Leeds (dirty thugs) discussion

12OunceEpilogue

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I don't necessarily buy into the 'horrendous' injury list people are saying they've had to contend with - Phillips and Bamford i get because there's no direct replacements for them but Cooper is a championship player at best - Koch and Lllorente are both Internationals and no worse than him. it's bitten him on the backside because he likes to work with a small squad and has no replacement striker or CM. Even going back a couple of years, he used to play Ben White in midfield when Phillips wasn't fit.

I think you need to look at what preceded Bielsa to understand why he's so revered and still highly thought of despite the mess of this season - the previous regime under Massimo Cellino, the bizarre managerial appointments and awful players that were signed in those years when they were drifting into obscurity. Bielsa came in and changed the mentality and work ethic and got them promoted with a pretty average squad (which is still pretty average). He's got a tune out of Bamford, which no one else has been able to do, converted Phillips form a nothing attacking mid player to an England international at DCM and changed the culture at the club which the players bought into.

I live in Leeds about 1/2 a mile from Bielsa and a couple of miles from the training ground so i've been able to gauge the feeling of Leeds fans in the town and at work etc. He seems like a nice bloke and has made himself accessible to the fans/locals - he lives in a modest cottage that's half the size of my house opposite a car park and a Sainsbury's local, is always in town at Costa or the local Italian, walks everywhere (including to the training ground every day) and even when people are knocking on his door, he will come out with merchandise for the kids etc.
I didn't know about the stuff in your last paragraph but the years between their relegation and Biesla coming in were pure black comedy. He's been a certain positive for Leeds but it's time to go as he looks to be taking them down. His unbending approach doesn't work when key players are either missing or out of form, and the man-to-man marking he has them doing is being ruthlessly exploited now and his team have no answers.
 

Dave Smith

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I bet Mark Hughes is regretting taking that Bradford job now.
 

Robertd0803

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Not surprising really although I dont think too many Leeds fans will harbour any ill will towards him all things considered.
 

The Corinthian

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But he sticks to his tactics don't forget that. He doesn't adapt to his opponents :lol: :lol: :lol:
All the praises this **** was getting a year ago.
Mindblowing
:lol:

‘Leeds are breathtaking! I mean I know they lost 6-0 three games in a row now, but look how they’ve done it!’
 

Jericho

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I'm surprised at this. I thought he'd done well overall. They're on a bad run but apart from maybe Newcastle (who are on a big upswing) they've only really been losing to teams you'd expect them to be losing to anyway. If he'd lost those games 2-1 or 3-1 would it really be much better? I think Leeds might regret this.
 

(...)

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RR DoF, Bielsa manager would be so entertaining. I'd fully expect them to fight in public at some point.
 

KeanoMagicHat

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They should never have sacked Bielsa, I doubt we'll see Leeds reach those heights again, expect them to be relegation strugglers/lower mid-table from now on, if they stay up.

They were decimated by injuries and they have a lot of poor, Championship-level players as replacements. Some of the teams they fielded have been severely lacking in quality. They simply can't replace Phillips, Bamford and others and that's what cost him. Sometimes you have to look at the big picture and context rather than pure results.
 

GuybrushThreepwood

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All in all he did a wonderful job.

Before he took charge, Leeds regularly finished in the bottom half of the Championship, and were also in the bottom half in terms of possession stats.

He literally turned many of the same players who struggled to string together multiple passes before he took over, into part of the the best passing outfit in the division by far. Plus of course more importantly results instantly improved.

His stubbornness, insistence on a thin squad, plus injuries proved to be too much in the end. In quite a few of their Premier League games, including ones that they won last season, they started with 5 or 6 players that were already at the club before he joined.
 

(...)

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They should never have sacked Bielsa, I doubt we'll see Leeds reach those heights again, expect them to be relegation strugglers/lower mid-table from now on, if they stay up.

They were decimated by injuries and they have a lot of poor, Championship-level players as replacements. Some of the teams they fielded have been severely lacking in quality. They simply can't replace Phillips, Bamford and others and that's what cost him. Sometimes you have to look at the big picture and context rather than pure results.
Rumours that he lost the dressing room a few weeks ago with players complaining about training and lack of communication. I think it's the only reason that makes sense, they wouldn't have sacked him if players were still behind him.
 

mu4c_20le

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They should never have sacked Bielsa, I doubt we'll see Leeds reach those heights again, expect them to be relegation strugglers/lower mid-table from now on, if they stay up.
Like they are now? The only thing is that he should've been given till end of the season, as I can't see them going down, but he's taken them as far as he can. They should go for a younger more modern manager now that he's built the foundations for them.
 

G-manc

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I didn't know about the stuff in your last paragraph but the years between their relegation and Biesla coming in were pure black comedy. He's been a certain positive for Leeds but it's time to go as he looks to be taking them down. His unbending approach doesn't work when key players are either missing or out of form, and the man-to-man marking he has them doing is being ruthlessly exploited now and his team have no answers.
Agreed, i was just trying to make out that his hero status amongst their fans is due to taking them out of a black hole. His lack of plan b and stubbornness of only playing one way has ultimately cost him. He'd never dream of turning up to a game with something like Watford's sh*thouse tactics yesterday to leave with a point.

As a side note, Steve McLaren has just joined the gym that my wife works at last week. :D
 

12OunceEpilogue

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Agreed, i was just trying to make out that his hero status amongst their fans is due to taking them out of a black hole. His lack of plan b and stubbornness of only playing one way has ultimately cost him. He'd never dream of turning up to a game with something like Watford's sh*thouse tactics yesterday to leave with a point.

As a side note, Steve McLaren has just joined the gym that my wife works at last week. :D
Absolutely, I don't know why I said 'but', I'm in complete agreement with you :lol:. I just wanted to echo how hopeless the years were when they had the likes of Dave Hockaday revolving through the club on a merry-go-round to hell, and an Italian madman was there banning the number 23 and the colour yellow from the stadium or whatever it was.

They could do worse than get Steve in as a DOF. He might be a little shop-soiled these days but he's not a bad football man if he can tap into his United experience.
 

GuybrushThreepwood

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In general I’ve noticed that this guy Rory Jennings seems really switched on and knowledgeable when talking about the ‘big’ clubs, but generally is hopeless and out of his depth when talking about smaller clubs. Also he tends to have an irrational hatred of managers of smaller clubs getting praise in the media, and is quick to label them as overrated.

Then again it’s the same for many pundits as well. I bet someone like Roy Keane is pretty clueless about a club like Southampton for example, then again he’s of course there for his soundbites !
 

RacingClub

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In general I’ve noticed that this guy Rory Jennings seems really switched on and knowledgeable when talking about the ‘big’ clubs, but generally is hopeless and out of his depth when talking about smaller clubs. Also he tends to have an irrational hatred of managers of smaller clubs getting praise in the media, and is quick to label them as overrated.

Then again it’s the same for many pundits as well. I bet someone like Roy Keane is pretty clueless about a club like Southampton for example, then again he’s of course there for his soundbites !

I like Rory but If I had to describe him I'm one word it wouldn't be "Knowledgeable", I think he's very reactionary but extremely likeable.

For example I think his continued thrashing of Bielsa comes from the fact that he doesn't understand that people "Praise" Bielsa for getting more than the sum of their parts from his players.

If you watch a United game (squad worth a billion) after a Leeds game you can see that the united players are underperforming/under coached because a far less talented side have played well with the ball Infront of your eyes so there is no real excuse why a more talented side can't.

This isn't a real defence of Bielsa by the way, if he compromised he probably would have survived a little longer. (The injuries have been Catastrophic)

But if he compromised would he be Bielsa?

I can't stand the face poses that he uses for his video thumbnails though
 

Greyfog

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Stubborn tactics. Even Pep has become more conservative since his first seasons in the EPL. Thought he had learned something new from the way they played City last season but nope, back to kamikaze football. Park the bus and hit teams on the counter with James and Raphinha and hope the teams under them don't pick up.
 

RacingClub

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People are massively understand how important Bamford is for them. They have no strikers to finish off the play. They’ll lose Raphina and Phillips this summer and then they are screwed.
Exactly , him Philips and Cooper are essential to their success.

It's like Salah , Fabinho and one of their CBs missing for Liverpool.

I think people are just butthurt about the praise they received for overachieving and are using recent results to justify their position that "Bielsa isn't all he's cracked up to be".
 

Noot

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Honestly, I still don't understand the hype at all. Allardyce's Sunderland were better from what I remember.