12 games in and it's been a good journey so far. The transformation from average championship team to a team holding their own and winning games in the PL is nothing short of a miracle. However, I think it's clear that we have hit our first crisis and for me questions have to be asked. Yes, we've been unfortunate with injuries but if Bielsa's 2 players for each position strategy included Ayling switching to centre back then we're in trouble. Our defence is in crisis and looks like conceding at every set piece. A makeshift defence of Dallas, Allioski, Cooper and Ayling would have raised eyebrows in the championship but at this level it's the equivalent of football suicide. We have now receded back to the pre-Monk days where we conceded at nearly every set piece. Monk sorted that by bringing in Jansson,abandoning player for player marking in favour of telling Jansson to just go and get the ball. He did, and we looked solid in defence for that season. Bielsa can't move until January to sort this problem but hearing him say that we don't need a centre back in January as we have Ayling and Philips who can play there makes me wonder whether defence might be his weak point. We need 2 new central defenders now !!! Last night was a really poor, disjointed performance against a team who are solid but unspectular. Our home form is really shaky and at the moment we don't appear to like playing at Elland Road. Maybe the players should spend more time actually practising on the pitch as someone on WhatsApp suggested. We had too many attackers on the pitch. The gap between defence and attack was massive and Phillips and Klich just couldn't cope with their pace and strength. Klich and Harrison turned in their worst performances in a Leeds shirt and it was no surprise when West Ham won the game from an unneccesary set piece late on. In reality, 4 or 5-1 would have been a fairer result and for that we have to thank Miesler. Scores: Miesler - 8. Kept the score reasonable. Maybe should have done better with the goal but if Dallas let's his man have a free header from 3 yards it's not going to end well. Dallas - 4. His worst perfomance under Bielsa. Defensively he was all over the shop and although he did charge forward a lot in the 2nd half when switched to left back he was pretty ineffective. Allioski - 2. When his crosses are hitting the first man and his link up play with Harrison is non-existent you have to ask what does he bring to the team other than a massive gap down our left which West Ham exploited ? Subbed at half-time and rightly so. Ayling - 6. I thought he did well under extreme pressure in the first half and overall he was the better central defender but hes obviously out of his comfort zone and is going to struggle in the PL in this position. Cooper - 5. He did a lot of good defending and he created our goal however at key moments he reverted back to league one Liam. He's struggling. Klich - 5. Hardly completed a pass in the first half and all his usual intelligent play was missing. 2nd half he looked like he was tired and was crying out for some assistance. Philips - 5. Worked hard but looked out of his depth to me. Compare to Declan Rice who I thought looked strong throughout and also grew into the game and started to really control the game and push forward with the ball. Philips had one half-decent shot but overall he was completely outrun an outplayed. To his credit he kept on battling and did some good defensive work in the 2nd half. Give him the freedom of the park like he got at Goodison and he can play at this level. Close him down and run at him and he's out of the game. A 100% championship player. Harrison - 0. I think there was one half decent cross but he looks like he's totally lost his confidence. He's not linking up, beating his man, putting in crosses. I think we all questioned whether he had enough at this level. I think that question is being answered. Raphinha - 5. Bright start and he worked his socks off but he didn't see enough of the ball due to that massive gap in midfield. He shouldn't be spending his time sprinting back and covering but that's what he used most of his energy doing last night. Rodrigo - 6. Started slowly but grew into the game and he was our one player who looked likely to create something or score late on. He should have done from that header. I don't see him as a No 10 though and I don't think we can have the luxury of starting a game with Bamford, Rodrigo, Harrison and Raphinha. Bamford looks very ineffective in games likes this and when he was subbed the obvious switch for me was to push Rod up front and bring on Pablo to play the no 10. Instead Bielsa brought on Roberts who looks low on confidence and was totally ineffective. He's done that before because in his mind he has to substitute a striker for a striker and for some reason Rodrigo isn't a striker ? Very frustrating and what is going on with Pablo ? Why have him on the bench if we're not going to use him when chasing the game. Pablo has to come in for Newcastle. Bamford - 4. Bought the pen well but apart from that he looked ineffective although the service wasn't exactly there. Subs: Shackleton - 6. At least he had a go, showed some aggression and running. Roberts - 3. Ran about a bit. Costa - 0. Possibly the worst sub performance I've ever seen. Lost possession, gave away the free kick for the goal and on the whole looked a completely different player to the one who bagged a brace against Fulham. Hard time ahead especially with the defensive situation. Scum to come as well.
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