Good Morning. It's Monday 23rd September, and here are the Leeds Utd headlines...
Bielsa - (Nketiah and Bamford) I need to know how I combine both of them
In Bielsa's post match presser, the gaffer explained that playing two central midfielders behind Bamford was better suited to productive attacking football and if he sacrificed a midfielder for Nketieh, Leeds would suffer because they would be less creative!
The game consists in attack and defence. If when you attack you create 10 chances more than the opponent, you can not be sad for the style of the team. I think that your question is linked with the presence of Nketiah and Bamford together, because maybe we can be more efficient with those two players in the team, two goalscorers are in better condition to take advantage of 10 chances. But we should see which player we take out from the team and what is going to be the result if we take out one player behind the attackers," continued Bielsa.
My answer is, if we play with two goalscorers, maybe we take Forshaw, Klich or Shackleton out, I think that one centre forward without two midfielders behind him is going to worsen the building of the attack. So if you have two centre forwards in a team that doesn't create a lot of chances, you cannot take advantage of the resource that you have. This is my way of thinking but I'm not sure that it is like that.
When I put Nketiah on the pitch, I was thinking of taking out Klich and that Eddie and Bamford play together, Bamford behind Eddie. But to take this decision I have to be convinced. I have started to know some players, in the case of Nketiah for example, I need to know how I combine both of them.
[Against Barnsley] The opponent, they create 10 chances, we create 15 and we won 2-0 and today the opponent created one chances and we drew the match. If you see the difference in chances, 10 and 15, is a higher percentage than one to 10, so if we want to analyse, we cannot avoid this discussion. Probably what I am saying now is going to be commented as an excessive answer, but if we don't analyse, if we don't talk about this, we just have to say it was one draw and the analysis is finished.
That is the reason I sometimes ask the journalist, if what I saw is different to what most of you have seen on the pitch.
The Stats
Week after week we dominate matches (as we can see from the statistics below, taken from the weekend). There has not been one game this season where the opposition have outplayed us yet we continue to drop points!
Completed Passes
1 Fulham 548
2 Leeds United 507
3 Brentford 489
4 West Bromwich Albion 431
5 Luton Town 407
Tackles
1 Cardiff City 25
2 Stoke City 25
3 Leeds United 23
4 Barnsley 23
5 Bristol City 22
Aeriel Success
1 Hull City 72%
2 Nottingham Forest 64%
3 West Bromwich Albion 63%
4 Derby County 62%
5 Brentford 59%
Passing Accuracy %
1 Fulham 84%
2 West Bromwich Albion 84%
3 Brentford 84%
4 Leeds United 83%
5 Luton Town 83%
Possession
1 Fulham 71%
2 West Bromwich Albion 65%
3 Brentford 64%
4 Leeds United 63%
5 Luton Town 60%
Shots on target
1 West Bromwich Albion 7
2 Leeds United 5
3 Millwall 5
4 Barnsley 5
5 Sheffield Wednesday 5
Total shots
1 Wigan Athletic 17
2 West Bromwich Albion 17
3 Reading 16
4 Swansea 15
5 Hull City 14
(Leeds had 13)
In other News
Any excuses for Klich's penalty miss? Is the Polish International the best choice of spot kick takers?
Who is Leeds best penalty taker of all time?
Kalvin Philips had a heated discussion with a small minority of Leeds fans in the Kop, upon the final whistle. One of these so called fans threw a missile at Phillips, it missed, and hit a 5yo child in the face.
Hernandez has not looked his best recently! Should the 34yo be rested now and again, especially with the high intensity that Bielsa demands!
Derby Manager Cocu: “I said to the players ‘stay in the game’ because the way they play - which is really good - they’re expending a lot of energy. To keep this going for 90 minutes is difficult I think.”
Were Leeds tired?
Leeds legend Peter Lorimer suffered a fall hitting his head prior to Saturdays game against Derby. The 72yo was patched up by the first aiders at Elland Road. Fortunately an ambulance was not needed, and the all time great was allowed to go home.
After the game, the Leeds Utd social media boo boys were out in force, pointing the finger at Jack Harrison for the second or third game running!!! Thoughts?