Why Jack Harrison could be key for Marcelo Bielsa and Leeds United at Liverpool as Crysencio Summerville finally re-emerges - YEP 23/12/21
The look of concern and confusion on Adam Forshaw’s face said it all as Jack Harrison made his way across the pitch towards the dugout.
By Graham Smyth
Just 30 minutes of Leeds United’s game against Arsenal had
been played and Marcelo Bielsa was down to eight fit senior players. Harrison
had taken a knock competing in an eighth-minute aerial challenge with Takehiro
Tomiyasu and tried unsuccessfully, for what felt like an age, to run it off.
When the winger went off, Crysencio Summerville came off the
bench for his fifth Premier League appearance of the season and his first since
October.
The intervening period wasn’t entirely uneventful – he
dropped out of the squad for the trips to Tottenham Hotspur and Brighton for
reasons that were unknown but not linked to injury, before sitting on the bench
for four straight games.
Although he went off again with 10 minutes left against
Arsenal, it was the longest senior league appearance of the young Dutchman’s
Leeds career.
It had bright moments, too, and certainly held more impact
than the display of a limping Harrison.
Summerville started well enough, dropping deeper than
full-back Stuart Dallas to give Luke Ayling an outlet, spinning and carrying
the ball into the Arsenal half, finding Mateusz Klich and running ahead to try
and take a man with him to create space.
In what became a theme of his performance, he got himself
into the area to give Raphinha an option as the Brazilian shaped to cross.
A potential boost.https://t.co/xDScNV4Ufj#lufc
— Leeds United News (@LeedsUnitedYEP) December 22, 2021
There was a big first half tackle on Takehiro Tomiyasu but
Summerville rarely got the best of the full-back in their physical battles.
And when Leeds’ man-marking system left him hedging his bets
between pressing Ben White and covering Tomiyasu, he couldn’t get back in time
to stop the Japanese international receiving the ball and feeding Martin
Ødegaard who sucked Luke Ayling into the middle and bypassed him, as Bukayo
Saka went on to score the Gunners’ third.
Tomiyasu got the better of Summerville in the second half
when Klich sent a dangerous low ball to the back post, the youngster unable to
get ahead of the defender, but at least Leeds had presence in the area any time
a cross from the right was threatened.
His influence on the game waned and then waxed again,
finally being played into a pocket of space on the left before feeding Tyler
Roberts who, as it turned out, had not gone on an overlapping run.
That was one of few moments when Summerville stayed wide,
playing more of an inside role than the one Harrison traditionally occupies,
but it was out on the left that he helped work Klich and Joe Gelhardt into the
area before the latter won Leeds’ penalty.
His big moment arrived just before he went off, ghosting in
between defenders to meet another good cross from Klich with a spectacular,
acrobatic effort that went awry. At least, however, he was in the right place,
with the confidence to try something special.
Something special is what he’ll need to produce if Harrison
fails to recover from his knock in time for the Boxing Day trip to Anfield.
There may well be an argument that with Harrison going
through such a rough patch in terms of beating defenders and producing end
product, Summerville could be worth a shot.
But it would be a huge call to pit the 20-year-old against
one of what Gary Neville has described as the best full-back pairing in Premier
League history. Trent Alexander-Arnold’s contribution to the Liverpool attack
is so significant that whoever Bielsa plays at left wing this weekend will be
required to put in a mammoth shift, defensively. That in itself feels likely to
tip the Argentine towards Harrison, if fit, or Daniel James if he himself has
recovered from a groin issue.
Summerville showed plenty of willingness to track back
against Arsenal and got stuck in with tackles, interceptions and pressing, but
Harrison has been entrusted with the entire left side of the pitch on previous
occasions and James is a workhorse. The left is where Leeds cannot afford to
get it wrong because Junior Firpo, returning from suspension, will have all he
can handle in Mo Salah and the left-back has required assistance in games this
season when one-v-one defending has proved problematic.
Jurgen Klopp’s title challengers could hurt Leeds from
almost anywhere but Salah and Alexander-Arnold warrant extra special attention
so a relationship between Firpo and Harrison that hasn’t exactly flourished but
has shown signs of developing, could be key.
Giving Liverpool’s right side problems of their own will
also be vital. This season’s paucity of goals and assists aside, Harrison has
proven he can do it – it was at Liverpool that he announced his Premier League
arrival with a special goal.