Aston Villa v Leeds Utd Match Thread - Struijk starts in defensive midfield

[CHAPELALLMAN]

For those with short memories ;

https://footballleagueworld.co.uk/dont- ... t-one-man/

[Smudge3920]

Bielsa clearly thought at one point last season that he was not worthy of his position - he dropped him. He then got an immediate reprieve through Nketiah's injury. I personally think that Roofe was a more effective striker for us in the championship. If Nketiah had started for us, then I suspect that he would have kept his position until the end of the season. You seem to think that Bamford played the major role in us securing promotion, but I think that Nketiah would have done the job just as effectively, if not better in the last half of the season.

A point I made a few days ago was that we were in the market for Haaland in the summer of 2018, but we opted for PB instead. I still think that this was a mistake, however hopefully Bamford will now lose his reputation for being a ' streaky' player, as that has definitely caused problems for us in the past. As the article mentions, he now needs to disprove that reputation through continuing to score in something like every other game. 16 goals last season in by far the most attack minded team in the division was really nothing to write home about. If you mean him leading the press as an example of what he brings to the side beyond just goals, then somebody on here pointed out that Roofe did this just as effectively. It's not a major skill for a striker to harry the keeper and defenders.

You prefered Haaland to Paddy...we took Paddy ergo nothing to discuss
Paddy's 16 goals helped toward becoming champion's by 10 clear point's... Brentford's 57 goal scoring 3 didn't did not even get them promoted.
Roofe was capable... he decided to leave... Paddy stayed and did a very capable job.
You said it right HAD Nketiah started for us... he didn't...Paddy carried on and proved he was up to it.

Your thoughts are your own... all you have said is you prefer emotion to fact in your preferences, and your personal preferences over rule said facts.

Mate, we all have preference's, we all have other's we would like to see at the club, and just because we think they may improve a postion does not detract from the way the current player has fullfilled his role... I would like to see Messi at the club, but TBH I think he would be to bigger a distraction than an advantage and we would end up no where while he scores 30 goals then moves on.

I think you take way to lightly, the difficulty and fitness required to be as effective leading the press as Paddy does.

Read Rab's post re: stats... Not always the be all and end all.

Good debate...

[1964white]

This is good, made me smile

Ben discusses

Bamford in detail
Bielsaball
Ayling
Grealish

Tell me what you think?

[SG90]

Unless you are the likes of Citeh or Liverpool you cannot go toe to toe with this Leeds team and expect to get the better of us (we even more than matched Citeh and Liverpool tbh). The only way to get a result against us it seems, is to put 10 men behind the ball and rely on a bit of luck and the odd breakaway, ala Wolves. If we could find a way of scoring goals regularly against those sort of teams who show no ambition, sit back and just pack their defence then we would be almost unbeatable.

What a pleasure it is to be a Leeds fan and watch this team at the moment. Thank you Marcelo Bielsa!

Yep, unfortunately everyone will park the bus against us now, especially at ER. Some will get the luck, ie Wolves, while others will get hammered, like Stoke. At least now we have multiple options to break these teams down, whereas last two years it was only Pablo really.

[Byebyegeegee]

This is good, made me smile

Ben discusses

Bamford in detail
Bielsaball
Ayling
Grealish

Tell me what you think?

Always enjoy listening to Ben 64, he’s passionate about football and always gives a fair appraisal. I only wish the so called experts they have on match of the day etc. were half as inciteful and eloquent as him. He is of course an ipswich fan but seems to have a very soft spot for Leeds so what’s not to like?

[1964white]

Always enjoy listening to Ben 64, he’s passionate about football and always gives a fair appraisal. I only wish the so called experts they have on match of the day etc. were half as inciteful and eloquent as him. He is of course an ipswich fan but seems to have a very soft spot for Leeds so what’s not to like?

Agree Byebye, Ben is a smashing fella & certainly knows his stuff.

Ben has loads of Leeds subscibers on his blog & yes he has a soft spot for Leeds, Ben's wife/partner Shallie is a delight

I was hoping to bump into him when we played Hull at the KC Stadium last season.

He's a cut above some of our Leeds bloggers imo (Sorry Oscar), a lad who use to post on here & I've met at several Leeds games

[CHAPELALLMAN]

You prefered Haaland to Paddy...we took Paddy ergo nothing to discuss
Paddy's 16 goals helped toward becoming champion's by 10 clear point's... Brentford's 57 goal scoring 3 didn't did not even get them promoted.
Roofe was capable... he decided to leave... Paddy stayed and did a very capable job.
You said it right HAD Nketiah started for us... he didn't...Paddy carried on and proved he was up to it.

Your thoughts are your own... all you have said is you prefer emotion to fact in your preferences, and your personal preferences over rule said facts.

Mate, we all have preference's, we all have other's we would like to see at the club, and just because we think they may improve a postion does not detract from the way the current player has fullfilled his role... I would like to see Messi at the club, but TBH I think he would be to bigger a distraction than an advantage and we would end up no where while he scores 30 goals then moves on.

I think you take way to lightly, the difficulty and fitness required to be as effective leading the press as Paddy does.

Read Rab's post re: stats... Not always the be all and end all.

Good debate...

You make it sound as though I'm the only fan who has had doubts about Bamford's finishing ability over the last season and a half. As the Times said yesterday in their match report,' Bamford has in the past been regarded as a journeyman player who does his best work in the lower divisions. ' At the time that Bielsa decided that Nketiah should take PB's place in the side a huge number of fans were clamouring for Bamford to be dropped.

David O'Leary knows a thing or two about football ( forgive me for saying so - but rather more than yourself ) He's the guy who got us a 3rd place finish in the PL and got us competing head to head with Man U for the title at one stage. He also got us to two consecutive European semis including the Champions League. O'Leary stated before the season started that we would need to buy a decent striker in order to ensure PL survival...

You talk about facts rather than emotion, but actually IMO it's the other way round - your opinion seems to be based on an emotional regard for Bamford which is not really justified by the raw statistics. This article looks at Championship finishing from 2014/15 up to April 2020 ;

https://www.infogol.net/en/blog/analysi ... -15-942020

Note the comments ; " Patrick Bamford comes in for a lot of criticism for his wastefulness in front of goal, and that has been the case ever since he joined Leeds. He has under-performed in both seasons at Elland Road. The 19/20 has been his worst campaign, though, scoring 13 times from chances equating to 20.9 xG, a total under-performance of 38%."

Obviously that article was written in April just before the end of the 19/20 season - so Bamford added 3 more goals by the end of the season.

This article is very interesting. Hopefully Paddy will prove to be a better PL striker than he was in the championship. I will be delighted if he does,, as contrary to what you think, it's not about emotional preference ;

https://medium.com/@allstatsarentwe/cou ... eb2f2a1322

I think these facts in the article are particularly interesting ;

In total, in 19/20, Bamford took 126 non-penalty shots, scoring only 7.14% of them.
51.57% of his shots came from crosses or cutbacks which was by far the biggest source of his efforts on goal. Of these efforts, only 30.76% were scored or at least tested the goalkeeper.
21.42% of his efforts came from through balls but he hit the target with a much more healthy 55.55% of those.
42.06% his shots were taken with his stronger left foot but he still had a lot of efforts with his head and his right foot.

This suggests to me that in order to get the best out of Bamford we need to try and play through the middle a bit more so that he can feed off through balls, rather than our norm of mainly crosses and cut backs into packed 6 or 18 yard boxes. Of course on Friday he did well in a tight space with lots of defenders around, however Villa were slack with their marking and tended to give him a bit more space than Wolves did. It's obvious that Bamford is more likely to thrive when we play open attacking teams rather than teams who sit deep in numbers. When we play the likes of Wolves a 'fox in the box' type of goal poacher is more likely to steal a goal. I'm not sure that this is Bamford's natural instinct, though on Friday he did get a poacher's goal of course. Maybe he can work on this and develop this ability more ?

[Smudge3920]

I think these facts in the article are particularly interesting ;

2018/19...22 games played...9 goals
2019/20...45 games played...16 goals
2020/21...6 games played... 6 goals

Total..........73 games played...31Goals... Note the increase in productivity each year...( sorry cannot be bothered writing 3 paragraphs,adding 3 or 4 links when 3 lines will do)
Bielsa has stuck with him for a reason...I doubt he would IF there had been no increase in productivity along with his amazing off the ball play.

PS... and you keep avoiding my Brentford 57 goals from 3 players that did not even get them promoted let alone crowned champions by 10 points... You do not become runaway champions by carrying players who are not pulling their weight !...

[CHAPELALLMAN]

2018/19...22 games played...9 goals
2019/20...45 games played...16 goals
2020/21...6 games played... 6 goals

Total..........73 games played...31Goals... Note the increase in productivity each year...( sorry cannot be bothered writing 3 paragraphs when 3 lines will do)
Bielsa has stuck with him for a reason...I doubt he would IF there had been no increase in productivity along with his amazing off the ball play.

Factually incorrect - Bielsa dropped him, but Nketiah couldn't start the next game.

PS I've had enough now - you sound dogmatic and intolerant to me. People are allowed their opinions - I wasn't aware that in Canada freedom of expression has been outlawed.

[Byebyegeegee]

Agree Byebye, Ben is a smashing fella & certainly knows his stuff.

Ben has loads of Leeds subscibers on his blog & yes he has a soft spot for Leeds, Ben's wife/partner Shallie is a delight

I was hoping to bump into him when we played Hull at the KC Stadium last season.

He's a cut above some of our Leeds bloggers imo (Sorry Oscar), a lad who use to post on here & I've met at several Leeds games

Wouldn’t it make nice change for the BBC to bring someone like him in on to MOTD, who actually knows his stuff, rather than persisting with the numpties, sorry “experts” who are on the BBC gravy train, seem to know very little about the game and who, quite clearly, never do any research whatsoever.

I now watch MOTD (if I can be bothered to watch at all) on catch up so that I can fast forward through the inane chat and so that I don’t have watch Lineker sat there wearing his big daft glasses whilst being paid nearly £1m pounds a year for uttering about 50 or so inane words a week.

[Smudge3920]

Factually incorrect - Bielsa dropped him, but Nketiah couldn't start the next game.

PS I've had enough now - you sound dogmatic and intolerant to me. People are allowed their opinions - I wasn't aware that in Canada freedom of expression has been outlawed.

Well,dogmatic ...I actually thought it was a good debate

Previous post...Good debate...

Chapelallman said ...
PS I've had enough now - you sound dogmatic and intolerant to me. People are allowed their opinions - I wasn't aware that in Canada freedom of expression has been outlawed.

You truly are a dychotomy... ...I may reside in Canada , but I am a born and bred loiner, who does not let stats rule my opinions.

PS did you hear about the Brentford 3 goal scorers who had 57 goals between them last season, and did not even get the team promoted, let alone become champions by 10 clear points?... bet they have fabulous statistics hey ...

See you around mate, I am sure we will differ again some time...but at the end of the day we both want the same thing ...MOT

[CHAPELALLMAN]

Well,dogmatic ...I actually thought it was a good debate



You truly are a dychotomy... ...I may reside in Canada , but I am a born and bred loiner, who does not let stats rule my opinions.

PS did you hear about the Brentford 3 goal scorers who had 57 goals between them last season, and did not even get the team promoted, let alone become champions by 10 clear points?... bet they have fabulous statistics hey ...

See you around mate, I am sure we will differ again some time...but at the end of the day we both want the same thing ...MOT

True enough - no hard feelings

[rab_rant]

LORD BAMFORD'S HAT-TRICK FROM ALL ANGLES.

I thought the last two goals were great but the execution of the first is beyond belief.

Bamford wins the ball passes to Shackleton who passes to Rodrigo who passes to Alioski who passes to Harrison who passes again to Rodrigo who shoots and it is saved, but who appears in the 6 yard box to put the ball into the back of the net... LORD BAMFORD. Incredible.

[rab_rant]

Not forgetting that Klich nutmeg for the 2nd goal. and the DAVE pass for the 3rd

[1964white]

LORD BAMFORD'S HAT-TRICK FROM ALL ANGLES.

I thought the last two goals were great but the execution of the first is beyond belief.

Bamford wins the ball passes to Shackleton who passes to Rodrigo who passes to Alioski who passes to Harrison who passes again to Rodrigo who shoots and it is saved, but who appears in the 6 yard box to put the ball into the back of the net... LORD BAMFORD. Incredible.

Great footage Rab

[1964white]

At the time of the game i hadn't realised Bamford won the ball initially laying it off before darting down the pitch to pick up the pieces after great work from Alioski & Harrison

Great work from Klich & fanrastic control from Paddy then with no backlift the ball flies into the top of the net

Lovely move for our third goal with a lovely cut-through pass that drove Costa wide, then a lovely one-two from Shacks & Costa feeding our No.9, that shimmy from Paddy & them curling his shot into the net.

Brilliant all round

[1964white]

Dorigo was laughing his head off just as I was doing when Paddy curled that 3rd goal in

[mothbanquet]

Dorigo was laughing his head off just as I was doing when Paddy curled that 3rd goal in

It was, dare I say, world class?

[White Riot]

I still haven't come down from the high of Friday night and that incredible performance.

You really have to take your hat off to the players, MB, the coaching staff and Radz, Orta, Kinnear and co. They're all doing such a fantastic job.

It's so thrilling to be a Leeds supporter, especially after the tough times we've all suffered through.

I'm so excited about the direction this club is going in and for me the sky's the limit.

I just think Radz and MB especially have completely transformed our club, I hope it stays like this forever .

Really great times

[Irish Ian]

Great Footage.

For the first goal Shackleton one touch left foot to Rodrigo, one touch left foot to Ali, the same to Harrison, the same to Rodrigo, who takes two touches with his left foot and then Bamford scores with his left peg.

Artistry.