Leeds United: Bielsa ball in the Prem

[razörist]

Think we need a thread to talk about them. Damn they were impressive vs Liverpool.

 

[GoonerJeeves]

0 points. Long may it continue.

 

[SA Gunner]

They can be managed during a match, you just need clear plans to nullify their press and patterns of play to punish them.

Our improved ability in playing out from the back is becoming one of our strongest assets at the moment, and that would help against a team as agressive as Bielsa's Leeds.

As for the rest of the league, I think Leeds have enough to stay up this season but it will also be dependent on their ability to play against teams who are happy to give them possession and attack the spaces behind them.

Im going for Leeds to stay up, with at best finish of around 7-10th .

 

[Taneruit]

It's scary to think about Leeds with a few transfer windows and thus better players. I'm not sure they would win the prem due to their defensive liabilities, but they would give 90% of prem defenders absolute nightmares.

I'm always reminded of a ravage beast when they press. Not gonna lie.

 

[Blood on the Tracks]

Maybe I'm in the minority but I don't see Leeds as being all that impressive. One of the better teams to come up from the Championship in recent years, sure. Bielsa's credentials speaks for themselves, of course. But talk of top 8-10 finishes is a bit overboard at this stage.

You can't read too much into their first match back in the Premier League though, Liverpool were very sloppy and Leeds played pretty well. Leeds were hyped up being back in the big leagues and wanting to make an impression. It's still a massive step up from the Championship to the Premier League.

I expect them to have a pretty good first half to the season and fall away in the second half, probably finish 12-15th. Make no mistake, not getting relegated is Leeds primary objective this year, anything else is a bonus. If you offered them a 17th place finish right now, they'd bite your hand off.

Rodrigo and Bamford are pretty poor striker options too, to be honest.

I'm glad to see Leeds back in the Premier League though, love them or hate them, they're a big club.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

They'll get a lot of points on the first few months but mark my words there'll be a major drop off. The way they play combined with their limited quality isn't sustainable throughout the entire season and it'll only get them so far. Talk of a top 10 finish is very ambitious. If I'm a Leeds fan I'd bite your hand off for 17th. Luckily for them I think Fulham are worse, probably WBA and West Ham are a right mess. Villa also in for another relegation battle. If you take the original top 6, Leicester, Wolves, Everton that's 9 times definitely finishing above them. Then I think teams like Sheffield, Southampton, Burnley and Palace are all better equipped for this league. Newcastle simply have better players. I don't really see Leeds finishing above any of those teams tbh.

 

[Jakarta]

I’ve loved Biesla from his early days as Chile’s manager. Remember being amazed by his brand of football as he managed the u21 side in the Toulon tournament of 2008. His passion and the way he makes his teams play is enough to make anyone a fan of his.

Last nights game was a joy to watch.

I’ll definitely be watching most of their games this season.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Look at this. Struijk is the CB and look at how far he is up the pitch to deal with Firmino because of Bielsa's man marking defensive setup. Also Gomez has time to play the ball over while Salah in a race vs Dallas is only gonna be one winner with half the pitch to run into. Similar story with Mane vs Ayling, while Robertson is already ahead of Helder Costa who's an attacking player. Of course they won't be playing Liverpool every week but all it takes is a clever coach to really exploit this. It's all well and good going man for man but it's also very dangerous with players like Mane and Salah.

 

[hydrofluoric acid]

lol

Every now and then team come up a division to PL with a bang but eventually, they will get found out during the season.

 

[CaseUteinberger]

Think we need a thread to talk about them. Damn they were impressive vs Liverpool.

The fact that they equalised 3 times and took the game to Liverpool from start to finish sure was impressive. Looking forward to following them to see how things progress.

 

[Flying Okapis]

It's scary to think about Leeds with a few transfer windows and thus better players. I'm not sure they would win the prem due to their defensive liabilities, but they would give 90% of prem defenders absolute nightmares.

I'm always reminded of a ravage beast when they press. Not gonna lie.

They will get noway near it, impressive performance against Liverpool but lets not go overboard.

There is a huge gap between them and title contenders even with some transfer windows.

First game of the season for a newly promoted club against the champions, its similar catergory to a cup game, the motivation is already there, lets wait until they play the lesser clubs in Nov-Jan to see how they get on, can see a drop off like others have predicted.

 

[Breezy]

They’re going to be fun to watch this season for sure.

 

[Malky]

They'll get a lot of points on the first few months but mark my words there'll be a major drop off. The way they play combined with their limited quality isn't sustainable throughout the entire season and it'll only get them so far. Talk of a top 10 finish is very ambitious. If I'm a Leeds fan I'd bite your hand off for 17th. Luckily for them I think Fulham are worse, probably WBA and West Ham are a right mess. Villa also in for another relegation battle. If you take the original top 6, Leicester, Wolves, Everton that's 9 times definitely finishing above them. Then I think teams like Sheffield, Southampton, Burnley and Palace are all better equipped for this league. Newcastle simply have better players. I don't really see Leeds finishing above any of those teams tbh.

Was about to post the same. They go at it all guns blazing, got to admire it, but how are they going to maintain that level of energy once fatigue and injuries start to kick in? It's a long season, can't get them going 100mph for 90mins every single week. Against Pool they looked like they had no 'Plan B' other than out run and out work them, that isn't going to cut it against teams with better players in a few months.

 

[Riou]

As others have said I think they need to pick up as many points as possible in the first half of the season, feel they will burn out badly post Christmas.

All about staying up for them this year imo, if they were offered 17th right now they should take it with both hands...think they could really kick on the longer they stay in the division.

 

[Jakarta]

The football they are playing is great, but they are really lacking quality in defence and upfront.

They would do well to stay up this season, and add more quality players next season to take full advantage of Biesla’s system.

 

[Rex Stone]

xG are being way overachieved so far. Against Fulham they had 1.45 xG which was worse than their opponents.

They look dodgy at the back so need to improve for sure.