Leeds United: Dissolves in 30 minutes — The Athletic 10/4/23

By Phil Hay

A free kick from Eberechi Eze, a flick off the shoulder of Jeffrey Schlupp, a prod from Marc Guehi and a Crystal Palace equaliser; one passage of play spanning a few seconds and the visual effect of Leeds United vanishing was like dropping aspirin in water. On the other side of half-time, the crowd at Elland Road started exiting stage left too, trying to remember the last time a game burst their balloon like this.

Roy Hodgson was shaking hands with the staff in his dug-out even before full time came, still going strong and about to pocket a 5-1 win. Javi Gracia said last week that he had no intention of copying Hodgson by managing at 75 but someone should warn him that coaching Leeds for any length of time is liable to make him feel as old as that anyway. Calm to capitulation, confidence to paralysis, violent swings, the Leeds United way. And everything back on the edge of a cliff.

Which was fitting because, from Palace’s equaliser at the end of the first half onwards, Leeds had the body language of a walker with a sheer drop to either side of them: bodies refusing to respond, feet reluctant to step in front of the other, the psychology of the mind tying them in their own worst fears. Gracia’s face dropped and dropped as Palace scored a second, a third, a fourth and then a fifth, running riot. Leeds’ head coach was reduced to wide-eyed staring, the occasional rub of the nose, the inertia which develops when it is better to suffer in silence than pretend you can intervene. “I would like us to learn from this hard moment,” he said, without wanting that lesson to be as hard as it could be.

The fact is, Leeds have been trying to learn from hard moments for longer than is healthy now. They are firmly in the cycle of Premier League life, underlined by the release of their latest financial accounts on the morning of Easter Sunday, but making a meal of retaining it. Their turnover is not far off £200million a year, their operating loss in 2021-22 was £34million and they have the hallmarks of a typical club in this division: stacks of money coming in, even more going out, and all well and good so long as you don’t go down and can raise money via transfers, shareholders or both. Those accounts claimed Leeds were well-placed to ride temporary ejection to the EFL — “without altering its long-term trajectory,” as the strategic report put it — but nobody sensible wants to put that theory to the test. Gracia, after all, was hired to keep them up.

The weeks have been relatively kind to him so far, at least until yesterday. And even yesterday, Leeds led through Patrick Bamford, drew save after save from Sam Johnstone in Palace’s goal, and were manipulating their guests when Guehi got his toe on the scraps from a free kick and levelled at 1-1 just seconds before the interval. An unjust scoreline, no doubt, but what reappeared after half-time was unrecognisable, a different Leeds team playing a different game and almost physically disappearing. Did they doubt their ability to go back to the well? Did Palace’s equaliser really have that big an effect psychologically, melting their initial confidence? “Yes, I think it was the key,” Gracia said. “That (moment) was the key in my opinion.”

It was not that Palace had not done anything before their first goal, but simply that everything good up to that point had relied on Leeds looking flimsy at set pieces. Leeds were too intense, too driven, too organised for Palace to gain much traction. But from the 46th minute onwards came a retreat, Gracia’s players slipping into their shells, Palace locking Leeds in their half, Eze and Michael Olise dribbling at will and waltzing through paper-bag resistance. In possession, Leeds had managed the contest, but without the same share of possession, with Palace on top of it, Gracia’s side were unable to cope, a yard behind everything. Ayew headed in after Luke Ayling lost him completely, another moment which might force Gracia to focus on what is happening at right-back. Eze then strolled onto a pass from Olise to finish off a simple counter. From 1-0 down to 3-1 up in 10 minutes either side of the break, and no sign at all that Leeds would clear their heads and get a grip.

On the contrary, the loss of assurance snowballed and Palace were having to pinch themselves at the ease of their goalscoring. Marc Roca and Weston McKennie, all over Hodgson’s midfield earlier in the afternoon, eventually looked like they had never met. Leeds were hassled on both flanks and too easy to set up for another swing of the hammer. Olise worked in Odsonne Edouard for a fourth. Jordan Ayew smashed in a fifth because, as a Will Hughes shot deflected to him 10 yards out, what else was there to do? Elland Road voted with its feet and was three-quarters empty by the end. It was one of those days where the man-of-the-match champagne, for home players at least, was best poured in the Aire. Hodgson sounded like he had never had such fun and in all his time, he has never had such fun at Elland Road.

The first question to Gracia afterwards was an appeal for an explanation. “I cannot explain,” he admitted and bewilderment reigned, aside from the knowledge that Leeds have had the circus in them for a while. Yesterday called to mind the Usual Suspects, the same as the potholed road Leeds diverted onto in the summer of 2021. All in order, or so it seemed. And then, like that, it was gone.