Brisbane Roar 1-2 Leeds United: No overthinking - The Square Ball 14/7/22

MINUTES

Written by: Moxcowhite • Daniel Chapman

Pre-seasons are rarely perfect but Brenden Aaronson’s nearly, nearly was. Before seventeen seconds had been played against Brisbane Roar, Leeds United scored the pinnacle of Jesse Marsch goals: after winning a loose ball high, attackers sped towards the net, Joe Gelhardt swivelled and played a clever reverse pass, Dan James squared, Aaronson finished in the six yard box. He’s got money, looks, ability and charm. He’s polite — his “Nice meeting you, man” to Diego Llorente stands out among the summer’s pre-season training videos. But before you start to wonder if you should hard dislike this golden child, his wonder start to what we hope will be a wonder season was chalked off: offside. That might be why Joffy angled his pass the other way — Brenden, bursting through the middle, had been ahead of the play. He scored on his MLS debut for Philadelphia Union; he scored on his debut in a friendly for the Salzburg franchise. It’s almost reassuring to find out he’s not perfect, only close. But watch out for his Premier League debut.

That’s all a good sign, even if Aaronson did fade a little as the first half really got going. That was more due to other players dominating, demanding Leeds play in their areas. The player of the half contest was between James and Gelhardt, James taking it on numbers — a goal and an assist — Gelhardt on wow factor, as usual. James only played for half an hour, as Marsch shared out the minutes, but it was enough for him to put Leeds ahead for real with an atypical goal. He shot. He scored! That doesn’t happen. James was put through by Adam Forshaw, to where I’ve become very used to seeing him miss chances for Leeds and Wales, and bashed the ball in past the goalie at the near post. This is what James has lacked. I’ve wondered sometimes if he needs a finishing coach, but I think this is more like it, he’s been needing a ‘just whack it at the goal, son’ coach.

That was the 22nd minute, and a couple of minutes later it was 2-0. Kristoffer Klaesson’s long clearance was headed on by a Brisbane defender who put Gelhardt through; he had to hold up and get the ball to Rodrigo, who almost did all the rest himself, dribbling into the penalty area as if about to emulate Pablo Hernandez’s solo winner against Western Sydney Wanderers in 2019. That eluded him, and James diverted his new whacking technique to a low cross that ricocheted around the middle. Then came the best bit, maybe? Gelhardt doing a spinning jump over the ball and backheeling it to Forshaw. Forshaw sent it wide to James again, and now he was a bit more careful with Gelhardt’s request for back-post service, chipping this time so Joffy could rise over a defender and force his header into the net. Maybe that was the best bit, not the backheel. Never mind the new Wayne Rooney stuff, he could be the new Ian Baird.

This was good, but perhaps a bit too easy. Leeds were tilted so far forward that at times Pascal Struijk and Robin Koch were only thirty yards from Brisbane’s goal, with Forshaw just a few steps behind between them; he was technically in a double pivot next to Marc Roca in another 4-2-3-1, but there was no real need for that, so Roca went forward to foul lots of people further up. As against Blackpool, width was coming from the full-backs, but unlike against Blackpool, the full-backs were Rasmus Kristensen and Jackie Harrison. We learned little about them as defenders except that, when the opposition invites them into their penalty area this much, they can be caught out of position quite easily.

Brisbane’s league season ended on 10th May, and their next one doesn’t start until 7th October, so they’d effectively broken their summer holiday for this, which explains the lack of a serious contest in the first half and the smattering of trialists on their teamsheet. They got a goal just before half-time, though, and that was a bit easy too. On the break, Rahmet Akbari got away from Aaronson, who then left him free when he tried to help Kristensen deal with Nikola Mileusnic; Akbari’s shot bounced off Struijk’s back and Joe Knowles, one of the trialists, slotted in. There’s plenty of time for Leeds to work out what should have been done differently before the season actually starts.

We could and maybe should draw a line there because the rest of the game was about ticking things off a pre-season list. Like Blackpool part two, this was a match for the late returnees and new signings to get their first run-out, not one to really impress or excite anyone beyond the Brisbane crowd, happy to see their favourite players in the flesh. In the second half, Gelhardt nearly scored a third with a curling shot just round the post; he’s looking ready to keep Pat Bamford out of the start of the season if he can. Pazza Bamfs took over for half an hour, claiming the captain’s armband in the process. Wearing it upside down was the first sign of his rustiness, the second was a ball bouncing in front then over him that he completely misjudged, but none of that matters as much as him being on a pitch at all right now. He went close with a header from Sam Greenwood’s cross, that was pretty good. Luis Sinisterra played the middle thirty minutes, wearing no.23 to take it from Kalvin Phillips, Lewis Cook and David Batty back to the years of Robert Snodgrass; or, he will when he’s up and running, let’s just say this match got his first minutes out of the way and stick to his YouTube compilations for now. Tyler Adams wore 12 and was tidy. Brenden Aaronson had no.7, Marc Roca no.8, Kristensen no.25 like Sam Byram but more mad about it. Yes there’s a reason I’m just telling you the squad numbers now instead of talking about the football. Kristoffer Klaesson made a good save; Illan Meslier was just rested, Marsch says, nothing worse. In the closing stages the Roar could and probably should have equalised at least, as change after change distorted shape and rhythm, but they didn’t, so that was fine. So much, so pre-season. Onto the next one!