Rich, I don't think Bielsa will ever pick your favored centre-half combination of Koch and Llorente unless he has no other choice, because they're each right-footed and he prefers to pair a left-footer (Cooper or Struijk) with a right-footer. Yesterday the fact that Llorente and Koch were each out with knocks left him no choice. For me, I'd like to see Struijk and Llorente get a run of games together. I saw somewhere that we concede more than twice as many goals when Llorente doesn't play. Cheers! Sean
-----Original Message----- From: Richard Walker via Leedslist <leedslist@gn.apc.org> To: leeds list <leedslist@gn.apc.org>; nat...@sky.com <nat...@sky.com> Sent: Sun, Aug 22, 2021 7:34 am Subject: Re: [LU] Good to be back (Everton) Well, I missed my first 'first home game' since the relegation season of 81-82 season due to shambolic ticket arrangements. Paying £70 for a Gold Membership wasn't enough to secure me a ticket as it was a free for all when the tickets were released. Then I entered into around 10 hours (I kid you not) of refreshing screens to try and grab and returned tickets. I don't think I saw one ticket come up in that time despite lots of messages on Twitter saying that they had managed to grab a ticket. Then on Saturday morning I turned to the touts and kranks and was offered all sorts but I was so pissed off by then I decide to crack open the beer with a couple of mates and watch on TV. What made it worse was all the Twitter messages of people going to their first game and empty seats not taken up. A real shit show from LUFC. Surprisingly it was easy to get a Crewe ticket. Anyway, on to the footy and I thought it was a decent game with two evenly matched teams. I thought Everton looked sharp with Gray, who was a yard or two too quick for Ayling and others, whereas Raph for us looked like he meant business. I thought we looked our most dangerous in the first half, getting back to our quick attacking football of last season although I don't think we are quite there yet. The reasons for me were: 1) Firpo - early days for the lad and he definitely did try to get forward early on and try to overlap, however he doesn't look that dynamic or pacey for me and I'm not sure if he is replacing Allioski on that display. Haven't seen too much defensive ability either. He was also out on his feet after 50 mins and was quickly taken off. Going to be hard road for Junior. 2) Centre back pairing isn't good enough. Cooper's method of defending is going to cost us. It did yesterday with his shit tugging antics. It's something he does frequently and does tend to get away with but he's got to stop that now. Overall, I'd say Cooper is at best a squad player and playing alongside the inexperienced Struijk it's no surprise we're leaking goals. Llorente and Koch are the pairing for me but we have to accept that both have been injured for long periods since joining the club. 3) Phillips - did well first half but I think he ran out of steam and by his own admission is not as fit as he should be. Fuck knows why ? Here's my scores: Miesler - 8. Kept us in the game as he always does Ayling - 4. I thought that was his poorest game for a long time. Gray ran rings around him. Firpo - 4. Not convinced but early days Struijk - 5. Looks the part but I'm unsure about his positioning in key moments. Cooper - 3. Dreadful defending and could have easily been sent off with another careless tackle 2nd half Phillips - 6. Did well to keep Richarlson quiteish first half. Klich - 7. Lots of running and took his goal well Bamford - 7. Fantastic first half but faded and started to look a tad desperate towards the end. Raphinha - 8. Our best player by a mile. Fantastic strike for the goal Dallas - 7. Playing all over the park. Some great defensive work. Harrison - 7. Lively first half but faded 2nd. Subs: Roberts - one or two moments Shack - not involved too much. On Sunday, 22 August 2021, 10:48:27 BST, nattan--- via Leedslist <leedslist@gn.apc.org> wrote: Well we are back and back with a bang - the atmosphere was everything we remembered and more , the limbs after the 2 goals were as good as any game since we went all seaterIt was a fitting game to re- start in front of fans , lots of end to end stuff, some crunching tackles, decent chances _______________________________________________ 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/ Rest in Peace Guy, and wear your hat! _______________________________________________ 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/ Rest in Peace Guy, and wear your hat! _______________________________________________ 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/ Rest in Peace Guy, and wear your hat!
