OPINION
With the Leeds United injury crisis reaching new levels after it emerged that Pontus Jansson and Bailey Peacock-Farrell are out of Saturday’s Championship clash against Bristol City, to say bodies are thin on the ground is an understatement. With Gaetano Berardi and Luke Ayling long-term absentees, and Jamal Blackman back at parent club Chelsea after breaking his leg last week, Leeds are particularly short in the goalkeeper and centre-back positions. As things stand, they are set to hand a rookie keeper his debut on Saturday and field a never-been-seen centre-back partnership made up of Liam Cooper and either untried youngster Aapo Halme or midfielder Kalvin Phillips. It is a situation many supporters are convinced can only be rectified by the transfer market and Marcelo Bielsa’s claim that he is not thinking buying defenders in January, as quoted by the personal Twitter account of BBC correspondent Adam Pope, has not gone down well with much of the Elland Road faithful desperate to end their lengthy spell in the lower leagues.
This Is Futbol has rounded up some of the best tweets below:
Ohhh for crying out loud…when will we learn!
— Mark Devaney ?? (@markwd1) November 22, 2018
https://twitter.com/BenjiDixon17/status/1065585619433340929
May have players to cover those positions but doesn’t mean they are suitable. Square pegs in round holes
— Mip (@mipsical) November 22, 2018
The league is so open and we have the best chance in years to finish in the top 2. For God's sake, buy a few quality players in January and go for it!!!!!
— Lee (@Leemhammond) November 22, 2018
No idea why we would rule out buying players unless AR has said no spending which is probably nearer the truth
— allan (lufc) presly (@allanpresly) November 22, 2018
https://twitter.com/1970Garforth/status/1065718081501184001
Forget the philosophical crap. We NEED defenders
— Richard Idle (@Yorkshirelad110) November 22, 2018
It’s mad he still thinks we don’t need a defender . Like we have massive losses defensively at the moment in dire need of back up
— Paul Walsh (@paulwalsh1984) November 22, 2018
https://twitter.com/PeterDale1/status/1065624177233809413