Liverpool V Leeds Utd Match Thread - Raphinha and Firpo Start

[VinnysTattoo]

Fancy, going into games knowing LUFC are going to get battered.

Even when we were crap, I can't recall thinking prior to a game we'd concede many goals, yes we were heavily beaten by the likes of Luton, Blackpool, Sheff Wed, Birmingham, etc however I never expected such heavy defeats.

I suspect fans from other teams around us don't expect to concede so many goals.

As a fan of nearly 60 years following Leeds United, who has always admired the defensive side of our game, I've never been so despondent & disappointed with this facet of our game.

CLEAN SHEETS GAIN POINTS & WINS FOOTBALL MATCHES.

Spot on mate. Part of the reason why this has been one crappy season to watch and be part of.

I don’t expect positive results against superior opposition but there is always a chance if the cards drop your way. The big difference is now I expect us to lose but in addition I am expecting a battering.

Last season was different in that we were scoring goals and by the latter part we were actually stopping the bigger sides scoring freely. I was very optimistic seasons end.

Pre season was a worry as we didn’t seem to take that form forward and given the goals were drying up, the warning signs started popping up.

It seemed lessons weren’t learned. OK, KP has been a massive miss, but we haven’t adopted tactics to halt the flow.

Surely if you know you are not scoring the goals to compensate, you slow down the rate of conceding. Maybe that’s to simplistic a way of seeing things, but it seems obvious.

[CHAPELALLMAN]

"The fans have more patience than they should."

So maybe the criticisms and analysis on here are not so unreasonable as some try to make out - that's from the horse's mouth.

[CHAPELALLMAN]

Aye we don't miss Kalvin....

Leeds have conceded 30 goals in their last 11 Premier League matches. By contrast, in their final 11 games of last season they conceded just eight.

That run consisted of seven wins, three draws and one loss. They took points off Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and recorded wins against Tottenham and Manchester City.

It will come as no surprise that England's Player of the Year, Kalvin Phillips, featured in nine of those 11 games. He is the rock on which Leeds' formation is built and no-one in the squad is as capable as Phillips at filling that role.

On Sunday, the Whites showed tremendous character against Manchester United to come out in the second half and restore parity with two goals in a thrilling 24 seconds.

In Raphinha, Rodrigo, Daniel James and Joe Gelhardt, Leeds looked fluid and threatening going forward.

If that quartet can become a consistent strike force, then the team just needs the defensive stability that Phillips can bring. Then the results will come.

I think Kalvin made our CBs look better than they really are with the cover that he supplies. Llorente in particular is exposed as lacking the abilities and the physicality needed to be a decent CB without Kalvin in front of him.

[1964white]

Marcelo Bielsa has praised Leeds United fans for their support during the club's difficult run of form as his side prepare to face Liverpool at Anfield on Wednesday.

Leeds were beaten 4-2 by rivals Manchester United on Sunday, but the highly-charged atmosphere at Elland Road saw Bielsa's team come from two goals down to draw level within a minute in the second half.

"The fans have more patience than they should," said the Argentine.

"It's a recognition of what the team tries to achieve but they don't manage to. It's a recognition of what they deserve to get and what is witnessed.

"The attitude of the fans is an example to us. The ones who believe the most are our fans."

Our fans are always magnificent even in the face of adversity, the noise we created even at 0-2 was second to none, it was carnage in the kop in those 24 seconds of sheer joy. There is no way anyone in their right mind can blame our defeats because we are playing in front of crowds again, our players who eventually move on to other clubs won't receive the same level of support & adulation elsewhere!

Tbh, for once I'm glad I'm not at Anfield tonight. I feel settled again with Jill recovering at home, I have an important bowls match this afternoon, something I thoroughly enjoy. I don't need more misery in my life, also I have to rise early for business reasons tomorrow.

Furthermore, I'll be at the Spurs game & have acquired a ticket for Leicester away. Hopefully we can start turning our season around from this weekend onwards.

[The Subhuman]

Meslier
Ayling
Firpo
Struijk (DMF)
Llorente
Hjelde
Raphinha
Dallas
James (CF)
Forshaw
Harrison

Dallas Forshaw Struijk midfield should make it harder going for Liverpool, Rodrigo on if we need to chase the game with Joe. Roberts for Forshaw ditto.

[1964white]

I think Kalvin made our CBs look better than they really are with the cover that he supplies. Llorente in particular is exposed as lacking the abilities and the physicality needed to be a decent CB without Kalvin in front of him.

Our fanbase knows we miss Phillips when he is unavailable, unfortunately our management have a different viewpoint, even though the stats back up we are poor without KP. Marcelo insisted we have every position covered, maybe the case in bodies, but certainly not in quality.

[Chilli D]

Meslier
Ayling
Firpo
Struijk (DMF)
Llorente
Hjelde
Raphinha
Dallas
James (CF)
Forshaw
Harrison

Dallas Forshaw Struijk midfield should make it harder going for Liverpool, Rodrigo on if we need to chase the game with Joe. Roberts for Forshaw ditto.

Is Hjelde available?

[1964white]

Pre season was a worry as we didn’t seem to take that form forward and given the goals were drying up, the warning signs started popping up.

I got slaughtered for criticising our pre-season even though I suspect I was one of a select few who actually watched all the games.

Apparently, pre-season games are all about fitness. I could see we weren't as fluent from the onset & by this season had started for real, we were nowhere near ready for the rigours of Premier League football.

[1964white]

Is Hjelde available?

I don't think so, Chilli

[billysboots]

KP is a wonderful footballer but a team shouldn’t fall apart to this extent when one player is unavailable.

(Obviously we are missing paddy as well).

[Overman]

KP is a wonderful footballer but a team shouldn’t fall apart to this extent when one player is unavailable.

(Obviously we are missing paddy as well).

That's been part of the problem an over-reliance on certain players such as KP, Rapha and to a latter extent Bamford. MB does he best to fill the gaps with odds and ends, but to no real effect.

[pjm2019]

Aye we don't miss Kalvin....

Leeds have conceded 30 goals in their last 11 Premier League matches. By contrast, in their final 11 games of last season they conceded just eight.

That run consisted of seven wins, three draws and one loss. They took points off Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United and recorded wins against Tottenham and Manchester City.

It will come as no surprise that England's Player of the Year, Kalvin Phillips, featured in nine of those 11 games. He is the rock on which Leeds' formation is built and no-one in the squad is as capable as Phillips at filling that role.

On Sunday, the Whites showed tremendous character against Manchester United to come out in the second half and restore parity with two goals in a thrilling 24 seconds.

In Raphinha, Rodrigo, Daniel James and Joe Gelhardt, Leeds looked fluid and threatening going forward.

If that quartet can become a consistent strike force, then the team just needs the defensive stability that Phillips can bring. Then the results will come.

lets hope we can keep scoring AND Phillips returns VERY soon before it is too late

[The Subhuman]

KP is a wonderful footballer but a team shouldn’t fall apart to this extent when one player is unavailable.

(Obviously we are missing paddy as well).

Liverpool did when they lost Van Dyk, not relegation threatened but a very poor season by their recent standards and that attacking firepower. It's all relative, We're a bottom 10 club losing half the first team starters for extended periods. Added to that we've had the backs up in and out due to injury meaning we're not putting together a consistent back 4. Seems a new set of partnerships every game and the last two have seen us need to make changes on the fly due to key in game injuries..

The manager won't say it, the players won't say it but 75% of our troubles have come from the injury situation and when you think we're only four points outside 11th then we're hanging on well despite all the kicks in the ball this season..

We're missing Coops captaincy and organizational skills plus his body on the line football (Struijk missed two easyish blocks for goals two and three v Manure IIRC)

We're missing Phillips ability to protect the back four while taking out the oppositions key attacker AT THE SAME TIME, Struijk and Koch are still learning how to do that in this system.

We're missing Paddy's in box work, not the best striker in the league by any means but he works in our system and he's the only striker at the club atm. James looks like he's going to be good there in a season or so but early days. Gelhardt and Rodrigo are 10's basically. They pick up the ball and then need striker in front

[Madron]

The manager won't say it, the players won't say it but 75% of our troubles have come from the injury situation and when you think we're only four points outside 11th then we're hanging on well despite all the kicks in the ball this season..

My thoughts entirely.
I spend just as much time looking at teams above us as those below .Despite our bad season ,looking at the table, Leicester ,Villa ,Palace, Brentford and Everton are having equally bad seasons as well as those below us.
I started this season, not expecting to match last seasons 9th, in fact survival was my only goal and at the moment we are in a good position to achieve that.
The imminent games that matter are Villa and Norwich. 4 -6pts there and we're laughing. Only wish there was a couple more days between them.

[Mick Jones shoulder]

Reiterates the point that the majority of teams in the Premier league are poor bar the very top echelon.

[Bongo1874]

Staying up is all that matters, which you will .

Look forward to the game tonight two teams that try to play football the right way.

All the best .

Draw tonight and win against spurs.

[Overman]

Staying up is all that matters, which you will .

Look forward to the game tonight two teams that try to play football the right way.

All the best .

Draw tonight and win against spurs.

Difference being one team has a defence, midfield and an attack. I just expect more Keystone Cop defending, a chasm in midfield for Liverpool to stroll through, and James the Hobbit ploughing away upfront to no real effect.

I hope I'm wrong though!

[60sUnited]

Staying up is all that matters, which you will .

Look forward to the game tonight two teams that try to play football the right way.

All the best .

Draw tonight and win against spurs.

Love your optimism Bongo but I feel scared stiff about what may happen tonight....anyway I hope that in the end ourselves and The Toon stay up, wish we had brought 2 or 3 in....its done the Toon a power of good !

[White Riot]

Could do some damage that^

Now you're thinking future Riot, i love it.

Cheers mate

Let's see what damage these young lads can do to the opposition, rather than watching Liverpool have a stroll around the park.

[White Riot]

Fancy, going into games knowing LUFC are going to get battered.

Even when we were crap, I can't recall thinking prior to a game we'd concede many goals, yes we were heavily beaten by the likes of Luton, Blackpool, Sheff Wed, Birmingham, etc however I never expected such heavy defeats.

I suspect fans from other teams around us don't expect to concede so many goals.

As a fan of nearly 60 years following Leeds United, who has always admired the defensive side of our game, I've never been so despondent & disappointed with this facet of our game.

CLEAN SHEETS GAIN POINTS & WINS FOOTBALL MATCHES.

Dead right mate

It's like having Rahubcka in the nest every week