubbish move for domestic leagues. It's getting further and further away from what it was and should be about so in one sense all of that is already lost.
What most of these owners fail to appreciate is that soccer is actually a very boring sport if you take away the tribalism, the passion, the local rivalry. The last year has really highlighted that. The tv numbers might be good but that's only because there is nothing else for people to do but anyone who watched the FA Cup semi final between Man City and Chelsea are probably thinking that is 2 hours they will never get back!

event

Neville is being fairly hypocritical on it. Moaning about greed yet has no issue bankrolling Salford up through the divisions.

Neville is going on about it cos Sky are telling him to, no other reason. If they got the rights for this new super league he wouldnt be long shutting up. The man had no issue with the Glazers at man u and he thinks Salary caps in L1 & L2 shouldnt happen.

---

Couldnt care less about it myself tbh. Surprised it hasnt happened sooner. We supported Leeds in League 1, 6 teams leaving the PL wont impact me watched leeds or anything. We might even get a CL spot now :pac:

Kingp35

I'd be worried about the 49'ers investment in the club now. It's American owners driving this ESL nonsense. They don't understand the concept of relegation/promotion and having to qualify for competitions.

The entire world of football is in chaos right now.

It will be an intersting night on Sky Sports tonight. I doubt Klopp is a fan of the ESL at all.

event

Bielsa will be against it anyway

Zaph

event wrote: »

Bielsa will be against it anyway

Yeah, really interested to hear his thoughts on it. This is the sort of thing that you'd imagine would be abhorrent to him given his views on how football teams are part of the community and how their history is so important. Also be interesting to see if Liverpool muzzle Klopp tonight over it. He doesn't strike me as the sort who'd be in favour of it either.

NuckChorris1

Premier League brought this on themselves by allowing in all the big money from owners that have zero connection to their club, the area or the fans. Salary caps and fan ownership are solutions but a cap will never work as somewhere else (China, Middle-East, etc) will offer the big money and the top players will go there. A league without promotion or relegation of 75% of the teams is insane though. Also, Daniel Levy must be an absolute master salesman to have gotten Spurs in the mix! I don't know who it is that wants more and more Champions League games apart from gambling companies. There's already too many games and too few "champions".

Hijpo

I wonder can the FA take action with these particular owners on the basis of them falling foul of some over looked issue during the fit and proper person test......

event

These clubs will leave the PL. The FA will have no power over them I reckon

event

NuckChorris1 wrote: »

Premier League brought this on themselves by allowing in all the big money from owners that have zero connection to their club, the area or the fans. Salary caps and fan ownership are solutions but a cap will never work as somewhere else (China, Middle-East, etc) will offer the big money and the top players will go there. A league without promotion or relegation of 75% of the teams is insane though. Also, Daniel Levy must be an absolute master salesman to have gotten Spurs in the mix! I don't know who it is that wants more and more Champions League games apart from gambling companies. There's already too many games and too few "champions".

Yeah I have no sympathy for any PL club over this. They all voted to break away 30 years ago to create the PL. And if they were invited to this Super League, they would all join

Ceist_Beag

event wrote: »

These clubs will leave the PL. The FA will have no power over them I reckon

If it goes ahead this is very likely but it will be really interesting then to see if these players are banned from international football or not. Essentially this new league will be unrecognised by FIFA so this is a real game of brinkmanship right now.

whiterebel

Then they'll have 1 match per week against the same clubs. I see the novelty of that wearing off quite quickly. Glaziers and FSG think everything will run like American sports with no relegation or promotion. Its a joke when you see Spurs managed to get themselves in amongst the "big boys".

So 6 clubs may live the PL. They will have one "Super" league where they play in 2 leagues of 10.
Their players will be banned from all competitions, and internationals. So, a 19 year old Messi is given the choice - Millionaire lifestyle and play for your country? Multi millionaire lifestyle, can't play in a World Cup, Euros, FA Cup or whatever. Play in a league which is like exhibition matches, with nothing at stake?

whiterebel

How will they buy players? The Leagues may put an embargo on buying or selling players to these clubs? I'm sure the EU will have something to say about it, not that the English clubs will give a monkey's.

event

FIFA and UEFA wont ban players from international football imo, thats an empty threat. No sponsors will touch their tournaments without the big boys.

---

Any word on injuries for tonight, how do we think it will go? Could win or get beat 6 nil, that type of game

is_that_so

Late fitness tests on both Raphinha and Rodrigo according to the BBC.

is_that_so

Team news
Leeds XI: Meslier, Ayling, Alioski, Llorente, Struijk, Phillips, Harrison, Dallas, Costa, Roberts, Bamford

quarryman

Gutted no Raphinha.