Concerns & Basics

[pete1967b]

Makes me laugh threads like this, When we win a game or even play well and lose then ALL the players are good enough..

[WTF11]

Makes me laugh threads like this, When we win a game or even play well and lose then ALL the players are good enough..

Not sure what you're trying to say there Pete? Was the performance against Spam in any way acceptable, on the part of the vast majority of the team? Exceptions might be Bamford, Meslier and Ayling (the latter just about), but were any of the rest really performing at a level that was acceptable? Our performances this season have on occasion been exceptional, and some players (Bamford, Meslier (despite his occasional distribution mishaps), have shown themselves quite capable of holding their own against most PL competition, but on their own it's not enough, especially the way we play where EVERY team member really has to be on their best, and we're not anywhere near as consistent as we should be, and the way we play has been worked out and we have no "plan B".

The Chelsea game was a foretaste of what we saw Friday (and at least we played against a team that has some real stellar quality, we made Spam look like that on Friday, but they aren't).

First 7 PL games, we scored 13, won 3, drew 2, lost 2 (and one of those was against Liverpool), in the last 6 games, we have scored 5, won 1, drawn 1 lost 4. The way we play has been found out, the players are not performing in the fantastic way they did those first games, and watching how the game Friday unfurled showed no realisation of the need for change (personnel and/or strategy).

Watched the Newcastle v Baggies game yesterday, and Baggies were by far the better footballing side, scored one of the best goals I have ever seen, but got done over by 2 set piece goals they didn't defend well enough. The issues that are mentioned in the first post have been there throughout, and the same will happen to us as happened to Baggies when we play Newcastle if things don't change.

[ozleeds]

Makes me laugh threads like this, When we win a game or even play well and lose then ALL the players are good enough..

4 points at Home says it all. When you stop laughing sit down think and tell us if the players are good enough what is to blame?
Oh, that's right only thing you will come up with is your neg heads.

[LeedsFTW]

Makes me laugh threads like this, When we win a game or even play well and lose then ALL the players are good enough..

Just observations Pete after seeing a good few games this season. We are a bit like the Ardiles managed spurs team, who played exciting football, tried to out gun the opposition but were terrible defensively.

I expect us to survive in this league but it wont be a walk in the park.

[hopelesslyoptimistic]

Just observations Pete after seeing a good few games this season. We are a bit like the Ardiles managed spurs team, who played exciting football, tried to out gun the opposition but were terrible defensively.

I expect us to survive in this league but it wont be a walk in the park.

This is a hard league to break into - think the stats are that the promoted teams have a Greater than 50% chance of being relegated in the first season and a 50% chance in the second.

We play great football at times but we need to improve the quality of the players - it takes times and youngsters may look great in the u19 or u23 but take time to blossom.

We may as well just still back and enjoy the ride as sweet FA we can do to influence it 😎

[asturianblanco]

we have been rubbish for 20 years. "yes, but did you enjoy the 1 season in the prem?" no, i spent every week moaning like F about the exciting football we played!

[leedsutdman]

4 points at Home says it all. When you stop laughing sit down think and tell us if the players are good enough what is to blame?
Oh, that's right only thing you will come up with is your neg heads.

Did you think we were just going to get to the Premier league then be a perfect footballing team and play everyone off the park,..... really?
I would say the last game we didn't perform all the others we didn't look that far out of place for a newly promoted side. So sadly to say that you are a neg head isn't really that wide of the mark tbh.

[ozleeds]

Did you think we were just going to get to the Premier league then be a perfect footballing team and play everyone off the park,..... really?
I would say the last game we didn't perform all the others we didn't look that far out of place for a newly promoted side. So sadly to say that you are a neg head isn't really that wide of the mark tbh.

Lol ok so did I think we would walk games in the park? Hummmm No but a lot of you guys did with your exciting football. Great teams are built around there Fortresses we on the other hand well we all know signing off neghead over to you what ever you are on.

[leedsutdman]

Lol ok so did I think we would walk games in the park? Hummmm No but a lot of you guys did with your exciting football. Great teams are built around there Fortresses we on the other hand well we all know signing off neghead over to you what ever you are on.

So your problem is what other people thought then.

[WTF11]

Did you think we were just going to get to the Premier league then be a perfect footballing team and play everyone off the park,..... really?
I would say the last game we didn't perform all the others we didn't look that far out of place for a newly promoted side. So sadly to say that you are a neg head isn't really that wide of the mark tbh.

Seen that kind of response to any criticism of performances that have, on occasion, been well below what we know the players can give. Don't think anyone thought all would be rosy in the first year back in the PL (I seem to recollect that I suggested we might not survive in the league, before a ball was kicked!), and the performances against Liverpool, City and especially Villa, (given the win etc) were incredibly exciting and a joy to watch but not what we expect every week. What I think we should be able to expect is that all the players put a shift in, every match. That didn't happen against Leicester, nor the second half against Chelsea, nor any of the game against Spam, and Bielsa has to do something to help the squad maintain its ability to perform at pace by rotating the squad, introducing some of the youngsters who are performing well in the U23s, and/or change tactics against some opposition who we know will do what Leicester and others have done, hitting us on the counter.

It was said almost from the first day Bielsa came on board that he is stubborn, and loyal (to a fault), and unfortunately those are two characteristics that don't bode well in the longer term, because we will be/have been found out and teams know how to counter our style, whereas we don't have that elusive "Plan B", nor do we use all the players available to us as effectively as a good many other PL clubs we have faced (and will in the near future).

We have 20 1st team squad players, Spurs have 31, City 27, Scum 36, Chelsea 28 (although all have what seems to be enough GKs to make up an entire team!) etc etc, so we can't match them by just using 1st team squad, so surely using some U23s against teams like Newcastle (1st team squad very similar, given they have 23 and they have 4 GKs in that number). would help to give those who have to go up against the "big 6" a bit of a breather? But that needs some flexibility from Bielsa, both in what personnel to use, but also, probably, what formation/tactics to use in a changed squad, and flexibility and Bielsa aren't very common bedfellows!