Leeds United v Bolton Wanderers - League Cup, Official matchday thread

[Norm]

I'm glad our 'little-off-colour 2nd half" was in the Cup not the league.
It would have been nice for Saiz, Klich, Roofe and Alioski not to have been needed today to keep them fresh - also to give the 'reserves' more confidence.

[gessa]

Blackman

Ayling
Jansson
Cooper
Pearce

Phillips
Baker

Roberts
Saiz
Harrison

Roofe

Pretty close

[weasel]

I'm glad our 'little-off-colour 2nd half" was in the Cup not the league.
It would have been nice for Saiz, Klich, Roofe and Alioski not to have been needed today to keep them fresh - also to give the 'reserves' more confidence.

Delighted that that second half happened as it will hopefully stop complacency setting in. You can see from the comments on here and the attitude from the Leeds players at the start of the second half that everyone simply expected us to run out comfortable winners. There was some lazy and downright sloppy play and I would fully expect Bielsa to be very angry at training tomorrow for even though there was a lot of second string players involved it was still Leeds Utd playing out there.

Saiz comfortably motm for me tonight, scored once and the chances he created were unbelievably good. So delighted for him after he endured a difficult time after a great start last year - perhaps a victim of his own success with fans expecting him to be brilliant every match.

Harrison probably the pick of the fringe players - albeit needs to do better with the end product. You can certainly see why he is highly regarded at City and he looks the type of player that once he gets a goal or two will be absolutely brilliant - just at the point of his career where he needs to convince himself he is good enough and that he belongs at this level, or higher.

Bamford did well, took his goal superbly but arguably missed a couple of easier chances. Given Roofe's start to the season and the formation I would expect him to be on the bench for the next match but what a great option to have on the bench and also to have if Roofe is injured or loses form - or if Bielsa can somehow fit them both in.

Blackman looked a bit rusty, can see him being back on the bench for the next match but will be pushing BPF. Still don't know which is better or even if either is really top class (potential).

Through to the next round, a great first half display and a lesson learnt in the second half without proving costly. If no one got injured then a perfect evening.

[1964white]

Delighted that that second half happened as it will hopefully stop complacency setting in. You can see from the comments on here and the attitude from the Leeds players at the start of the second half that everyone simply expected us to run out comfortable winners. There was some lazy and downright sloppy play and I would fully expect Bielsa to be very angry at training tomorrow for even though there was a lot of second string players involved it was still Leeds Utd playing out there.

Saiz comfortably motm for me tonight, scored once and the chances he created were unbelievably good. So delighted for him after he endured a difficult time after a great start last year - perhaps a victim of his own success with fans expecting him to be brilliant every match.

Harrison probably the pick of the fringe players - albeit needs to do better with the end product. You can certainly see why he is highly regarded at City and he looks the type of player that once he gets a goal or two will be absolutely brilliant - just at the point of his career where he needs to convince himself he is good enough and that he belongs at this level, or higher.

Bamford did well, took his goal superbly but arguably missed a couple of easier chances. Given Roofe's start to the season and the formation I would expect him to be on the bench for the next match but what a great option to have on the bench and also to have if Roofe is injured or loses form - or if Bielsa can somehow fit them both in.

Blackman looked a bit rusty, can see him being back on the bench for the next match but will be pushing BPF. Still don't know which is better or even if either is really top class (potential).

Through to the next round, a great first half display and a lesson learnt in the second half without proving costly. If no one got injured then a perfect evening.

And Phillips who was outstanding doesn't get a mention

Saiz back to his best!

[1964white]

First-half decent

Second-half messy

[Norm]

weasel wrote:

Delighted that that second half happened as it will hopefully stop complacency setting in. You can see from the comments on here and the attitude from the Leeds players at the start of the second half that everyone simply expected us to run out comfortable winners. There was some lazy and downright sloppy play and I would fully expect Bielsa to be very angry at training tomorrow for even though there was a lot of second string players involved it was still Leeds Utd playing out there.
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It seemed an awful sudden descent in attitude and quality. I'm still glad it happened in the Cup not the league - time for all to be corrected because the closeness between the players of the last 2 league games didn't appear to be present to the same extent either. Well, it is a different group.
I half thought of some players not quite being happy, although they played OK in the first half. Whatever changed, I'd love to know the catalyst(s). MB was definitely not his usual calm self and nor did he need to be.

[rab_rant]

What was noticeable to me was the youngsters were into a new style of defending.
Old style defending is that you wait for the attackers to receive the ball then back off
them and try to block their runs. Time and again I saw Shackleton anticipate the pass
and use his pace to nip in an steal the ball before it even reached the attacker. It was a
delight to see, and the attacker was left flat footed wondering what was that flash of
white lightning that just flew past him and nicked the ball. You could see Klich doing it
as well. Anticipation and interception is the best form of defence and when it happens
all sorts of hell breaks loose when we put on the turbo boost and change gear and go into
warp speed attack mode. The other team are still running towards our goal thinking to
themselves, something is not quite right here... where the hell did the ball go???
and the opposition goalkeeper is saying to himself... Shite what is this wave of white
light coming towards me? Stunning stuff when it happens.

[Norm]

I think I read something about that Rab. I'd heard about and noticed Klich doing the interception thing and thought it was all very clever, and I'm assuming the youngsters have been trained the same way in our U23s.
The only thing I worry about is somebody understanding what we're doing and working out a way to stop us, but if we play the system right it may be easier said than done.

[weasel]

And Phillips who was outstanding doesn't get a mention

Saiz back to his best!

I wasn't going through all the players more just the new signings and a special mention to Saiz as he was back to his mercurial best

[Richard]

Interesting that Saiz and Philips were not rested, I assume Bielsa sees these two as majorly important and wanted to see how the rest performed around them? Ayling too although he was used at CB from what I am reading?

[1964white]

Interesting that Saiz and Philips were not rested, I assume Bielsa sees these two as majorly important and wanted to see how the rest performed around them? Ayling too although he was used at CB from what I am reading?

All three provide energy, Bielsa obviously felt we needed three of his best players involved from the start in order to achieve a victory

Roofe would also have played had we not signed Bamford as Kemar gives us energy upfront

[Genghers]

Less convincing than the league games, but still didn't seem overly troubled. Good to see a bit of depth and the squad getting a run out.

Thought Roberts and Bamford looked a little leggy from about 60 mins, so can't see them being starters any time soon.

Impressed with Harrison - had the beating of their fullback all night, just needs to get a pass away and he'll be deadly.

Thought Jansson looked a little off the pace. Couple of wayward passes and was a bit late reacting occasionally, but he's not really played in a couple of months, so that's to be expected. Don't think he'll start on Saturday.