Crystal Palace v Leeds United Match Thread

04 Nov 2020 05:36 pm, by Smudge3920

Saturday 7th November 3.00pm | Selhurst Park | Live on BT Box Office

Leeds United will look to get back to winning ways on Saturday as they head to South London to take on Crystal Palace. The two sides are level on points occupying twelfth and thirteenth in the Premier League table but the capital has not been a happy hunting ground for Leeds over the past few seasons. Since their victory at QPR on December 9th 2017, they’ve taken just two points from a possible twenty-seven. The White’s last top-flight win in London was on November 29th 2003, thanks to a James Milner winner at The Valley against Charlton!

Marcelo Bielsa will still be without Diego Llorente, Kalvin Phillips who are out with injuries, Rodrigo who is isolating following a positive Covid-19 test and long term absentee Adam Forshaw who has only recently returned to training. Raphinha will face a late fitness test on Saturday morning having missed the Leicester game on Monday with an ankle injury. Pascal Struijk, Leif Davis and Oliver Casey are all likely to make the matchday squad having missed Leeds’ Under 23 clash with Newcastle on Friday. A game in which Joe Gelhardt impressed yet again but Leeds ultimately gave away a three goal lead, losing four three.

Roy Hodgson will today be without a trio of defenders on Saturday, with Tyrick Mitchell, James Tomkins and Joel Ward all sidelined. Tomkins has been working to return to fitness but suffered a setback in his recovery having rejoined training. Palace will also be without club captain Luka Milivojevic after they failed in their appeal against his red card in their defeat against Wolves. Milivojevic’s absence will give Jairo Riedewald the chance to further establish himself having been on the fringes for almost two years. Hodgson will however have Eze, Zaha and Batshuayi to call on, all who could potentially cause Leeds issues on the break.

Leeds will be looking for a response after their 4-1 defeat to Leicester City at Elland Road last time out and will face a Palace team who are likely to play in a similar wat to Leicester. Roy Hodgson’s team are likely to back and rely on their attacking players to catch Leeds out on the break. It’s a tactic Leeds have often struggled to break down but it would be fair to say Palace don’t have the quality all over the pitch that Leicester do. Palace, meanwhile, suffered defeat against Wolves last week and have won just one of their past five Premier League matches, so are also in need of a win.

Crystal Palace have had the fewest shots of any team in the Premier League, with 57 in seven games, while only Liverpool have had more than Leeds with 96. Leeds have bagged 7 goals in their 3 away Premier League matches so far this season, if Patrick Bamford can find his scoring boots, he could be amongst the goals in an away win.

Leeds United Squad
Illan Meslier, Luke Ayling, Robin Koch, Liam Cooper, Ian Poveda, Patrick Bamford, Ezgjan Alioski, Tyler Roberts, Kiko Casilla, Stuart Dallas, Helder Costa, Raphinha, Pablo Hernandez, Pascal Struijk, Jack Harrison, Leif Davis, Mateusz Klich, Jamie Shackleton, Oliver Casey.

Match Thread

447 Comments

View all Showing latest 5 comments of 447...

Aussieleeds wrote on 08 Nov 2020 07:48 am

I’m still upbeat. Apart from the big six, most teams would struggle with 4 starting players out of their lineup, let alone a side with half a dozen PL games under its belt.
I don’t thinK we’ve had the chance to play the same back 5 (including DM) in consecutive games all season so it should not be surprising that our defence has not settled yet.
Add to that, we’ve not had the rub of the green too often and it gets a bit tough in this league.
I reckon if Paddy’s goal stands we at least take a point from todays game.
We’ve seen our Championship players deliver against Liverpool, City and Villa. But if you’re missing say 4 of your top 5 players, players 5-10 can be left a bit exposed.
If our top 11 had all played in the past 2 matches I’d be a bit more worried.

Reply to comment

White Riot wrote on 08 Nov 2020 06:25 am

Well that was a sobering experience yesterday.

Reminds me of The Emperor's New Clothes story. Everyone's been bigging us up and it turns out we're not as good as we thought we were.

We've had lessons from Wolves, Leicester and Palace in the reality of PL football. Even lowly Fulham knocked three into us.

Bielsa and the players need to learn and adapt very quickly as the standard of coaching and opposition means we've already been sussed.

Admittedly we were unlucky with VAR, firstly for Paddy's great goal and Klichs not given stick on penalty. Their first goal is lucky, second is a worldy and the third was jammy as he'll. Their fourth goal was terribly defended by us.

Our squad is small and lacks quality in depth. That can be addressed, but only if we stay in the Prem for a number of seasons.

The decision to leave Pablo out is baffling, and compounded by our lack of depth. Our general play has turned sloppy and we're constantly giving away the ball.

A big deal is made about our fitness, but we're so sloppy and naive that teams know how to exploit us in a calm and incisive way.

Our defending was great last year, but against better attackers who are better coached we seem to get cut to shreds with ease.

Our main hope is getting KP, Llorente, Rodders and Pablo back in that side, as we just lack quality without them.

Bielsa needs to give himself a shake and ditch this naive approach. Just having one dimension doesn't work at this level.

I think we'll stay up but it's gonna be a long season if we carry on like this.

To be out smarted by Woy Hodgson says enough for me.

Reply to comment

Velotrax wrote on 08 Nov 2020 03:47 am

My opinion, for what it is worth, and I am a conspiracy theorist so if you disagree say so.....
Yes we were out played, out thought by Hodgeson ( FFS) but VAR is def against us, Bambi scored two brilliant goals one was off side (LOL) never in a million years, the rules will be changed tomorrow ! he was also brought down on the edge of the box, simular to the Klich 'fou'l that gave Leicester their last minute pen, it took VAR 3 mins to decide, but the foul on Bamford was ruled out in seconds............
We are def upsetting the pecking order, but the odds are certainly against us getting a fair crack at staying up....
Yes the squad is thread bare and needs adding to, but a honest VAR system would be nice we have had two dubious pens against us, given by VAR , a ball to hand decision and that now that rule has been changed ! Klich was deemed to foul a player on the line of the penalty are, a pen was awarded, but when Bamford was hacked down it wasn't even a foul

Reply to comment

DavidH wrote on 07 Nov 2020 09:58 pm

SE London Eagle wrote: ↑Sat Nov 07, 2020 8:14 pm The Championship is game after game just toughing it out to get promoted end of, tough league to get out of, we have a song for Dann Scott Dann is a goal machine, scored his fair share of goals on our journey a bit past his best but still dependable, you need a squad in the PL, looked like it came off the top of your blokes head to spin the ball in but thats football, VAR can do one, rather talk in the pub after the game about was it?! or not, VAR has ruined that, now the talk is how VAR got it wrong, very different game in Bamfords 1st was a goal (It should have been IMO) Fine margins...etc

What well balanced, thoughtful posts. It would have been easy to come here and do a little poking. We are, as you say, new boys in the school. We don't know our way around the corridors and we naively believed we were prefects-elect, because we had so much control in the Championship. I'm sure we're not the first and won't be the last team to be disavowed of that notion. Your encouragement and words of advice are spot on. Get our heads down. Learn from our mistakes, and accept it will take some years to build a team that can challenge the top six. Our task now, is to scrape every point we can to be sure we stay in this division.

Reply to comment

Smudge3920 wrote on 07 Nov 2020 09:25 pm

At least the lowest we can go is 15th, unless Fulham beat the bubble boys.... then we stay 14th.

Reply to comment

Do Leeds United have a Plan B?

The Leeds United Breakfast Debate - Join in the discussion of all the days latest headlines from the world of Leeds United. Team news, interviews, injury updates, transfer news you name it we debate it....

Leeds United News Archive

All our news articles, comment and editorials including the LUFC Breakfast Debate.

Message Boards & Forums

Our forums and message boards where you can debate and discuss all things Leeds United with like minded fans.

Leeds are falling apart again

Heidi's Blog - Tribute to Stuart Dallas Overshadowed by Defeat

Leeds United v Blackburn Rovers | 13th April 2024 | Elland Road Obviously after today, it shows that you can’t take anything for granted as we come away from two home games with a solitary point....