The crazier the game, the cooler the Klich - The Square Ball 15/3/22

OBTUSE MATEUSZ

Written by: Rob Conlon

As players from Leeds and Norwich, and the staff, and the fans, and pretty much everyone else anywhere near Elland Road were being consumed by the tension of a relegation battle, Mateusz Klich couldn’t stop giggling. When both teams were arguing about Stuart Attwell’s decision to overturn the penalty he awarded to Norwich in the second half, Klich was keeping out of trouble, nowhere to be seen. Two minutes later, Adam Forshaw made sure Norwich couldn’t take a throw-in, went down after being pushed, and the Canaries were tweeting around Attwell again. With a smile on his face, Klich went over to Forshaw, to make sure Teemu Pukki was picking him up off the floor gently enough. While Norwich players were fuming at Attwell, Klich strolled up behind Kenny McLean and tried to knock the ball out of his hands. Leeds had no intention to get the game restarted quickly while protecting a 1-0 lead, but Klich wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to have some fun at the opposition’s expense. McLean turned around in a panic and was ready to wrestle for the ball with Klich, who walked away grinning as the referee was telling the visitors to calm down.

For all the attempts to distil football into a game of numbers, there will never be a stat to measure how the crazier a game gets, the cooler Mateusz Klich looks. Gjanni Alioski had a similar trait, often appearing as unhinged on the pitch as he is off it during the most mundane moments, either letting simple passes run under his feet and out of play or trying to shove his head up the arse of strikers, but staying calm when things got wild. The drama of the win over Norwich reminded me of the creeping dread of the comeback against Millwall in the promotion season. Elland Road was bewildering that night, yet when the game was at its most frantic, Alioski thought it was the opportune time to walk over to a ball girl in front of the West Stand at a throw-in, and thank her for giving him the ball with a kiss on the head.

Jesse Marsch’s decision to pause The Robin Koch Experiment handed the responsibility of controlling midfield to Klich and Forshaw. Were it not for Forshaw’s injury during the first pre-season under Marcelo Bielsa — when Bielsa was describing Forshaw as “the best player in the team” — Klich may never have made it out of the group of ‘maybes’ whose futures at the club were undecided. The two years Forshaw spent trying to find the cause of his hip injury should have been spent competing with Klich for a place as the number 8 in Bielsa’s midfield. Instead Klich had to play 79 times for Leeds between Forshaw’s league appearances at Charlton in 2019 and Southampton this season, only getting a break to let his hangover clear at Derby. For much of that time, he was the only midfielder in Leeds’ midfield, often playing alongside either Pascal Struijk or Robin Koch as the anchor and Rodrigo or Tyler Roberts as the 10. It wasn’t just a Leeds United midfield, but a Marcelo Bielsa midfield, requiring him to stretch his physical capabilities far beyond what he thought was possible. When fans were surprised at Klich’s drop off in form after being called a Champions League player by Bielsa, they should have been surprised it had taken so long before he stopped playing so well.

Those two years were “hell” for Forshaw, who wanted nothing more than to be able to help Klich in Leeds’ midfield. Now he’s back, their roles seemed to have reversed. I was used to Forshaw sitting in front of the defence and keeping things tidy. These days he’s constantly sprinting around the pitch, looking for the next player to clatter into. Against Norwich, that allowed Klich to focus on the simple things. That might not sound exciting, but during the run of results that cost Bielsa his job, I became sick of Leeds players low on confidence regularly ignoring the obvious pass to try something clever. And messing it up. Confidence is elusive magic, but doing the basics well can go a long way to building it back up. When Klich glided away from a series of Norwich tackles to reach the edge of their box, I nearly wept with relief when he took the sensible option of passing to Dan James, the closest Leeds player to him in space. When James refused to learn the lesson, cutting inside and losing the ball rather than shooting across goal on his stronger foot, I nearly wept in frustration.

Of course there is the caveat this was only against Norwich. In LUTV’s commentary, Tony Dorigo made the point that without a player like Philippe Coutinho in the Norwich team, Leeds were at far less risk when play broke down. But he was saying a similar thing just as Norwich equalised in stoppage-time, because football doesn’t work as it is meant to. Who cares? When was the last time we had an afternoon at Elland Road singing about Klich scoring goals? Football would be boring if what was meant to happen happened. Mateusz Klich is one of the few players cool enough to embrace that.