Leeds United Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours 2024/25

Femural fracture for Dallas, so that'll be a good spell out alright. I'd hazard a guess at October return

if we finish 17th, he cant stick to that thinking.

should be 2

pickford having some game

ball hits 2 posts then Pickford makes wonder save

Not getting anyone in in January was suicide for Leeds.

Mod Edit

Warning issued.

No one is going to get on the end of a cross, I think narrow is the only option we have.

It wasn't going to work anyway gamble or no gamble. Bielsa was in freefall himself.

The board played their suicidal bad hand in the January transfer window. "We have enough quality without spending any money" based on a few good results over the Christmas period

Marsch steadied the ship somewhat, but it wasn't enough. The damage had already been done by Bielsa and the board.

We can still stay up. All we need to do is match the survival instincts of Burnley and Everton.

Slogging out decent results against the bigger teams.

Well.....maybe not.

No it wasn't, but he had credit in the bank and was sacked too soon. Embracing the chaos was far better viewing than being overly structured. The one thing I feared after the sacking was games being tight, structured yet still going down. Give me a 7-0 loss to City and relegation over a 4-0 tightly structured loss and relegation.

This is primarily on the board anyway, a lot of money will be lost by the Americans on it, they definitely didn't want that investment for championship football.

While I wouldnt disagree with anything your saying, and something had to be done, being able to take positives out of games won't mean much if still get relegated. I said it around time of the sacking, if the play tightens up and still go down, they just become another watford/Norwich. Absolute shite craic that is, would rather not be in pl than play like that

I think we pick up 5 points. If we do that, we'll have 39.

I'm not sure I see Burnley getting 5 or Everton getting 7 if I am honest. Could be wrong of course, but have a feeling. I've always thought it could come down to the last day and I think it still will

Burnley and Everton are fighters and their defenders know the basics of defending when it is required. Leeds don't.

But our big problem yesterday was attacking.

We were in some great positions yesterday, but our players don't have the foresight to get that killer pass into the path of another player.

We could have scored at least 3 times if they were more intelligent with the ball and more accurate.

I suppose that's what separates a £10 million player from a £70 million player. Football intelligence.

We are where we are is a pretty awful cliché yet that sums up where things are at the moment. This is the closest point to relegation all season and sadly the risk is quite high.

The Lazarus like revival of Burnley and Everton suddenly remembering how to win means this is now the scenario that most people believed wouldn't come about, even in recent weeks. On balance the chances of survival are heading for 60% against. That said, there may be twists both good and bad between now and at the end of this month.

Post mortems are usually for after everything is over but there are some glaring issues that jump out.

I don't want to speak ill of Bielsa in any way given how his genius turned a very average mid table Championship team into a Premiership side. There are so many positives in his contribution and he well deserves his legendary status.

However, it's his flaws that are part of how the story is unfolding this season. The damage done to the team by long term injuries is undeniable but perhaps it is in his own approach where most of the difficulties arose.

I know people argue that he gives a chance to youth and perversely it's great to see so many young kids on the bench but few of them are yet good enough to take a chance on. Gelhardt aside, there are no Fodens, Elliotts or Gordons. Teams want to manage young players on the amount of time they're exposed to the top level but when a Bielsa Leeds team functions with a little over 12 senior players problems can arise very quickly, and they did with the huge number of injuries.

Injury probably was the biggest killer on the season but when those who might be able to step up are not fully trusted it just magnifies the problem. The Bielsa small squad policy further compounds this.

Equally, his stubbornness to maintain the same, albeit very entertaining, method of play was found out when key positions were not filled for long parts of the season. One thing we have seen from all the best coaches is an ability to adapt to circumstances. Did he really do this often enough?

My own feelings about him on the coaching side are mixed. I think he's a brilliant player coach  and strategist but he’s not always able to get the best out of a team. When they click it's absolute magic, but chaos and dross when it doesn't.

His tactics this season have subjected players to far too many absolute drubbings IMO. No matter how strong a player is mentally that kind of thing is very hard to deal with. Not many of the players who excelled last season have risen to the challenge this year. We also had the rumours back in February of players approaching him to change the system.

A further negative was the January transfer policy. The attitude to January is a pretty solid and understandable one and teams can overpay for very average players but this was a team who were already missing their main striker for four months and no sign of anyone else stepping up. Unfortunately, this time it was a very bad call not to get a man in who could score goals.

So stay up or go down, it's been a challenging season. It's also probably right to say that the call to remove Bielsa was the right one, but it might have needed doing a little bit earlier. Marsch may work some magic but there is a sense of disappointment at how this season has worked out.

Yeah, if Van Der Beek had of been playing for Leeds instead of Everton when we played them (and we had first dibbs on him in January), we would probably have won that match on the day.

It was the Van Der Beek show that day. He slaughtered us.

That was basic stuff Bielsa needed to get right and he didn't. He landed us in the doo-da refusing the offer especially given that we had key players out in January.

If we go down, Bielsa also turned a Premier League side into a Championship side with his naïve mistakes and stubbornness.

Is Leicester and Villas will to win bigger than Everton and Burnleys fight?

Both can move up the table, earn several million more and make the upper half so you'd hope so. I'd assume that the club is putting pressure on to do so for financial reasons and Gerrard, especially, has something to prove.

But of course I don't know the answer.