The Official Leeds United Thread

[JNW1]

GTO-3R said:

JNW1 said:

Well I didn't see us taking the points at City and certainly not like that! Awesome second half performance after being down to ten men; it was like defending the Alamo a lot of the time but we restricted them to very few clear chances and, although we only had two shots on goal, they both finished in the back of the net. The team fought like tigers all the way and, when a lot of teams would have been content to sit behind the ball and run the clock down, they were still prepared to attack and got their reward with a last gasp winner.

Thought the sending-off was a bit harsh as well; Cooper got the ball and, while he caught Jesus with his follow through, there was nothing malicious about it - if challenges like that are straight reds football's heading towards becoming a non-contact sport...

You thought this was harsh? Slightly different and he could have snapped his leg at the knee!

Just goes to show how a still out of context can make something look much worse than it was - ditto slow motion action replays. In real time it looked to me like Cooper's eye was very much on the ball and he had no intent to injure Jesus.

[CustardOnChips]

JNW1 said:

GTO-3R said:

JNW1 said:

Well I didn't see us taking the points at City and certainly not like that! Awesome second half performance after being down to ten men; it was like defending the Alamo a lot of the time but we restricted them to very few clear chances and, although we only had two shots on goal, they both finished in the back of the net. The team fought like tigers all the way and, when a lot of teams would have been content to sit behind the ball and run the clock down, they were still prepared to attack and got their reward with a last gasp winner.

Thought the sending-off was a bit harsh as well; Cooper got the ball and, while he caught Jesus with his follow through, there was nothing malicious about it - if challenges like that are straight reds football's heading towards becoming a non-contact sport...

You thought this was harsh? Slightly different and he could have snapped his leg at the knee!

Just goes to show how a still out of context can make something look much worse than it was - ditto slow motion action replays. In real time it looked to me like Cooper's eye was very much on the ball and he had no intent to injure Jesus.

Its not out of context though. It highlights how bad the tackle was. Yes Cooper got the ball, but that is irrelevant. He followed through with his studs up and made contact above the knee. He could just as easily have broken Jesus's leg as Boldock could have Robert's last week. It was a reckless tackle.

There wasn't much in the way of an argument by the Leeds players from what I could see.

[JNW1]

CustardOnChips said:

JNW1 said:

GTO-3R said:

JNW1 said:

Well I didn't see us taking the points at City and certainly not like that! Awesome second half performance after being down to ten men; it was like defending the Alamo a lot of the time but we restricted them to very few clear chances and, although we only had two shots on goal, they both finished in the back of the net. The team fought like tigers all the way and, when a lot of teams would have been content to sit behind the ball and run the clock down, they were still prepared to attack and got their reward with a last gasp winner.

Thought the sending-off was a bit harsh as well; Cooper got the ball and, while he caught Jesus with his follow through, there was nothing malicious about it - if challenges like that are straight reds football's heading towards becoming a non-contact sport...

You thought this was harsh? Slightly different and he could have snapped his leg at the knee!

Just goes to show how a still out of context can make something look much worse than it was - ditto slow motion action replays. In real time it looked to me like Cooper's eye was very much on the ball and he had no intent to injure Jesus.

Its not out of context though. It highlights how bad the tackle was. Yes Cooper got the ball, but that is irrelevant. He followed through with his studs up and made contact above the knee. He could just as easily have broken Jesus's leg as Boldock could have Robert's last week. It was a reckless tackle.

There wasn't much in the way of an argument by the Leeds players from what I could see.

When I say out of context it would have been bad - and dangerous - if the full force of the tackle had been aimed at Jesus (which is what that picture could be interpreted as showing). However, to me it wasn't like that, Cooper's focus was on the ball - which he got cleanly - and the contact with Jesus was made with much less force on the follow through.

As for the reaction of the Leeds players, once VAR's been involved you're not going to change a decision so not much point arguing about it. Whether the club appeals the decision remains to be seen but I doubt it; the VAR assistant obviously thought it was worth the match referee having another look on the monitor and, having deemed it a straight red, I think it's unlikely it would be over-turned on appeal. However, that's not the end of the world for us as Llorente, Koch and Struijk are all fit and arguably better than Cooper anyway!

But I still don't think it was the correct decision today; for me what Cooper did was nowhere near as bad as Baldock's challenge last week as he got nothing of the ball and the full force of his lunge was aimed at Roberts. Yet he didn't even see yellow, never mind red - where's the consistency?

[Drezza]

Best win of the season for me that, followed closely by the villa game. Llorente worried me at the start of the season but now I think he's our best CB. Pleased to see Costa have a great game too, wonder if he'll stay in the team for the next game or if Harrison will come back in?

Wasn't a red for me either, slow-mo replays and pictures can make tackles look so much worse than they really are.

[Zad]

I was busy today, so didn't see the result until 5pm or so. Safe to say I wasn't expecting that! Just seen MOTD. I'm going to ignore the sending off incident, because I think it is a distraction from what will prove in years to come to be a hugely important game. Other than to say it proved the value of playing as a team, and with an incredible positive attitude. How many teams, 1 man down, away at Man City, drawing going into the last few minutes, would say to themselves "forget playing safe, we could win this".

Even assuming Man City were going to sub some players to protect the European team, I was expecting the runaway league leaders, champions apparent, still-in-4-competitions team to teach us a lesson. I guess if you disrespect a team, then it is going to come back and bite you. It proved to me that our defence is a lot better than I thought it was!

Overnight, (temporarily) we sit in 9th place in the Premiership, on 45 points and zero goal diff. The maximum possible points from the teams currently in the relegation zone are:

Fulham: 44 (-18 GD)
West Brom: 45 (-34 GD)
Sheffield Utd: 38

So as I see it, only West Brom could theoretically beat us, if they win every one of their 8 games left, and we lose all 7 of ours, and have a better goal difference. Which would take a combined goal difference of over 4 for every game left.

[DaveyBoyWonder]

I wasn't expecting that! Hope, always but expectation, nope.

The spirit our team shows is just staggering. Supported Leeds since I was a nipper, a genetic condition passed down from my dad from his dad but I can't honestly think of a result I'm more proud of in recent times. Was hoping for a point out of Saturday and our next two but honestly I'm feeling far more confident now for the Liverpool game but still thinking we'll lose against Man Utd albeit we're a far different team than we were last time we met both teams.

[RobGT81]

The red card tackle was pretty much the same as the Sterling challenge, except Sterling was no where near the ball and Cooper won the ball. Can't keep us down though! ALAW.

[Pieman68]

RobGT81 said:

The red card tackle was pretty much the same as the Sterling challenge, except Sterling was no where near the ball and Cooper won the ball. Can't keep us down though! ALAW.

Sterling went over the top on both Raphinha and Meslier and didn't get punished for either!

[JNW1]

RobGT81 said:

The red card tackle was pretty much the same as the Sterling challenge, except Sterling was no where near the ball and Cooper won the ball. Can't keep us down though! ALAW.

And the following day Tarkowski kicked a Newcastle player's head inside the penalty area and......nothing; no penalty, no yellow card, no red card, nothing!

To be fair to Tarkowski he looked to be trying to play the ball - and got it - but the same applied to Cooper yet he got a straight red even though his challenge was (IMO) if anything less dangerous and reckless than Tarkowski's. And Baldock's challenge the week before was in my view worse than either as he got none of the ball and there looked to be more in the way of malicious intent about it all. Makes you wonder what on earth's going on at Stockley Park - the level of inconsistency really is appalling...

[Killer2005]

Decent result that after a poor first half.

[JNW1]

Killer2005 said:

Decent result that after a poor first half.

Agreed! On another day they'd have been out of sight after 60 minutes but we stuck at it and actually probably had the better chances - on balance happy to take a point.

[Zad]

4 points in 2 games from the league leaders, and the current league champions. Yep, veeeery happy with that.

It could have gone either way though, and we certainly made mistakes, but didn't look outclassed at all. With 30,000+ supporters in full voice, who knows!

[NEC3]

Zad said:

4 points in 2 games from the league leaders, and the current league champions. Yep, veeeery happy with that.

It could have gone either way though, and we certainly made mistakes, but didn't look outclassed at all. With 30,000+ supporters in full voice, who knows!

Totally agree, if we were all sat ( stood ) in our seats i really think we would have done it... Not unhappy though. Did miss the creativity of Raph..

[DaveyBoyWonder]

They were as bad as we were for large parts of that which is why I kinda hoped we'd properly turned up and beat them. One of those weird games where we don't get going until the second half after which we had the better chances and should maybe have nicked it had Bamford's brilliant chance that came off the bar gone in, Roberts firing straight at Allison (you can see why he did it, someone like Bamford would have slotted it past him but out of desperation to score went for power vs placement) and a great save from Harrison with his legs. In comparison I don't think Meslier had a lot to do...

Shows how far we've come though - Llorente was the only player for us last night that we didn't have in the Championship.

As much as I like him, and I think I've said it before, Costa is far too hit-and-miss. He'll have a decent game and then a game like last night. Poveda looked far better when he came on.

[DE1975]

Anybody hoping the 6 clubs involved in the ESL shenanigans get banned for participating in Europe next season meaning 10th place in the league could be the 4th Champions League qualifying place?

[Zad]

Yes and no. Although, as I type this, it is pretty irrelevant as all 6 English clubs have withdrawn from it. I half expect another 6 clubs to be invited tomorrow. I don't think they were expecting so much backlash from their own supporters.

Yes, it would have been incredible to see Leeds in Europe next year. No, because we aren't ready for it, and because it would have felt rather hollow anyway. I think the club ethos these days is something like; we do it the proper way, or not at all. It would certainly have shaken things up, with players bailing out of their clubs en masse, we could have potentially picked up a few bargains.

[JNW1]

Not a great game this afternoon but I thought we were worth a point. Defensively we seem to have improved of late, perhaps Llorente being fit and getting a run in the team has made a difference?

[Drezza]

Scrappy but we've had an amazing month, I'd 100% taken a point before the game. Bielsa has to be manager of the month.

[JNW1]

Drezza said:

Scrappy but we've had an amazing month, I'd 100% taken a point before the game. Bielsa has to be manager of the month.

Yes, if at the start of April someone had offered me a win and two draws from our games against Man City, Liverpool and Man Utd I'd have snapped their hand off!

It was a poor game today but for me Kalvin Phillips was our man of the match once again; I know a number of our squad have improved significantly under Bielsa but probably none more than KP. He could definitely play top-level European football, hopefully he'll stick around and eventually get that chance with us!

[Killer2005]

Would have taken a point before kick off so can't complain too much about the result.

The referee was however a different matter. Gave them everything the moment they went down but didn't give the same to us.