I think we should go back in for him in Jan. Maybe Brighton will take Costa as part of the deal :)
Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone On Sunday, December 13, 2020, 8:27 am, Richard Walker via Leedslist <leedslist@gn.apc.org> wrote: Agree with all that Alec especially about White. £30 million is a lot of money but it would have been money well spent and we wouldn’t have the big defensive problems we have now. Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone On Saturday, December 12, 2020, 11:24 pm, Alec McQueen <alec...@gmail.com> wrote: I think all this is totally expected. What wasn’t expected was our flying start to the season. We have done OK on balance so far. Compare us vs the bottom 4. But let’s be clear: despite MB being a footballing magician, he is still orchestrating very average Championship players in the best league in the world. Frankly, he is still performing miracles. It is clear we don’t have enough players, nor do the players we’ve got have enough class. Especially in defence. We should have paid whatever they were asking for White. He would now be worth double what we would have paid for him. And we would be top half. Can we stay up? I expect us to. But it becomes a big gamble if we don’t recruit some serious classy players in January. If MB decides to stick with what he’s got, it is going to get hairy. Still enjoying the journey though. Prefer this to where we’ve been in the last 16 years. Cheers Alec Sent from my iPad > On 12 Dec 2020, at 19:20, Richard Walker via Leedslist <leedslist@gn.apc.org> > wrote: > > 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. > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > Leedslist mailing list > Info and options: https://mailman.gn.apc.org/mailman/listinfo/leedslist > To unsubscribe, email leedslist-unsubscr...@gn.apc.org > > Find us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/leedslist/ > > Dorigo's Right Buttock... _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: https://mailman.gn.apc.org/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email leedslist-unsubscr...@gn.apc.org Find us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/leedslist/ Dorigo's Right Buttock... _______________________________________________ Leedslist mailing list Info and options: https://mailman.gn.apc.org/mailman/listinfo/leedslist To unsubscribe, email leedslist-unsubscr...@gn.apc.org Find us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/leedslist/ Dorigo's Right Buttock...
