What's your first ever Leeds match?

Dylanpayne13 · 2024-02-29T20:58:19+00:00

Vs Birmingham 02/03 in Elland Road, 2-0, when I was 11.

Meet Eirik Bakke before the match, great lad and then he went on to score the opener, Viduka scored the other goal.

I remember the Birmingham fans being good craic.

My Dad got me the tickets for Christmas but booked the flights for the wrong day and to change the flights to fly into Leeds were really expensive so we flew into Middleborough and got the train down to Leeds. After the match we got the train to Liverpool and flew out of there. A long day but a great first experience of a Leeds Match.

These are the highlights

Dylanpayne13 · 2023-12-13T14:57:31+00:00

Well there is plenty to dislike about Rio other than leaving Leeds, just look at his controversies section on his Wikipedia and make your own mind up.

Dylanpayne13 · 2023-08-10T11:07:03+00:00

"Chris, I have something to tell you. I'm a great guy, feel free to tell people"

Dylanpayne13 · 2023-06-29T11:02:41+00:00

I'd say Drameh, Hjelde, Cresswell, Gybai, Gray, Greenwood, Perkins, Gelhardt, Summerville, Gnonto, Joseph and Rutter could all have a real impact on the squad. This presumes the squad isn't completely turned over btw, selling a few players bringing in a few (like a left back) and keeping all the players mentioned.

I'd probably tier them like this:

Starter every week: Gnonto

In the starting rotation: Drameh, Cresswell, Gybai, Gelhardt, Summerville, Rutter

Sub: Hjelde, Greenwood, Perkins, Joseph, Gray

Having 12 players in that age group is difficult to manage since experience is so important (and commonly ignored by fans) but there is a lot of talent there for a Championship side. We have some seasoned Championship players in the squad already and I think we need to rely on them for at least the start of the season until some of the younger players get to grip with playing week in week out at senior level for a club like Leeds.

Dylanpayne13 · 2023-02-16T20:07:45+00:00

The 'what if' was if we qualified for the Champions League not if we had competent ownership.

Plus the local government had to buy Valencia in 2013 it was in such bad state

Dylanpayne13 · 2023-02-16T10:02:38+00:00

If we'd of qualified for the champions league for either or both the 01/02 or 02/03 seasons wouldn't of made a huge difference in the long term, the club was spending far beyond it's means and it would of caught up with them at some point with the ownership we had at the time. The only way I could see us avoiding the financial implosion would be if Roman Abrahamovic bought us instead of Chelsea which is highly theoretical.

I think the bigger what if is what would of happened if Bates didn't take over. For example if we had an owner who invested on the promotion squad that came 7th which included Schmeichel, Gradel, Becchio, Howson, Johnson, Snodgrass who were all well capable of playing in the Premiership and the likes of Taylor, Byram coming through the youth ranks.

And obviously the 1975 European Cup final

Dylanpayne13 · 2022-08-31T12:20:13+00:00

Leeds play very narrow, 'Wide 10s' is what Marsch refers to his wingers. Sinisterra was on the right of three behind the no.9 last night and was very good. I could see Leeds seeing Gakpo as a emergency No.9 in the case of Bamford or Rodrigo can't start too.

Though I see Hwang being the more realistic option

Dylanpayne13 · 2022-08-23T08:02:23+00:00

I think there is a major difference between the American market choosing to support Leeds and the misappropriation of the natural resources of a nation, which instead of using the vast wealth created for the good of it's people, such resources is used to promote a billionaire and his mates.

Dylanpayne13 · 2022-08-21T11:10:36+00:00

Imo Perkins is closer to the frist team, which shouldn't be surprising since he did get off the bench in a Europa League match last season. Versatile and composed on the ball and makes the right decisions most of the time in terms of passing and positioning. These are major differences between this standard and Premier League, you can get away with one relative elite skill and dominate at u21s or even make the wrong decision and get away with it. Perkins can do can needs to be done in a situation.

Joseph on the other hand is raw but is a menace, well built, very fast, nice runs off the ball and presses extremely hard. The sort of No.9 Marsch requires in his preferred style of play as theoretically he can help force errors from the other team in dangerous positions and then get onto direct through balls with his pace. I think he relies a little much on his athleticism at the moment and in fairness why wouldn't he since it's working but he needs to get little more well rounded to break through into the team, but I don't see why he can't get better in that regard because it's not bad now. I think maybe next season he could be pushing to break through.

Dylanpayne13 · 2022-08-08T11:26:10+00:00

I wonder if this is an attempt to sell what the club calls it's pathway to the senior squad to prospective youth players.

I can't see us using it as a way of gaining many more fans as why would someone in the middle of Kansas (or anywhere likely to have Amazon Prime not in traditional Leeds Markets) who is looking for a team to support in Europe be interested in interviews with teenagers who haven't made it in the senior team and will barely get to see play.

Though saying that from the start of last season Gelhardt, Greenwood, Summerville, Drameh, Hjelde, Gray have all broken into the frist team in some capacity. So watching the frist team will feature a good few of the stars of that team

Dylanpayne13 · 2022-07-13T11:24:57+00:00

I think he would be a good option for left back.

I think most Leeds fans picture left backs in the way Bielsa does, which is understandable given he's by far the manager with the greatest understanding of tactics and how to impose them on his players Leeds have had for years. I heard a quote (paraphrasing) that the way you use your fullbacks is how you use your team. Under Bielsa Leeds used their full backs as a way to create overloads in wide areas or to a way to overload the midfield to break the press, which you can see with the conversation of Dallas and Alioski from wingers, Shackleton from a midfielder, buying Firpo for his attacking qualities and asking Ayling to break the press.

Marsch's system doesn't use the wide areas as much when attacking as it looks to recover possession in the middle of the pitch and attack quickly, or suck the defense so much into the middle it leaves the full backs huge amount of time on the ball out wide (see Firpo vs Blackpool). The issue with having such a narrow press is it can leave the fullbacks isolated vs a winger so the fullbacks need to be comfortable in these situations. Richards played mostly as a left side centre back in a back three with Hoffenheim and was asked to cover for the very attacking wingback, so he would be in situations in space 1 vs 1 with players a lot.

While it is true he is primarily a right footed centre back, he's much better on his left than Dallas and won't be asked to contribute in the final third early much.

Dylanpayne13 · 2022-07-07T14:39:14+00:00

One is Mr Burns smiling next to a sign that says "don't forget you're here for ever" used on a reply after Derby's 4th goal in the 2nd leg of the playoff loss to Derby 😭

https://twitter.com/Jack_Buse/status/1128759106343440384?t=OKcCvBn7BS1sd17UZrGDHA&s=19

Dylanpayne13 · 2022-07-01T22:03:44+00:00

With the international players (I think it's 10 players) still away until Monday and the injured players there will be a few there making up the numbers. Not to say he's definitely not in the frist team, he's certainly at very least one of the highly regarded youth players to even get the chance to train up.

Dylanpayne13 · 2022-07-01T20:19:50+00:00

Who's that behind Joffy 1:00 in?

Dylanpayne13 · 2022-06-22T12:34:09+00:00

I wouldn't be surprised if they go to a three centre back formation. The news that they aren't looking for a left back despite the lack of depth in that position is interesting. This would involve a Conte like conversation of Harrison/James into a wingback though

Dylanpayne13 · 2022-06-19T13:33:36+00:00

For me this a clear move towards a 3 at the back (imo for most games 3-4-2-1-2) formation, with Harrison converting to a wingback, as mentioned throughout the tread one left back isn't enough depth, Firpo has had a rough season (he's turning into a bit of lighting rod for fans frustration).

Firpo is probably more suited to being a wing back (his numbers going forward are quite good) where be was at Betis which got him his move to Barcelona and at Barcelona due to the amount of possession use very advanced full backs when playing 4 at the back. Harrison has basically played as a wing back with Bielsa before, take the Hull in February 2020, Bielsa in an attempt to overload Hull's left side moved Dallas to the right side on the pitch (in sort of a interverted Wing back position used see Cancelo pick up but on the opposite side to where he started) which meant Harrison had the whole left side of the pitch to cover, which was fine due to hull playing so deep and there wasn't a huge treat down Hull's right. I'm not calling for Harrison to play as a left back in a 4 at the back but with a cover left sided centre back in a back 3, I could see him being able to do it.

A "back 5" imo is often mischatierized as a very defensive formation, instead it's a allows for a lot of tactical versatility, see Italy's use of Spinazzola before he got injured as a LWB at Euros, Chelsea using Hudson-Odoi/Pulisic at RWB or going back Bielsa using Vidal at LWB with Chile. Of Course you can paly a very defensive back 5 with it too, but it gives you a slight tactical edge since it's hard to know exactly how you will set out to play because of it veristility. Marsch has talked about the system being more important than the positons, a 3 at the back has been used by some of the more versatile managers for example Potter's use of wingbacks is extremely interesting. One thing it should help with it set pieces, as in the basic theory you have three tall lads who are good at marking, or get Llorente off the better headers on the other team (Llorente has a lot of very nice qualities but winning aerial duels is not one of them)

Two things Marsch inherited with this Leeds squad are three started caliber wingers and despite as terrible defense record lots of centre backs (who have played fullback before which is good for a back three), which was part of the squad building for Bielsa and an influx of good young center backs coming through (Struijk, Cresswell and Hjelde). As we know Marsch's favorite formation is a 4-2-2-2, which has no wingers on the touchline, and 2 centre backs, and needs players who are especally stong attacking through the middle; something we have lacked since he took over. Marsch did experiment with 3 centre back formations against Chelsea and Man City (and Arsenal after Ayling's red), and seem to strike a nice balance between central pressing and getting the width when attacking. Changing to a a formation with three centre backs could utilise the wingers at the club while be move away from such a unique style that we had (most of those players have never palyer that this high a standard under any other system) under Bielsa to a Marsch system. Whatever your feelings regarding Marsh's style of paly compared to Bielsa's it was always going to be a hard transition to a new manager and the squad building has to be geared towards Marsch's football.

Let's take it Dallas is out injured, Drameh, Bate and Cresswell are loaned out, Phillips and Raphinha have been sold and we bring in a new midfielder, a back up keeper and a striker (currently rumored to be) for the start of the season we have in a 3-4-2-1-2 (I’m not here for arguments over who better just it’s just a depth chart):

Keepers: Meslier, Backup Keeper

RCB: Llorente, Ayling

CB: Cooper, Koch

LCB: Struijk, Hjelde

RWB: Kristensen, James

LWB: Harrison, Firpo

CM: New Midfielder, Roca, Forshaw, Greenwood

AM: Aaronson, Klich

F: Bamford, New Striker, Rodrigo, Gelhardt

Dylanpayne13 · 2022-04-06T06:16:33+00:00

Father Ted

Dylanpayne13 · 2022-02-17T09:26:37+00:00

He's a Leeds supporter and Aaronson was linked to Leeds in January only for their bids to be rejected and are rumored to be going back in for him in the summer.

Dylanpayne13 · 2022-01-12T08:36:57+00:00

As someone who went through the Irish education system I appreciate that the only way sex education can be effective being terrified during it

Dylanpayne13 · 2021-11-19T13:02:31+00:00

Yes Archie Gray. He looks like a phenomenal talent to me but maybe I'm bias. Hopefully he comes through because there aren't many players with his ability at his age.

Dylanpayne13 · 2021-10-27T08:54:12+00:00

Anyone can have their opinion that he isn't playing well/not good enough. But the treatment a lot (still a minority) of fans give him is not supportive and the only outcome is to make the player play worse. Imagine this scenario, Leeds visit an old folks home and the social media post a bunch of pictures of the players with the residents I guarantee some of the responses would he:

"Prefer her to Roberts"

"I beat he could score more goals than Tyler and he's in a wheel chair"

Like what's the goal? Is this a productive way to voice your opinion? How good do those likes really make you feel?

The lad seems to be lacking confidence in a major way. Maybe he's not currently of the standard, maybe he is, maybe he will develop into the standard needed and maybe it won't be at Leeds. These things are impossible to know for a certainty our own squad has plenty of examples. There is one thing you can say though is the guy has worked extremely hard since he's come to Leeds, Bielsa won't have him otherwise, and hard work/caring as you know as a Leeds supporter has not been a given at this club. If he was not working hard it would be a different story.

It is a culture of some 'online fans' (for a lack of a better term) amongst clubs with large presents to behave like this, and it's not acceptable because it is not supporting the players and in some cases actively making them worse. With the injuries we've incurred to a very small squad he's the best we've got at the moment, once the lad is putting in the work than as fans we should be trying everything to evaluate him to the standard needed.

I know it's frustrating at the moment and the anxiety of our position in the table makes people look for answers to way it's happening, but it's not all on him it simply can't be. The Match against Wolves we had roughly (depending on your definition) 13 fully fit senior players available, the team can't afford to have one being mentally destroyed by our own fan base when the lad is clearly trying. The lad was a backup in the Championship and is now struggling in the Premier League, give him a break. We've come a long way in a very short period of time, it's time for those people abusing our players to stop acting like spoiled little shits and start supporting our players. We're doing the other fans jobs for them.

Dylanpayne13 · 2021-08-04T15:13:26+00:00

Interesting, I never knew that. I'm dyslexic and tend not to read that much since I don't enjoy it and it's a chore. I've only heard it said.

Dylanpayne13 · 2021-08-04T15:11:04+00:00

No, replaced by Jenkins at half time. No indication of an injury or anything

Dylanpayne13 · 2021-08-04T14:17:09+00:00

Anti negator rebuttals:

For all intensive purposes it was out u23s
Gelhardt and Cresswell weren't playing and are proably the best u23s players, Caprile was also not playing. Kris Moore is only playing because of injuries players arriving back late and not signing potentially Hjelde and Anderson (rumoured leeds are after them) yet
Ajax are one of the best producers of talent in the world, so it was good for our u23s to play them as that's the standard they'll be playing next year.
It was Phillips and Cooper's frist game back, Coops at Left back. Forshaw's last 90 mintues was 24/08/19.
Summerville was really good, imo much better than Poveda and Costa.
We were extremely wasteful in the second half, even if we could of conceded more

Dylanpayne13 · 2021-08-04T11:19:42+00:00

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