Bolton v Leeds Utd Match Thread

[1964white]

There was that lovely pin point cross in the fist half that could easily have been an assist and released the pressure early had Alnwick not made a good save, (he made about four by the way which could easily have resulted in a much more comfortable win...I thought he looked like what we need...an experienced goal keeper who commanded his defence well and made three/four very good saves

I give him the one decent cross for the Hernandez header, there wasn't much else to admire about his game

[1964white]

Don't see any problem criticizing those who are under performing. It's hardly been one game for alioski, it's been about ten or fifteen in a row now where he hasnt performed. We want to be constantly improving. Just because we're winning doesn't mean all the players are performing well, alioski has been carried by the team almost the whole season now. If we got a better left winger we could, in theory, improve our performances and results even more!

Indeed we could Jack showed him how it's done

Is Alioski a winger ?

[The Subhuman]

I give him the one decent cross for the Hernandez header, there wasn't much else to admire about his game

There wasn't and I posted that during the game..He's had a few poor games in a row now, at least in the final third (he has done some decent defensive work) But none of that means he's a bad player..just out of form

[Cjay]

I still maintain Ali is a talented player and playing on the right he has shown that many times.

He isnt a left winger, he is told to maintain his width and cross early, not dribble. Dont get why his critics cant see this, he crosses early because thats what our diminutive forward line need.

Ali is invaluable for his defensive work in a similar way to Roofe, he is our 1st line for pressing and you will get that from Ali all game, it wont win him fans but to a manager like Bielsa its invaluable.

I would love to see Clarke start, if thats in place of Ali thats fine as i think he does need a rest.

But do we really want an ageing Pablo and a young Clarke being forced to charge up and down the line all game vs Bolasie and El Ghazi?

Would they even be able to? Because make no mistake 1 time they dont 1v1 our full backs will be in real trouble against those VIlla wingers.

Some of our fans need to look at the bigger picture, we havent been blowing teams away our strength has been our team as a defensive unit.

Take Ali out of that and that unit loses one of its most hard working players.

[BGwhite]

Doesn't matter what team MB puts out against Vile, Leeds will have to play seriously good to even get a point. I can honestly see another drubbing coming our way similar to WBA but I'll take that as long as we go on to win the next 5 but to win the remaining 2 of this year would see us top 2 into 2019 and a massive January & February ahead.

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[leic white 63]

I still maintain Ali is a talented player and playing on the right he has shown that many times.

He isnt a left winger, he is told to maintain his width and cross early, not dribble. Dont get why his critics cant see this, he crosses early because thats what our diminutive forward line need.

Ali is invaluable for his defensive work in a similar way to Roofe, he is our 1st line for pressing and you will get that from Ali all game, it wont win him fans but to a manager like Bielsa its invaluable.

I would love to see Clarke start, if thats in place of Ali thats fine as i think he does need a rest.

But do we really want an ageing Pablo and a young Clarke being forced to charge up and down the line all game vs Bolasie and El Ghazi?

Would they even be able to? Because make no mistake 1 time they dont 1v1 our full backs will be in real trouble against those VIlla wingers.

Some of our fans need to look at the bigger picture, we havent been blowing teams away our strength has been our team as a defensive unit.

Take Ali out of that and that unit loses one of its most hard working players.

talented !. you need your head examined seriously ! he's got no ability whats so ever apart from running around like a headless chicken.
he's useless when he's on the ball he either loses it or picks the wrong option or offside. physically he's far to weak . his half decent games have come early on in both seasons . a fair weather player at best. a complete waste of a shirt for me clearly not good enough in any shape or form. he offers absolutely zero and the sooner we get rid the better for the team and my blood pressure.

[weasel]

The difference is Alioski is being slagged off with good reason, he has a streak in his demeanour our fans are appalled to see, it's embarrassing. He can sod off back to Europe if he wishes to continue cheating & feigning injury for all i care !

The thing is though that last season there was no bigger critic of Phillips on here than you. Often slamming him for his pineapple hair amongst other things. And yes Phillips last season was poor but by slating him repeatedly, as many fans did, he could easily have decided he was best moving to another club. Same for Cooper, the abuse was non-stop and carried on into this season, and yet this season he has been a good solid player - we could have let him go for peanuts and then been talking £6m+ to get someone in who would have done as well as he has this year.

Alioski is having a poor run of form but what I love about him, and I am sure this is why Bielsa keeps picking him, is that he isn't going hiding on the pitch, he is working his b*lls off still. Yes sure we would all love a bit of extra quality but to get the extra quality on top of the work rate would likely set the club back £20m+ Instead we have to find the rough diamonds and there is certainly a rough diamond in Alioski.

I just don't see why fans think a player is likely to perform better by being abused. Abuse opposition players or abuse ex players once they have left if they were sh*t for us.

[paddy parrott]

Everyone should realise the Leeds United supporters are experts at crucifying their own. I d say were famous for it , of course it
happens elsewhere. But we should be a touch careful. Bad as it might be on social media, at Elland road we should be getting behind all the team players and not give some individual players to much stick.

[dezzy]

Alioski has been in a poor run of form for some time now, his last very good game was at Norwich back in the autumn, he rarely produces a 8/10+ performance, more like 6 or under. Even his most ardent fan Cjay says he should be rested. Our young kids Clarke, Shackleton & Halme produce & show more consistency than Ali. What riles our fans even more are his diving antics & petulance towards the officials, personally I'm sick of it !

I think weasel said it all with his response, you also had him in your best Leeds team since we got relegated from the premiership, last year.....

[The Subhuman]

Too many fans still confusing form for quality ....

[rab_rant]

Alioski has been in a poor run of form for some time now,

Guess that is why Bielsa has picked him for every single game this season and he has been ever present.
How could Bielsa be so stupid for making such an elementary mistake. Sack him.

his last very good game was at Norwich back in the autumn, he rarely produces a 8/10+ performance, more like 6 or under. Even his most ardent fan Cjay says he should be rested. Our young kids Clarke, Shackleton & Halme produce & show more consistency than Ali.

Consistent over 2 or 3 games, as Bielsa would say the data set is too small to make
any analysis of performance that is in anyways relevant.

What riles our fans even more are his diving antics & petulance towards the officials, personally I'm sick of it !

If you look at the replay that stamp on the calf looked pretty dangerous to me.

[1964white]

The thing is though that last season there was no bigger critic of Phillips on here than you. Often slamming him for his pineapple hair amongst other things. And yes Phillips last season was poor but by slating him repeatedly, as many fans did, he could easily have decided he was best moving to another club. Same for Cooper, the abuse was non-stop and carried on into this season, and yet this season he has been a good solid player - we could have let him go for peanuts and then been talking £6m+ to get someone in who would have done as well as he has this year.

Alioski is having a poor run of form but what I love about him, and I am sure this is why Bielsa keeps picking him, is that he isn't going hiding on the pitch, he is working his b*lls off still. Yes sure we would all love a bit of extra quality but to get the extra quality on top of the work rate would likely set the club back £20m+ Instead we have to find the rough diamonds and there is certainly a rough diamond in Alioski.

I just don't see why fans think a player is likely to perform better by being abused. Abuse opposition players or abuse ex players once they have left if they were sh*t for us.

The difference is Cooper & Phillips have improved immensely under Bielsa's shrewd management, Alioski hasn't !

I'm pointing out Alioski's faults, that's not abuse.

It's quite evident from the Alioski fan club on here that his behaviour is acceptable because he wears the white shirt of Leeds.

Imagine the abuse he would endure if he played for the Owls or god forbid Man U

I'll have to make 'no comment' on his performances in the future. Hopefully I can still post up his rating between 3/10 & 6/10 without upsetting anyone

Btw Phillips has still got a pineapple on his head but I love his attitude & performances this season & I've often praised Captain Chaos

[weasel]

Difference between criticism and abuse and some fans go too far. Not like any player goes out to the pitch thinking I will mishit some crosses today etc. Bielsa likes what he brings to the team and similar to the likes of Ayling it is because of the running he does, the fact he works back and forth etc that is key to making Bielsa's formation work. Extra quality is the icing on the cake but my feeling is that Bielsa feels having a great talent like Clarke on from the start perhaps wouldn't work but having Clarke able to come on, especially when we have wrestled control of the match from the opposition and they are less threatening.

Fans referring to Cooper as Captain Chaos is insulting. For whatever reason the players have chosen him 2 years running as captain (note 64 doesn't make mention of the fact that Bielsa let the players choose the captain yet constantly used the fact TC did that as a reason why he was supposedly weak etc when dishing out abuse). I wouldn't be surprised to see Alioski or Cooper get the Player's Player of The Year trophy this year as their teammates will appreciate what they do even if some fans don't.

[Norm]

Very good comments from Paddy, Dezzy, Rab and an excellent summation from Weasel.
Your gutter slags really should be elevated to street level Leon.
I'd love to see your own self-important bowls-bragging comments independently assessed, or preferably discontinued.

[danhirons]

Very good comments from Paddy, Dezzy, Rab and an excellent summation from Weasel.
Your gutter slags really should be elevated to street level Leon.
I'd love to see your own self-important bowls-bragging comments independently assessed, or preferably discontinued.

Bit too far imo this post.

Don't see what the big fuss is about. Some people think Ali is a good player and just low on form right now, some people think he isnt actually that good. Either way the fact is that he hasn't been performing that well and you'd have to think that if bielsa had a decent option on the bench he would have perhaps made the change. As he doesn't have a decent option, he doesn't have much choice. Not sure Jack Clarke is ready yet for that kind of role and bielsa is clearly wary of blooding in the young players too early. At the same bielsa has never really won anything as a manager, and so I'm not sure you can say what he's doing is necessarily the right thing. Maybe if we go and win the league and Ali plays every game then you could say it (though I'm. Of the opinion that the team are carrying him a bit atm).

Also don't rhink anyone hates Ali, just that he doesn't deserve to be in the team right now based on performances recently.

[Norm]

danhirons wrote: ↑

Bit too far imo this post.

Your opinion is valid - I'm just fed up of others being slagged off needlessly.

[1964white]

Very good comments from Paddy, Dezzy, Rab and an excellent summation from Weasel.
Your gutter slags really should be elevated to street level Leon.
I'd love to see your own self-important bowls-bragging comments independently assessed, or preferably discontinued.

Very nice Norm

I'm use to your pops at me so your opinion doesn't bother me one bit !

Happy Christmas

[Dalton]

It is not surprise that we score more second half goals as thats when Alioski gets subbed!
if there is a defence of him (other than diving) it is 45 minutes running his socks of hassling defenders and not giving them a minute to settle
I think that helps wear them down a fraction and it does then give a little extra space for the "finishers" to come on and take the points for the team
with the limited squad we have it seems to work. 2nd half winners in the past 5 games and only 1 goal in the first half in 5 games (and that was AFTER 45 mins on the clock!)

[weasel]

Bit too far imo this post.

Don't see what the big fuss is about. Some people think Ali is a good player and just low on form right now, some people think he isnt actually that good. Either way the fact is that he hasn't been performing that well and you'd have to think that if bielsa had a decent option on the bench he would have perhaps made the change. As he doesn't have a decent option, he doesn't have much choice. Not sure Jack Clarke is ready yet for that kind of role and bielsa is clearly wary of blooding in the young players too early. At the same bielsa has never really won anything as a manager, and so I'm not sure you can say what he's doing is necessarily the right thing. Maybe if we go and win the league and Ali plays every game then you could say it (though I'm. Of the opinion that the team are carrying him a bit atm).

Also don't rhink anyone hates Ali, just that he doesn't deserve to be in the team right now based on performances recently.

I am all for criticism of players but there is a difference between criticism and abuse and too many Leeds players have had to suffer abuse from the people who are supposed to be the 'team's 12th man.' In my opinion now Alioski is almost trying to hard and not playing by instinct and when that happens to players they don't play as well as they can. I remember a match a few seasons ago when Noel Hunt came on as a substitute. He was in the middle of an awful run of matches for Leeds and playing poorly but the reaction he got from fans when he came on was attrocious - even my missus who doesn't really follow football was shocked. A few minutes after he came on a great throughball came his way, it was about knee high and if he'd taken it down he would have been clean through on goal. You'd expect any professional to have been able to take it down but he was so low on confidence, so afraid to make a mistake that he mis-controlled it and the chance went. So for me the fans booing him had directly affected him and directly stopped a great goalscoring opportunity for Leeds. Now Noel Hunt for us was poor but there is no doubt he was and had been a better player than he showed for us and with better support from the fans maybe he takes that ball in his stride, slots it home and his confidence is back and he starts scoring goals and helping Leeds win.

The manager picks the players, the players have put us top of the table so let's get behind every player and push the team over the finishing line.

[Chilli D]

Very good comments from Paddy, Dezzy, Rab and an excellent summation from Weasel.
Your gutter slags really should be elevated to street level Leon.
I'd love to see your own self-important bowls-bragging comments independently assessed, or preferably discontinued.

Way over the top.
Regardless of whether we agree with each other or not we can at least remain civil to one another.