Leeds Utd v Norwich City Match Thread

[1964white]

Not a Facebook user but if people are calling for Bielsa to be sacked they obviously haven't had to watch the turgid tripe we have normally had served up at Elland Road through recent years.. We aren't the best or worst team as stated but progress we definitely have this season.

Idiots MJ

Don't like Facebook

[YorkshireSquare]

Was away this weekend. Did I miss anything?

[White Riot]

Can't disagree with that, both need a stint on the bench

Hate to be critical of Bielsa but his substitutions weren't that clever either

Only saw most of the first-half but I could see Marcelo looked very agitated on his bucket

Clarke/Shackleton/Stevens or anyone can do better than Harrison. Forshaw was dreadful again, and should never have been picked as DM ahead of Phillips - that decision defies logic for me. But Bielsa is loyal and stubborn to change his favourites. I would also add Ayling to those two. Yes, he needed match fitness, but he's been dross since he came back from injury and Shckleton needs to start ahead of him at the moment. Bielsa had no bother ousting BPF (and correct to do so imo), but he needs to do the same with others if they're off form and we have replacements available.

Yeah, the subs baffled me??? Ali has done well at left-back so leave him alone. Pablo may have been injured, but if that was a legacy of Rotherham then why pick him anyway??? Douglas had another mare when he came on and I thought the glaring hole was in centre midfield with Forshaw getting caught out of position, robbed of the ball way too easily, missing tackles and playing them lot onside. Bamford coming on was good and Clarke too. But if Roofe was already frustrated and Roberts was having a great match why not sub Roofe, as he ended up on course for a red card, due to his frustration.

Bielsa and many others have commented that we're not clinical enough, well Bamford seems to be and Roberts might be if he gets a look in. The other thing is the defensive errors which comes partially down to the big gaping hole in centre midfield, Ayling playing like a headless chicken, both of which puts more pressure on Cooper and Jansson.

Bielsa needs to fix this and very fast and if it means shoving a few noses out of joint so be it, no player is more important than the team and its performance.

Hopefully he gets team selection right against Boro, and we then take our chances and elimnate these mistakes.

Other than the WBA loss, I feel like (and team selection also had a part in this) we have gifted victories to those teams that have beat us.

Don't get me wrong I am 100% behind Bielsa, the team and the club. But as we have a small squad that has achieved a lot this season down to Bielsa's team ethic we cannot carry passengers or keep gifting matches to our competitors.

We can still do it, but it needs fixed quickly and Bielsa is the guy to do it.

[The Subhuman]

Do we have a small squad? We have a young squad for sure but I think it's a normal size squad.

[1964white]

Do we have a small squad? We have a young squad for sure but I think it's a normal size squad.

Top 7 First Team Squad Numbers

35 Derby
34 Norwich
33 West Brom
26 Bristol City
25 Middlesbro
25 Sheff Utd
23 Leeds

Our squad of 23 players includes 5 kids with limited championship experience plus throughout the season we've had up to 5 players unavailable due to injuries/suspension. We've also had at least at couple of players from the U23's who were only on the bench to make up the numbers & were unlikely to play any game time

[rich_leeds64]

This has already been mentioned but for me 2 key changes are needed for Middlesbrough, Ayling and Forshaw dropped to the bench and Shackleton and Phillips restored to the starting line up. I don’t know what’s happened to Ayling, he used to be marauding up and down the right side putting telling balls into the box. Forshaw has had a couple of great games and the rest of them mostly forgettable and costly with some massive “howlers” gifting the opposition with goals.
I’d continue for now with Clarke and Bamford on the bench to bring an alternative threat as the game progresses.
Harrison is another very “hit and miss” type of player but it was working using him for the 1st 45 then bringing Clarke on. We need the changes made for Saturday’s trip to Boro as they are average at home only scoring 14 and conceding 9, a good performance will see us come away with the points as we have an impressive record at the Riverside.
If we can pick ourselves up, there’s no reason why we can’t win 7 on the bounce again like we did after WBA.
No ones running away with it this year.