The party is over...

[Smudge3920]

The party is over... now the hard work starts...
Meslier, Kock, Struijk (when on field) continue to impress every game.
Klich, Dallas (Coop's will join here) proving they are true stalwarts of this team.
Bamford, first below par game this season too early to write him off.
Phillips is going to have the occasional off game, this was one, to much international play for me.
Ayling, Luke continue's to give 110% IMO it seem's as if he trie's too hard at times, definately the heart and soul of the team.
Costa and Harrison V Poveda and Raphina... Raphina needs a game or two more yet as the season progresses I see the starting pair coming from Raphina, Costa and Poveda (depending on oppostition) with Harrison +1 the bench support players.
Rodrigo, I have stated and still believe he could be our #10, with a healthy Pablo the impact player ( however even in this role how long can he go on?)

Now head over heart...
I do not see Harrison panning out enough to buy at the end of the season.
Roberts, cannot see him turning into either a #10 or striker of the quality needed in the prem.
Alioski, every time he plays I hope for a sign that he can maintain a future at Elland road, alas I think the writing is on the wall for him.
Bamford, this really hurts me to say, as I am one of his biggest fans but he needs to put the Wolve's game behind him and continue as he started this season, I think January is his cut off, if he has not done enough to keep confidence in his ability then he has to be replaced.

We can ciritise the big 6 all we want, but one thing is already becoming very clear, in the Prem you need a large squad, I only have one critisism of God and that is his love of a small core group. International fixtures are already taking there toll on us, it will not get any easier and in the (not to distant) future we will have European games to add to this list also.

Victor's work is not yet anywhere near done. We have a lot of potential in the under 23's, but we need to buy some more experienced support in January.

These are the musing's of an old man who still lives by the creed of "FEAR NAUGHT" and never know's when to quit.

MOT.

[HarryofOz]

Come Smudge, a slight overreaction to one result, I'd say.

We are having a good season. Our players are playing very well.

Yes we do want to keep building our squad/team, but at the moment we are mid-table. If we end up there at the end of the season, I will be more than happy.

[hector]

The party will only be over IF we go back down a league.....

[Smudge3920]

Come Smudge, a slight overreaction to one result, I'd say.

We are having a good season. Our players are playing very well.

Yes we do want to keep building our squad/team, but at the moment we are mid-table. If we end up there at the end of the season, I will be more than happy.

Not based on one match mate... I dont over react like that....and only 33 games left ...

[Smudge3920]

The party will only be over IF we go back down a league.....

We are not going down... but dont want to be in Villians position last year either

[CHAPELALLMAN]

I think we have been kidding ourselves to some extent. Winning the title and scoring 7 goals in the first two games has blinded us to the fact that our achilles heel has not changed - we still cannot convert high possession into a high enough efficiency in front of goal. This has been a consistent theme throught Bielsa's entire tenure at the club.

I raised doubts in a post on here before the season started about how likely it would be that the forward trio of Bamford, Harrison and Costa would provide us with enough firepower for us to be really competitive in the PL. That concern hasn't changed. That trio managed just 24 goals between them last season, despite us having far more posssession and chances than any other club.

Harrison and Bamford started nearly every game last season, yet the glaring deficiences they possess as footballers have not really changed during that time. Harrison still has a poor final product, and is still practically non existent in terms of his finishing.

Bamford is not a top no 9 and never will be. He just doesn't have the technical ability or the killer instinct to be a finisher the way say Chris Wood had - the last time we had a really decent striker/ finisher at the club. Both are tall blokes ( Bamford is 6 3 " apparently ) yet whilst Wood was lethal in the air, Bamford doesn't seem to have the technical ability to make use of his height. I don't think he has enough aggression either - at one point Ayling was shouting at him last night to get into the box when he is about to cross the ball - that's basic stuff which an aspiring striker in the school playground would learn quickly.

It really is time now surely to break up that front 3 combination and to try something else. Unlike last season, we have options to shake it all up. Let's play Rodrigo where he wants to play and give him the no 9 shirt from now on. Let's finally drop Harrison and/or Costa and give Poveda and Raphinha starts. Let's call an end to the era whereby Harrison and Bamford were automatic starters under Bielsa.

I got some flak from some on here last night for daring to mention the fact that we missed out on buying Haaland in the summer of 2018 and for pointing out that we bought Bamford instead for more money. We wouldn't shell out 7m for Haaland at the time, despite him being born in Leeds, having a father who played for the club, and him still being so emotionally invested in the club that he seeks out Dallas at the end of international match in order to swop shirts with him, and to say ' marching on together. ' I'm sorry, but that's not the massive benefit of hindsight - it's just common sense that the lad would have given his right arm to have played for us back in 2018. Likewise if we had missed signing Batty in 1987 we would have regarded it as pure stupidity and negligence. Likening missing out on Haaland to the benefit of hindsight of not seeing De Bruyne's potential 2 or 3 years ago ( as somebody said ) is hardly a valid comparison. De Bruyne has no links with LUFC or the city whatsoever.

I really hope that when we look back at the Bielsa years we don't say ' he did a great job, but with hindsight he was hampered the whole time by not having a decent striker at the club. He did well but he could have achieved so much more for us. ' I'm sorry, but for me Orta not seeing the potential of Haaland and yet pressing the green light for Bamford and then later JKA for 18m was just rank incompetence.

It's very easy to get carried away with a good start, and to brush obvious glaring issues under the carpet. Back on 23rd August 2002 O'Leary's side had just gone top of the PL after the first two games. They had just been in two consecutive European semis, and had achieved a 3rd in the PL with a group of very young players. The sky really seemed to be the limit back then for the 2002/3 season. Yet that was to be the pinnacle before the start of a momentous decline. From then on results deteriorated badly, and by the end of the season the club ended up 15th in the table. From there on it was a one way catastrophic descent to League One.

[Byebyegeegee]

I’m pretty sure we are not in crisis yet after 5 games in the Premier League, 2 of which we’ve won 1 draw and 2 defeats, both of which we could and probably should have got a better result.

But I take your point regarding strikers, we missed out on Haaland who was definitely there for the taking and I think he would make a massive difference to our potency up front. If we establish ourselves in this league over the next year or so we may still be able to nab him but at ten times the price!

[The Subhuman]

Think if you listed all the starting strikers in order of ability Paddy would be at the bottom but it's the way Bielsa likes to play even when he has options. It will limit our ceiling going forward

[Villanois]

The party is far from over. The reality is Leeds have a very good premier league team. The squad depth to cover injuries and offer plan b or c tho is limited,(much like Villa and several others). The party tho will carry on as Bielsa has shown he can attract quality players and that will help pass the real test where there's either a 2nd season crash or they get stronger.

[Smudge3920]

I guess I should have put the whole title in the subject line as I did in the original post... The party is over...now the hard work starts... meaning the party from celebrating being champions of the lower league... Just to be clear the Party is NOT over... but the hard work is NOW beggining ...

[CHAPELALLMAN]

I guess I should have put the whole title in the subject line as I did in the original post... The party is over...now the hard work starts... meaning the party from celebrating being champions of the lower league... Just to be clear the Party is NOT over... but the hard work is NOW beggining ...

Well we will know where we stand far better after playing Villa and Leicester. A win and a draw say, and the mood of optimism will remain intact. Two losses to make it 3 on the trot will make people believe that we have had a big reality check.

We could have been 3rd in the table today but we are 10th instead. Two more straight losses and we could be down in 15th or so. On the other hand 4 points could see us well up in the top 8.

[Cjay]

Dont think the result is a huge issue.

What we do now is whats important?

As mentioned before Wolves are the exact sort of side we have struggled with for years.

I always thought of Wolves as a silky side but they are more like a Premier league version of Forest last season.

Not exciting to watch, not got a lot of neutral fans, but effective.

Well organised, well coached, bit dull.

The pattern was similar to quite a few games in the past. Lots of decent situations, end product lacked, slowly seemed to run out of ideas as the game wore on and luck was against us.

The difference is this is the Prem and clubs are better at the sort of style Wolves play.

Now, the concern is imo that if Bielsa sticks with the tried and tested then we may suffer the same issues that have lingered for years.

I dont expect him to change tactics but a change of player may help.

We have options now, different types of players.

Rodders, Poveda, Raph, Shacks etc.

Absolutely no need to panic though, at the end of the day there probably isnt a better counter attacking side in the league than Wolves and they needed a deflection to take the points.

[Lumiukko]

Dont think the result is a huge issue.

What we do now is whats important?

As mentioned before Wolves are the exact sort of side we have struggled with for years.

I always thought of Wolves as a silky side but they are more like a Premier league version of Forest last season.

Not exciting to watch, not got a lot of neutral fans, but effective.

Well organised, well coached, bit dull.

The pattern was similar to quite a few games in the past. Lots of decent situations, end product lacked, slowly seemed to run out of ideas as the game wore on and luck was against us.

The difference is this is the Prem and clubs are better at the sort of style Wolves play.

Now, the concern is imo that if Bielsa sticks with the tried and tested then we may suffer the same issues that have lingered for years.

I dont expect him to change tactics but a change of player may help.

We have options now, different types of players.

Rodders, Poveda, Raph, Shacks etc.

Absolutely no need to panic though, at the end of the day there probably isnt a better counter attacking side in the league than Wolves and they needed a deflection to take the points.

Agree on every point, and clearly other teams will look at what Wolves did and play the same against us. The only things we need are a better end product/finishing, and a plan B. Somewhere in the region of 20+ of our games this season will see us playing against a parked bus. We have yet to play Brighton, Newcastle, and Crystal Palace for example who will do the same (though to be fair, wolves have better players and coaches than those three).

I'm sure Bielsa won't rest happy with what happened yesterday but not sure how much he can teach that clinical finishing we so sorely need. That said, Paddy had a bad day yesterday but I'm willing to give him a few games just because he was on fire for the first three games. He deserves the trust.

It might be for games we play against a parked bus that we just need to drop Paddy and shake up the forward personnel so we can unpick the lock better. Pablo can surely manage 60 minutes against defensive teams, Rodders at #9, Raphinha, Poveda and Costa and just one of Klich/KP as we won't need to defend nearly as much. Surely enough guile there?