Forshaw’s formalities: Leeds beating Watford in minute one - The Square Ball 4/10/21

LADS, IT'S WATFORD

Written by Rob Conlon

Leo Messi has more important things to do at the start of a game of football than run around. When playing for Barcelona, Messi rarely broke into a jog during the opening minutes of matches, just walking around the pitch, scanning where opposition defenders were and making a mental note of where space was for him, later, to come to life. “Then, as the game advances, he gets in little by little,” former Barcelona boss Ernesto Valverde told The Financial Times. “But he knows perfectly where the rivals’ weaknesses are.”

Leeds have been deploying a similar tactic ever since the start of Marcelo Bielsa’s second season in charge, when the frantic heroic failure of his first campaign was replaced by a more mature mentality. Gone are the days of Pablo Hernandez scoring after sixteen seconds. Leeds are usually happy to let the opposition reveal their plans before deciding the best way to put them out of their misery.

But there’s always a danger of overthinking football. Sometimes a team as insipid as Watford turn up at Elland Road, and there’s no need to waste time working out the strengths and weaknesses of a bunch of losers when Leeds can blitz them from the first whistle to the last. A “1-0 battering” was how Watford’s captain, Ben Foster, described Saturday’s game. If you’d squinted you could have been watching Bielsa’s Leeds of 2018/19, right down to the refusal to score a second goal and Illan Meslier doing a brief impression of Kiko Casilla, adding an unwanted dose of tension to an otherwise completely comfortable afternoon.

The first ninety seconds of both halves set the template for the rest of the ninety minutes. From kick-off, Mateusz Klich was dribbling at the entire Watford side, and the ball moved only towards the visitors’ goal. Dan James had a couple of scurries down the left before Kalvin Phillips was switching play to Jamie Shackleton surging up the right. In between, Raphinha, playing in the mould of Pablo Hernandez as a playmaker on the wing, had given the ball to Phillips with the most imperceptible of backheels, a magician so slick you don’t even know when he’s tricked you. When Watford finally had the chance to take a breath and regroup from a throw-in, Diego Llorente was overhead-kicking the ball straight back towards their goal, Rodrigo was winning a free-kick on the edge of their box, and the pressure kept coming.

The start of the second half at last gave Watford a chance to enjoy some possession, by taking the kick-off, but their hopeful chips forward kept coming back, dragging the match into their half. A minute and a half after the break, Stuart Dallas had already driven into Watford’s box, opting to shoot after creating a three on two, and now it was Klich’s turn to win a free-kick on the edge of the area. Once again, the pressure kept coming.

Leeds played like they were enjoying each other’s company again, old friends reuniting all over the pitch. Raphinha and Shackleton love nothing more than terrorising left-backs in tandem. Once Raphinha was done having a laugh with Shackleton, he was linking up with Rodrigo in the same playful manner as when the two boys from Brazil were joking around on the set of Leeds’ media day. Klich and Dallas were dovetailing to take every inch given to them by Watford’s midfield and turning it into a mile. Everyone in a white shirt is mates with Phillips, knowing he can give them the ball from anywhere on the pitch. Co-commentating on LUTV, Adam Forshaw was enjoying watching his friends have fun, too. After soundtracking a moment of confusion among Watford’s defence with a chorus of the Chuckle Brothers’ hit, “to me, to you,” only Forshaw’s giggles stopped him from predicting a Leeds win as a formality.

After Leeds won at Fulham in the League Cup, I wrote that maybe a win over some chumps from the Championship might be what the players needed to remember how good they are and kickstart the season. Beating up a Watford side that belongs in the second tier completed that arc, and now we’re all happier, looking higher up the table. If there are still teams as bad as Watford above us then, like the ball in Saturday’s game, Leeds are only going to travel in one direction.