Opposition looking stronger

[WTF11]

You're ****ing scaring me man!...

Good!😉

But what part of the above wrong/inaccurate?

[Ozwhites]

Good!😉

But what part of the above wrong/inaccurate?

Not the content. But you're seemingly the calming influence now!..haha.

[Jezleeds]

And less sh1t to manage and better.coach to.do the job. I ask again, what is worse.than the end of last season?

Well it would be that we haven't got any players with any experience to fall back on and fill gaps.

Last early September we could have had an injury or two and filled the gaps till the 'first choice' came back in.

Now we appear to have 11 or 12 of any experience who can play, and anyone coming in would be a huge risk and significantly affect the team.

So it's worse because last year we had 24 or so very average players to choose from. Now we have half that which leaves us hugely exposed when Saiz, Berardi, Phillips, O Kane, Cooper or Janssen get themselves suspended, or when others get injured.

[WTF11]

Well it would be that we haven't got any players with any experience to fall back on and fill gaps.

Last early September we could have had an injury or two and filled the gaps till the 'first choice' came back in.

Now we appear to have 11 or 12 of any experience who can play, and anyone coming in would be a huge risk and significantly affect the team.

So it's worse because last year we had 24 or so very average players to choose from. Now we have half that which leaves us hugely exposed when Saiz, Berardi, Phillips, O Kane, Cooper or Janssen get themselves suspended, or when others get injured.

Suspensions can be avoided, injuries less so. The first comes down to discipline (which from all accounts Bielsa is hot on), the second is usually down to fitness (ditto), and luck. Not much to be done about that last bit, except.........the old adage "the more you plan, the luckier you get.".

[WTF11]

Well it would be that we haven't got any players with any experience to fall back on and fill gaps.

Last early September we could have had an injury or two and filled the gaps till the 'first choice' came back in.

Now we appear to have 11 or 12 of any experience who can play, and anyone coming in would be a huge risk and significantly affect the team.

So it's worse because last year we had 24 or so very average players to choose from. Now we have half that which leaves us hugely exposed when Saiz, Berardi, Phillips, O Kane, Cooper or Janssen get themselves suspended, or when others get injured.

Just to go back to the squad size etc. a comparison.......

1975, the 1st team squad was 23-strong. Mostly names we have all heard of, but some lesser well know players. I would suggest that the competition in professional football at that time was much more physical, at all levels, than it is today and yet Leeds were playing at the highest level, and with involvement in the European Cup. all this with Armfield having a 23-man squad at his disposal.

2018, the 1st team squad is 28-strong. Of those, only Blackman, Baker, Roberts (given he hasn't played for us yet!) and Ideguchi are newcomers, the remaining 24 were in the 1st team for the whole of 2017/18, during which for a large part of the beginning of the season we were never out of the top 6. The only gap of any significance is Lasogga who netted 10 times in 21 Championship matches. His goalscoring needs replacing that's for sure. But compared to last season, we have a better GK (and hopefully Blackman proves equally skillful), a better coach (at least so everyone believes/suggests), the same core of players who were keeping us in the top 6, and much less dross. We have already seen that Klich appears to have found his footballing feet (early days I'll give you, but he could have turned out against FGR and looked like the carthorse he was last season), it will be interesting to see how others shape up (you never know, Ekuban might just be taught how to couple his size with some footballing skills , and Sacko able to deliver as opposed to just running around very quickly, now THAT would be something to see!).

Point I'm trying to make is that the squad IS large enough, the question is has Bielsa moulded it into a team that can compete. Pre-seasons wont tell us that, the Stoke game probably will.

[Jezleeds]

Just to go back to the squad size etc. a comparison.......

1975, the 1st team squad was 23-strong. Mostly names we have all heard of, but some lesser well know players. I would suggest that the competition in professional football at that time was much more physical, at all levels, than it is today and yet Leeds were playing at the highest level, and with involvement in the European Cup. all this with Armfield having a 23-man squad at his disposal.

2018, the 1st team squad is 28-strong. Of those, only Blackman, Baker, Roberts (given he hasn't played for us yet!) and Ideguchi are newcomers, the remaining 24 were in the 1st team for the whole of 2017/18, during which for a large part of the beginning of the season we were never out of the top 6. The only gap of any significance is Lasogga who netted 10 times in 21 Championship matches. His goalscoring needs replacing that's for sure. But compared to last season, we have a better GK (and hopefully Blackman proves equally skillful), a better coach (at least so everyone believes/suggests), the same core of players who were keeping us in the top 6, and much less dross. We have already seen that Klich appears to have found his footballing feet (early days I'll give you, but he could have turned out against FGR and looked like the carthorse he was last season), it will be interesting to see how others shape up (you never know, Ekuban might just be taught how to couple his size with some footballing skills , and Sacko able to deliver as opposed to just running around very quickly, now THAT would be something to see!).

Point I'm trying to make is that the squad IS large enough, the question is has Bielsa moulded it into a team that can compete. Pre-seasons wont tell us that, the Stoke game probably will.

I take your point about numbers, you're right that we have players who have played before in the first team, albeit with most fans pointing out their unsuitability at this level, but i'd argue only 6 or 7 of the current group are good enough to play at the top of this division, which is what we want to be doing. 3 or 4 are good enough to be substitutes at a push when we lose one player due to suspension or injury, which is why we need better quality x 4 to go straight into the first team.

It's a wait and see situation now - nothing would make me happier than for you to be right about Bielsa and an improvable squad, and for us to start well against Stoke and the other teams, if we have to make do with what we have.

[LeedsFTW]

I take your point about numbers, you're right that we have players who have played before in the first team, albeit with most fans pointing out their unsuitability at this level, but i'd argue only 6 or 7 of the current group are good enough to play at the top of this division, which is what we want to be doing. 3 or 4 are good enough to be substitutes at a push when we lose one player due to suspension or injury, which is why we need better quality x 4 to go straight into the first team.

It's a wait and see situation now - nothing would make me happier than for you to be right about Bielsa and an improvable squad, and for us to start well against Stoke and the other teams, if we have to make do with what we have.

I think if we get those 3 or 4 quality additions, we will have a very strong starting 11 for this league with a couple of game changers available from the bench.

Having a smaller leaner squad, is a good scenario provided we promote from the under 23's, when needed, who can then supplement from the under 18's and so on.

Just need to be brave whilst ensuring the first team has the quality and right balance.

[norfolk white]

Just to go back on the point of getting gazumped or whatever on players, surely we must know what wages these players are on or want before we enter negotiations, we can't go into these blind?

[LeedsFTW]

Just to go back on the point of getting gazumped or whatever on players, surely we must know what wages these players are on or want before we enter negotiations, we can't go into these blind?

Maybe the club saying they will break the wage structure for Hernandez is coming back to bite us. Could be potential signings are asking for that bit more now when dealing with us.

[WTF11]

We should tell the Vydras and the Hernandezs of this world to f00k the hell.off if all they want by coming to Leeds is a big wage packet. That NOT what we want or deserve.