Jesse Marsch's plan to protect isolated Leeds United man pays off as 33 per cent figure revealed - YEP 1/9/22

Leeds United are facing fewer shots in the Premier League compared to last season suggesting a defensive improvement

By Joe Donnohue

Leeds have now played five matches in the Premier League during 2022/23 and early-season trends are beginning to appear.

The Whites have conceded five goals in total, the same number Leeds shipped on the opening day of last season away to Manchester United.

Injuries aside, conceding goals was the greatest concern for Leeds supporters during 2021/22.

Whenever the team went in front, they found it difficult to sustain a lead and when going behind, United had one of the worst records for clawing their way back into games.

Often, matches went the other way with Leeds conceding multiple goals, sometimes without reply.

The team were winless in their opening six matches of last season, conceding 14 goals in the process and throughout the campaign would lose by three-or-more goals on ten occasions.

Considering the defence that has started each of Leeds’ games so far this campaign has largely consisted of players who were at the club’s disposal last year, there is weight behind the argument that Jesse Marsch and his coaching team have shored up the back four.

And that is with a central defender at left-back, club captain and first-choice centre-half Liam Cooper unavailable and a new face at right-back still adapting to the speed of the English top flight, replacing a stalwart of that position over the past couple of seasons.

So, if it is not a drastic change in personnel that has yielded Leeds’ defensive improvement, then it must be the system.

United are more compact this year, proven by the number of shots goalkeeper Illan Meslier has faced.

The French stopper was peppered last year, facing 215 shots on target, 38 more than the next leakiest defence and by far the most in the division, according to Statsbomb data.

On average, Leeds were allowing just shy of six shots on target per Premier League fixture throughout 2021/22 – an unsustainable figure.

Even during 2020/21 when Leeds finished ninth, Meslier was in the top three for shots on target faced in the Premier League with 177, and undoubtedly would have faced more if he had featured at home against Brighton and Hove Albion, or in the final two matches of that season when Kiko Casilla deputised.

This season, the 22-year-old has faced 19 in five matches, averaging just under four shots on target faced per game – or a 33 per cent reduction on last season.

Admittedly, five matches is not a huge sample size to draw meaningful conclusions from but if Leeds can protect Meslier’s goal as well as they have done so far, they will not find themselves on the wrong end of heavy defeats nearly as often.

Meslier’s save percentage has also seen an improvement on last year, returning to a similar level as was recorded in his maiden Premier League campaign.

Last season, his save percentage dropped to 65.6 per cent, almost a 10 per cent fall, however in the opening five matches of 2022/23, the rate at which the Frenchman is making saves is 73.1 per cent.

Goalkeeper can be an unforgiving and often isolated profession, but the findings indicate the 6ft 5in stopper must also come in for praise, along with his defence and the coaching team for the collective defensive improvement.