MB'S PRESS CONFERENCES

Leeds United news here, transfer rumours, club affairs, players, fans, etc.
Specific match discussions should go in the category below.
MOT1964
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Re: MB'S PRESS CONFERENCES

Post by MOT1964 »

Phil Hay
@PhilHay_
·
An hour of Bielsa at today's presser. Full of chat. Main lines:

- Hernandez out for two more weeks
- Llorente ready if needed
- no plan to switch to three at the back long-term, despite that signing
- looking for another "couple" of signings
- setback for Forshaw, unfortunately
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Leonickroberts
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Re: MB'S PRESS CONFERENCES

Post by Leonickroberts »

MOT1964 wrote:Phil Hay
@PhilHay_

- setback for Forshaw, unfortunately
....
'When he plays on snow, he doesn't leave any footprints’
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Re: MB'S PRESS CONFERENCES

Post by Deleted User 728 »

Leonickroberts wrote:
MOT1964 wrote:Phil Hay
@PhilHay_

- setback for Forshaw, unfortunately
....
I've written Forshaw off.

Some players are brittle, others seemingly indestructible.
Look at Jack Wilshere, Marco Reus, Daniel Sturridge, Aaron Ramsey, Andy Carroll and Gareth Bale.
Only Reus and Bale were ever worth waiting for out of that list off the top of my head.

I doubt he'll ever play more than 20 games a season for anyone now.
DominanceUK
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Re: MB'S PRESS CONFERENCES

Post by DominanceUK »

rigger wrote:
Leonickroberts wrote:
MOT1964 wrote:Phil Hay
@PhilHay_

- setback for Forshaw, unfortunately
....
I've written Forshaw off.

Some players are brittle, others seemingly indestructible.
Look at Jack Wilshere, Marco Reus, Daniel Sturridge, Aaron Ramsey, Andy Carroll and Gareth Bale.
Only Reus and Bale were ever worth waiting for out of that list off the top of my head.

I doubt he'll ever play more than 20 games a season for anyone now.
I agree, tbh, I've forgotten all about him. You mentioned Andy Carroll, I'm absolutely stunned that he kept getting contracts over the years. And he isn't that great either!
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Selby White
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Re: MB'S PRESS CONFERENCES

Post by Selby White »

Must say I feel a bit sorry for Forshaw always did his best when he played and has probably missed the best part of what should have been his prime seasons.

He's not the first or last player to have a career ruined by injury, its unfortunate but a fact of life for some.

Still 28 years old if and when he gets fit I think we will have moved to another level.
Hope he does get to play again somewhere, plenty left in the tank.
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NottinghamWhite
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Re: MB'S PRESS CONFERENCES

Post by NottinghamWhite »

Pre Newcastle United



Gerard Houllier - what is your reaction to the news he has passed away?

It’s some very hurtful news. He’s a man who left his mark on football and every time that someone who contributes so much leaves us it’s always a feeling of sadness.

Unpredictable results - how difficult will it be for Leeds to stay in the PL? Any danger of being dragged into relegation fight?

It’s very difficult to talk about the future and to predict it.
The reality that we’re going through at this moment to have only picked up four points from the last 18 is a negative cycle that of course generates consequences. This negative cycle that we’re going through is similar to half of the other teams in the PL who have gone through a similar cycle.
We know that every time we play the difficulty is very high and we try to hope that we can pick up as many points as possible. Anyhow for the question that you are asking me, I try to say something that has some significance or sense but in football any circumstance is possible and every week we will fight to improve our position in the table regardless of where it is.

Set-pieces issue - how difficult to address on training ground when there are so many games at this point of the season?

We conceded four goals from set-pieces and the circumstances which highlight this problem is that it happened in two consecutive games. It happened against number 21 from West Ham, number 15 from Chelsea and also with the number four from Liverpool and the fourth one was number 28 at West Ham who had a significant height advantage over the player.
The duels that we have lost that have generated the goals, the responsibility is taken up by the best header we have in the team. It’s normal, natural that our best header of the ball comes up against the best of the PL, it’s normal that they lose these duels.
If we compare our efficiency when with our set-pieces in an attacking sense, the data is very similar. We’ve managed to score a similar amount of goals as the ones we’ve suffered.
That’s to say that the other teams don’t defend much better than us in this sense.
Afterwards there is another important point - we usually have two very good headers of the ball which is our two centre-backs. In the games where we haven’t had Koch or Llorente other players like Ayling or Phillips have had to assume this responsibility. There are a lot of questions that are answered with a lot of conviction. When they ask me how do you resolve the problems with defensive set-pieces, it’s a lot more linked to the things I have just mentioned than the training that can be done.

Named your team before West Ham - was that correct thing to do? Will you do it again before this game?

Nothing about it was incorrect. It would be incorrect if we thought that knowing the XI of the opponent gives you an important advantage. For me it doesn’t give you an important advantage.
From now on to avoid any backlash I will not continue to give answers on the players who can or cannot play at the weekend.
Imagine that the manager of West Ham says I anticipated the team. For me to name the team ahead of time is something I shouldn’t do. Anyhow, the formation, the XI I gave last week without knowingly given it because they asked me about a certain position in particular and I spontaneously gave the XI with the player playing in that position.

Bamford injury?

No.

113 games in charge of Leeds - same as Bilbao - you said last year you've changed your approach to be more hands-off, do the demands of PL mean you need to be more hands-on again?

In the moments of adversity any support that anyone within the group has to make has to be something that generates a positive response.
The demonstration of affection is very difficult to administer in football because the function of a coach or manager is to take decisions that favour the team which could in term be unfavourable to some people in the team.
But there are many ways to show support and closeness that are not linked to affection. Helping, talking sincerely, describing with honesty the good things that were done and the bad things that were done. It’s part of my job to be able to manage all of this.

Your side has been through adversity in these past two seasons - has your side's strength grown to deal with that?

There are different types of adversities. The PL is of a certain level and we have to show we can play at that level. You can take different moments from the 12 games we’ve played so far and you will find expressions that are very good and others that are not so good.
In the Championship we had the respect of a large percentage of opponents and a superiority that was already clear. What we had to do was impose it.
Our challenge in every game in the PL is to demonstrate that we can compete in equal conditions and in this task that’s where we’re at. Throughout these 12 games we’ve been superior to some big rivals and there’s been times where inferior opponents have been superior to us.
I understand that the job of the media is to try and predict the future, what’s going to happen, to talk about what’s happened and how this will affect the future but for me it’s very difficult to help out in this way.
That’s why I say in every game our challenge is to be superior to every opponent that we play so we can impose ourselves.

Houllier - did you know him well, did you face him as a manager, any personal reflections of him?

No, I never met him and we never faced each other as managers.

Set-pieces again - are you confident you can find a solution internally or will you have to go to the transfer market?

If you heard what I said previously the conclusions on which you base your question are not the same. My conclusions are that we’ve conceded four goals. Of those four goals three have been scored by three of the PLs best headers of the ball. The other one Souchek had a 15cm advantage over who was marking him.
I think of course we have to evolve and this that you propose the training will resolve it is a truth, but it is a truth at a medium or half-way. Finally, aerial game has three big aspects. It’s always an aspect which is one against another and there are two components there which is the height and how good they are in the air. In that sense you can lose or win. You can be shorter or taller and be a better header than the opponent. The other aspect is if there is a dispute with the ball and this is to do with the movement. If both players arrive at the same time. That’s to say whether they leave at the same time or if one is faster with his movement and it also has to do with experience with how cheeky or how subtle you can be in these moments.
In this sense a journalist asked me the other day if I thought my team was naive. After the gameweek is over I show our players all the actions in which VAR intervenes. A lot are linked into what we are talking about. Of course our teams suffers a lot of blocks, which are sometimes penalised and sometimes not. We don’t use this resource because it’s an infraction but of course we have to adapt to these circumstances. To respect the rules is not being naive. It’s acting how we are indicated to act. So all these processes are something we are trying to improve and find a solution for. But this requirement, this question that you are asking me comes from conceding set-pieces in two games in a row, not because we have conceded an exaggerated amount of goals in this manner.
So, if you were to ask me if I had to improve one defensive aspect or this one, I would try to improve other ones which generate more difficulties for us that set-pieces, which doesn’t mean we don’t have this problem.

Have you felt a backlash over naming the team last week? Did you feel it was an issue for some people?

I wouldn’t know what to tell you I wouldn’t know how to interpret it. What I can tell yu is that it doesn’t constitute a relative advantage to know the XI of the team that you are facing prior to the game.

Sam Greenwood - deeper role for U23s, what have you made of him and what positions will he be able to fill long-term?

The position is as a centre forward. Normally he plays in conjunction with Gelhardt in the team.
Gelhardt is a player that when he is close to the box is very dangerous and greenwood is the player who has a lot of capacity to arrive into the free spaces. They can play either with Gelhardt in front with Greenwood behind or the other way round.
Teams are running more against you - is it more of a challenge to maintain your side's physical advantage?

The game against West Ham was our second-best game in the physical aspect. We only ran more against Aston Villa than against West Ham. But to run in the game against Aston Villa was a lot easier than in the game against West Ham.
When you play against a team who tries to be a protagonist the field is 100 x 60 but when you play a team who plays on the counter-attack the pitch measures 50 x 40 and so to run when the spaces are reduced is much more difficult.
You have to make the same physical effort but when you don’t make the same space its a lot more difficult to run and if you see a table of how much each team has run in all the fixtures you will have the response to your question.

What do you make the job Steve Bruce is doing at Newcastle and what will their main threats be on Wednesday night?

Very positive and the quality of their forwards.
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John Dane
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Re: MB'S PRESS CONFERENCES

Post by John Dane »

From Bielsa’s press conference regarding last weeks defeat:

"What worries me about the press is the effect it has on the public. All (my) explanations are for the public to hear.

"I know I lose in this battle. I know the public need a simple explanation and mine is complex.

"I don't have the intention that it will be valued or heard, but there is a conduct when you face these kinds of things."


“... mine is complex” Isn’t that just Bielsa in a nutshell? :clap: :clap: :clap:
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Otherworld
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Re: MB'S PRESS CONFERENCES

Post by Otherworld »

From today’s presser. How brilliant is this answer?

For a couple of generations, the club has had to contend with the 'Dirty Leeds' tag and now appear in danger of becoming quite popular outside of the city. Does it matter to you what people outside of Leeds and the fanbase think of Leeds United?

It's very common for human beings to say that they do not care what the rest of the people think. For me, it is very important what the rest think because the prestige depends on this. Then you have to see who the ones who have these opinions and the arguments they use to have the opinions.

Praise that is badly founded does not generate satisfaction. And a critic without argument does not produce sadness, so the opinion of others does matter for me. Fundamentally, I care about the people who are close to us, what they think because the sentiment they have acts like a light. Because they are able to look at the same thing, but more calm. And on top of that, the happiness that it generates for them, for the team of Leeds, means that our public opinion is the most important.
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