Leeds Utd v Aston Villa Match Thread - Klich fit, Costa in for Harrison

[White Riot]

With Bamford, you could see what he was trying to do, and there's so much more to his all round game. I'm not generally in favour of writing people off, we may not otherwise have had Klick, Phillips, Dallas, Ayling or Bamford playing at the level they now do, but I can't see where the improvement is coming from with Roberts; he simply hasn't stepped up alongside the others.

Him and Costa are two that need jettisoned. Other players have improved dramatically under MB, but not those two.

[Cjay]

Anyway, as off it as we were today Villa got their tactics against us spot on.

It's not always about how 's**t' our players are, sometimes we have to give the opposition credit. Even if we don't like their style of football!

Villa were better organised than they used to be tbf to them.

Offensively they were as bland as expected and the goal was slightly fortunate because of our dumb pitch making Watkins slip.

Overall id give us a 4 and them a 6 out of 10.

[Boo Radley]

Ugly Championship throwback game. Nothing fell for us tonight.

Spot on mothbanquet, about it reminding me of our occasional very poor performance there, but it was more we looked clueless that nothing falling for us.

With us more or less safe, I am assuming that Bielsa is testing the squad now as he plans for next season. He will have learnt a lot today. Costa and Roberts, unfortunately, are not Premier League standard. Poor passing and decision making, switching off at key times, and in relation to Roberts in particular, his shooting is abysmal. They slowed up our attack constantly.

Klich is another that has to wake up.

Looking forward to Rodrigo coming back, Pablo needs more game time and we need to start testing a few U23’s. Orta’s target list is becoming more refined with every game.

[Cjay]

With Bamford, you could see what he was trying to do, and there's so much more to his all round game. I'm not generally in favour of writing people off, we may not otherwise have had Klich, Phillips, Dallas, Ayling or Bamford playing at the level they now do, but I can't see where the improvement is coming from with Roberts; he simply hasn't stepped up alongside the others.

That in bold says it all imo.

Everyone almost has improved to some notable degree under Bielsa.

They arent all world beaters, they may not even be Premier league starting 11 quality now but to a man you can see improvement in almost all of the players who have been here since Bielsa arrived.

Dallas, Cooper, Klich, Ayling, KP, Harrison, all improved.

Roberts hasnt to any noticeable degree.

[YorkshireSquare]

Villa were better organised than they used to be tbf to them.

Offensively they were as bland as expected and the goal was slightly fortunate because of our dumb pitch making Watkins slip.

Overall id give us a 4 and them a 6 out of 10.

They shithoused us, and we didn't really have the quality to open them up. Phillips and Rodrigo arguably make a difference but we know we don't have the quality in depth beyond the first choice eleven. Hernandez aside.

[CHAPELALLMAN]

Yeah, I fully expected to see Llorente at DCM tonight, or a back three of Llorente, Struijk and Cooper. But what do I know?

In this respect more than MB I suspect...

MB will only play 3 CBs against two forwards - otherwise it's 4-1-4-1.

[1964white]

Wasn't even good enough in the Championship.

In his three seasons at Leeds:

Three excellent performances v Preston, WBA & a shocking Hull side in the championship.

Not one outstanding display in the premier league

Not great reading

[Chilli D]

The most disappointing thing for me was three points tonight and we would have been celebrating safety. We're probably already safe and we will get the three extra points at some point but it would have been nice to have done it tonight. Points are going to be very hard to come by over the next few weeks.

[The Subhuman]

With Bamford, you could see what he was trying to do, and there's so much more to his all round game. I'm not generally in favour of writing people off, we may not otherwise have had Klich, Phillips, Dallas, Ayling or Bamford playing at the level they now do, but I can't see where the improvement is coming from with Roberts; he simply hasn't stepped up alongside the others.

I think Roberts has the better all round game as a striker, I prefer his movement as Paddy tucks himself in behind the defender too much rather than get across him. Roberts is a much better header of the ball, better first touch, stronger, his hold up play is superior too. Where Paddy wins at the moment is he's scoring worldies but that will stop and is he then good enough a footballer to get himself out of a rut..

Paddy very poor last two games and try to figure out how many goals he scores when the ball comes in from the wings. In fact Bamford has profited from Roberts play recently and Roberts really should have 4/5 assists in the last 4 games

[YorkshireSquare]

In his three seasons at Leeds:

Three excellent performances v Preston, WBA & a shocking Hull side in the championship.

Not one outstanding display in the premier league

Not great reading

But he's been injured for so much of that time, he's only really now in his first real run with no injuries. I'm not saying he's the answer, I don't think he is in the long run, but we don't have too many other options this season.

Roberts has as many assists as Phillips, Hernandez and Dallas by the way and more than Rodrigo.

[Boo Radley]

Llorente was ok today, I was disgusted with that bit of play acting and he almost got caught in possession several times plus Villa posed almost zero threat after the goal. Nowhere near MOTM for me. Cooper however was a lot better on the ball and bringing it out of defence

Really can’t imagine how you class Llorente’s performance as OK today. He was easily our best player over 90 minutes. He’s playing his second game for Leeds and he didn’t put a foot wrong, high passing accuracy (which was rare throughout the team today), had that cheating tramp Watkins in his pocket and started most of our attacks.

I didn’t like the dramatic rolling around either but that is cultural for him and Bielsa will cut that out of his game by the next game I’m sure.

Otherwise, he’s a different class and will be key to our growth next year.

[1964white]

This whole Villa team has learned cheating from their chief cheater.

Sickening that Smith can succeed by adopting such traits.

[CHAPELALLMAN]

I think Roberts has the better all round game as a striker, I prefer his movement as Paddy tucks himself in behind the defender too much rather than get across him. Roberts is a much better header of the ball, better first touch, stronger, his hold up play is superior too. Where Paddy wins at the moment is he's scoring worldies but that will stop and is he then good enough a footballer to get himself out of a rut..

Paddy very poor last two games and try to figure out how many goals he scores when the ball comes in from the wings. In fact Bamford has profited from Roberts play recently and Roberts really should have 4/5 assists in the last 4 games

There is talk that Paddy is wanted by Chelsea.

Does that mean we can go for Haaland instead ? I still rue the club failing to sign him in 2018. Whoever Haaland signs for he will be a 30 goal a season striker in the PL. Maybe Dortmund will take pity and let us sign him for the 2018 fee of 8m rather than 100 to 120m ....

[1964white]

Next game West Ham away so guaranteed loss. Give the kids a chance since we'll lose anyway.

You would think the hammers will be too strong for us, they are made of sturdy stuff these days.

[1964white]

Very frustrating, never looked like scoring. Not just his fault, but really don't want to see Roberts again tbh.

I'm afraid you will see him again as Marcelo rates him

[1964white]

Not sure we can talk after that ..whatever it was from Llorente, I hope MB has a word.

Was embarrassing!

[SG90]

We've had so many poor losses this season, Villa, Brighton, Everton, Wolves x2, West Ham. We need to turn those kind of games into draws or even wins.

[Carrick Dave]

and Roberts really should have 4/5 assists in the last 4 games

Roberts really should have 4/5 goals in the last 4 games.

[SG90]

I'm afraid you will see him again as Marcelo rates him

Guaranteed to start every game until Rodrigo is back unfortunately.

[The Subhuman]

Really can’t imagine how you class Llorente’s performance as OK today. He was easily our best player over 90 minutes. He’s playing his second game for Leeds and he didn’t put a foot wrong, high passing accuracy (which was rare throughout the team today), had that cheating tramp Watkins in his pocket and started most of our attacks.

I didn’t like the dramatic rolling around either but that is cultural for him and Bielsa will cut that out of his game by the next game I’m sure.

Otherwise, he’s a different class and will be key to our growth next year.

The rolling around I hated and as I said earlier he almost got caught 2/3 times in possession. Watkins got the assist btw I though he had a decent game. The pocket thing more down to Vila shutting up shop after they scored..