The #LUFC Breakfast Debate (Monday 25th August) - Leeds looked susceptible and exposed as Arsenal hit five

[SG90]

the biggest concern for me is that when you look at the eleven we have out there at the moment, it's not much stronger than last season's team at all. hence we're always going to struggle

the front line (in the first eleven), in particular, is weaker with the loss of solomon. maybe okafor can replace him but I'd be surprised if he's better than Solomon. We've focused on getting in strength in depth in certain positions rather than on improving the first eleven quality.

Even though we've spent a lot on defenders and midfielders, the first eleven is basically that of last year + stach and gudmundsson for firpo.

It concerns me, but let's see if those from last year can step up this season

Bijol is comfortably our best CB, but will have to wait for an injury to get a chance, which is ridiculous.

[Ellandback1]

Bijol is comfortably our best CB, but will have to wait for an injury to get a chance, which is ridiculous.

[Ellandback1]

The thing is that if Struyjk's header goes in then the decision to play Struyjk is a success - unless we go on to lose 5-1 but I don't think we do as it would have changed the match.

Tactics and line-up would have made little difference overall and instead we would be on here saying why did he drop Struyjk after he was excellent v Everton, why did Nmecha hardly touch the ball, Dan James would have given us more of a threat etc etc

It was simply like the Everton match in reverse. As the home team, v Everton, we pushed them back, high press and stopped them playing. Arsenal did that to us and similar to us v Everton we didn't look like scoring v Everton and Arsenal didn't look like scoring against us. Who knows if we got a jammy goal against Everton in the first half maybe we run out comfortable winners. If Arsenal didn't get that jammy goal then I think we grow into the match and compete, again like Everton did against us in the second half.

It's football. Arsenal got their opening goal at a perfect time. We'd weathered the early storm, generally untroubled, and seemed to be getting a foothold in the game. The goal stopped our momentum growing, stopped the crowd from getting restless. The second goal then basically ended the match as a contest.

At no point did Arsenal over run us and create chance after chance. 5 efforts on target, 5 goals. Apart from Goykaeres missing the chance in the first half (from our mistake) I can't recall any other chances where Arsenal missed from a good position.

The second goal, just before half-time killed us.

Yes, we'd done all the good work by absorbing their early pressure, only to shoot ourselves in the foot. Bogle conceded a pointless free-kick which he should have left to go out for an Arsenal throw-in, BUT Perri had no right in feeding the high ball to his right-back in the first place. Should have hoofed it.

We know Arsenal are great at set pieces, but

a) we didn't have our best defender (and our tallest)

b) Had nobody on the back post

[The Subhuman]

The second goal, just before half-time killed us.

Yes, we'd done all the good work by absorbing their early pressure, only to shoot ourselves in the foot. Bogle conceded a pointless free-kick which he should have left to go out for an Arsenal throw-in, BUT Perri had no right in feeding the high ball to his right-back in the first place. Should have hoofed it.

We know Arsenal are great at set pieces, but

a) we didn't have our best defender (and our tallest)

b) Had nobody on the back post

That was the first goal I believe

[Phild]

The side we put out in my opinion was weaker than what we put out for the majority of last season so not surprised by the result.
On Saturday he started with 2 players who ended last season on the bench.
With the money we spent how soon does Farke change things is the big question.

[weasel]

The worry is keeping him on too long, as Southampton did. A heavy defeat on Saturday and I think questions need to start being asked.

The worry is sacking him and then realising he actually had made many of the players play better than they were usually capable of and that they were aactually outperforming under him

[weasel]

Bijol is comfortably our best CB, but will have to wait for an injury to get a chance, which is ridiculous.

Well what a daft thing to say. If Bijol hadn't been banned he may well have started against Everton. As it was he was banned and we kept a clean sheet without him. As such there seemed little reason to disrupt the back 4 especially considering that with Ampadu being injured we had lost the defensive shield in front of them. As it is now there is a reason for the manager to consider dropping someone for Bijol.

[malcolmw]

As disappointing as it maybe for discussion/arguments/wanting to kill someone( ) on social media re - The manager.
I feel we are not going to get it i'm afraid, because :

The 49ers are American and the Premier league is vital to them selling us on, building new stadia etc.

No offence to Americans members on here (who i think are very good btw) but the 49ers totally won't see if the football we play is good or bad, it is going to be solely down to points and results i'm afraid.

So Farke is going to need points fast, or he'll be up the road, nothing anyone here can do about it.
The 49ers will NOT see whether there's something there or not, to me they won't have a clue, and panic stations will set in immediately in these first 10 games.

It is points that are going to matter and absolutely nothing else at all for the 49ers, I just know he will be sacked if we don't get the right amount of points in these first games.

If we now had a run of fixtures of Newcastle, Chelsea, Liverpool, City, Tottenham, Palace, Manshite and Villa in that order - Then i'm 100% Farke would be 'up the road - absolutely no doubt about that, he'd be doomed.

So seeing as we have Newcastle, Fulham, Wolves, Bournemouth, Tottenham, Burnley, West Ham, Brighton, Forest, Villa, City in that order - He will most definitely be sacked if we don't have the points from those, it won't matter how we play at all to them, they are American, they will not understand how we play, all they will see are £ signs and points. His job is on the line from now. Nothing at all we can do about it.
And if we've nothing to show from the next 5 and played diabolical then he's also massively under pressure - Results and points is all that matter to them, end of from now on for Farke.

Not sure I agree about the 49ers White. But you're correct in saying it will be points they will want to see. But isn't that how it should be? They are frankly the most professional owners Leeds have had in decades. Mind you that particular bar is not very high.

Yes they will regard LUFC as an asset and manage it for a return on their investment. But we have not seen any evidence of them not having a plan in place to get their ROI.

I mentioned it before, but they start really getting their return when the club gets to play Champions League football.

But reading some of the diabolically distorted comments on this thread, the biggest obstacle the 49ers may have is getting some Leeds fans to stop the bloody moaning and knee-jerk reacting when we have a bad week.

Some people here seem to absolutely relish Leeds getting beaten. It gives them an opportunity to ambush the manager and even some of the players. You can almost sense the absolute glee in the tone.

I have no doubt Marathe has a line in the sand for Daniel Farke. I also have no doubt that if that line is crossed, he will be fired. But I very much doubt we are anywhere near close to that line.

[White Lotus]

Not sure I agree about the 49ers White. But you're correct in saying it will be points they will want to see. But isn't that how it should be? They are frankly the most professional owners Leeds have had in decades. Mind you that particular bar is not very high.

Yes they will regard LUFC as an asset and manage it for a return on their investment. But we have not seen any evidence of them not having a plan in place to get their ROI.

I mentioned it before, but they start really getting their return when the club gets to play Champions League football.

But reading some of the diabolically distorted comments on this thread, the biggest obstacle the 49ers may have is getting some Leeds fans to stop the bloody moaning and knee-jerk reacting when we have a bad week.

Some people here seem to absolutely relish Leeds getting beaten. It gives them an opportunity to ambush the manager and even some of the players. You can almost sense the absolute glee in the tone.

I have no doubt Marathe has a line in the sand for Daniel Farke. I also have no doubt that if that line is crossed, he will be fired. But I very much doubt we are anywhere near close to that line.

I've really enjoyed the 49ers and Farke since they've both been in charge here, can't fault anything at all really, unless i'm a miserable git and start nit-picking which i'm not.
I totally agree with you that they've been great so far, and i can see their well laid out plans and like them.
It's just going to be interesting how they view the results we get and how we've been playing, basically how much rope they give Farke.

Yes views from some that aren't particularly honest in their views, preferring to just seek out negatives can get nauseating, especially when they can't bring themselves to give a balanced view whilst having a not so well hidden agenda.
I read someone say they like to provoke a response, and to me that says they don't particularly believe what they write because they're just trying to provoke, so with that in mind it's perhaps better to just ignore

Anyway, I'm well happy with the 49ers and how they've gone about 'stuff up to now, and i just hope they have the intelligence to weigh everything up accurately as we go along, absolutely nobody wants relegation, we need a footing, he's been backed i feel with some of his own buys, i'm looking at the players now to see if they're good enough, and also the manager.
I personally think he's got enough but time/games will tell, I find it piss easy to tell if it's the players or the managers fault

MOT.

[malcolmw]

I've really enjoyed the 49ers and Farke since they've both been in charge here, can't fault anything at all really, unless i'm a miserable git and start nit-picking which i'm not.
I totally agree with you that they've been great so far, and i can see their well laid out plans and like them.
It's just going to be interesting how they view the results we get and how we've been playing, basically how much rope they give Farke.

Yes views from some that aren't particularly honest in their views, preferring to just seek out negatives can get nauseating, especially when they can't bring themselves to give a balanced view whilst having a not so well hidden agenda.
I read someone say they like to provoke a response, and to me that says they don't particularly believe what they write because they're just trying to provoke, so with that in mind it's perhaps better to just ignore

Anyway, I'm well happy with the 49ers and how they've gone about 'stuff up to now, and i just hope they have the intelligence to weigh everything up accurately as we go along, absolutely nobody wants relegation, we need a footing, he's been backed i feel with some of his own buys, i'm looking at the players now to see if they're good enough, and also the manager.
I personally think he's got enough but time/games will tell, I find it piss easy to tell if it's the players or the managers fault

MOT.

All good points White.
I think sometimes when we don't play well, we don't adequately consider the players themselves. Did they show up, put in a shift and play for the shirt??

Of course they have to be sent out there with a strong, well researched plan for the game, which is largely on the manager. If the strategy looks wrong, we should be looking to the boss.

But we forget the opponent has done the same thing. So if we get out there and "Plan A" unravels I expect the players to adapt on the fly. They're seasoned pros being paid a fortune for God's sake.

That is where a good captain is critical. We missed Amps on Saturday, and while I am a fan of Pascal's, I don't think he has enough of a "presence" to be a PL skipper. Farke needs to look for someone else when Amps can't play. Rodon maybe

[GreennWhite]

When you are not around the players day in day out it can sometimes be hard to pick who might make a good captain. I can see why Rodon might be seen as one, for me he is maybe just a tad too committed, if that makes sense, the type who wears his heart on his sleeve and maybe a little bit rash. We need a player who is going to be a regular in the side,and can be calm when required. My pick even though he has just arrived would Stach.