Leeds United new boys given 21/22 lesson - Graham Smyth's Verdict on traumatic day at Brentford - YEP 4/9/22
Brenden Aaronson and Tyler Adams might have wondered why, as the coach drew up at Brentford Community Stadium, some of their team-mates' gripped the armrests a little tighter.
By Graham Smyth
One hundred and four days have passed since Jesse Marsch was
manhandled by Victor Orta in front of the away end after Premier League status
was secured in dramatic, if not traumatic fashion.
Orta, through the medium of characteristically wild
gesticulation, demanded recognition from fans for a head coach he had lured
into the relegation battle.
Marsch had got the job done and earned himself a crack at a
full pre-season and summer transfer window.
And though the week that preceded this latest trip to
Brentford was, thanks to deadline day, far more chaotic than it ever should
have been, the Leeds United that rocked up in West London was almost a
different club entirely to the one that arrived in May.
The minor skirmishes that broke out this week over the
club's striker hunt paled in comparison to the all-out war that threatened to
engulf the club between the sacking of Marcelo Bielsa and that fateful finale
at Brentford.
How things could have turned out does not bear thinking
about.
England rugby coach Eddie Jones once spoke of unresolved
sporting trauma that needed to be dealt with in his camp, fissures in the
collective and individual psyches from which in-game tremors emerged later down
the line.
The anxiety and stress of Leeds' 2021/22 season was so
pronounced that it would be no surprise if it reared its ugly head again at
some point, in those who suffered it.
Aaronson, Adams and the summer 2022 cohort had known almost
nothing but positive experiences in Leeds colours, though, and nothing remotely
like the hellscape in which last season's team had to exist.
Until Brentford, that is. Until a game that more closely
resembled something from last season than the bright new Elland Road era.
The total loss of composure that played right into the hands
of Thomas Frank and led to a 5-2 humbling was painfully familiar and an
introduction for the new boys to just how rancid the bad days can be in the
Premier League.
There was little suggestion of what was to come when a
relaxed squad sauntered out onto the pitch pre-game.
Rather it was all smiles as Luke Ayling made his return from
knee surgery to join a bench packed with more experience than any in recent
memory.
It took little time for a few mistakes to change the tone
completely, however.
The ball was passed straight out of play from kick-off,
Diego Llorente had a clearance charged down and captain for the day Robin Koch
gave it away dangerously to Mathias Jensen, whose curling effort dipped past
the far post.
Adams, sensing an edge to his team's play, appealed for
calm, but a pair of free-kicks, given away near the corner flag, invited brief
moments of near-post panic.
Leeds did slowly take control, yet the inherent danger with
Brentford is the pace and trickery they possess, making them well capable of
hurting teams on the break.
Had Koch not arrived to block Keane Lewis-Potter's back post
effort, after Bryan Mbeumo skinned Pascal Struijk, it would have been 1-0.
But the resulting corner led to a scramble in which Luis
Sinisterra challenged Ivan Toney, giving VAR something to check and referee
Robert Jones something to watch on his monitor.
Leeds' argument that the ambiguity of the challenge took
away the 'clear and obvious' element to necessitate VAR's intervention fell on
deaf ears as Toney stroked home the spot-kick.
Brentford once more fell into a deep-lying shell, putting a
wall of red and white shirts between Leeds and the goal.
The only time they broke through it was with one-touch
link-up play between Jack Harrison and Gelhardt that released the latter into
the area where he poked wide.
Seconds later Toney showed that if you can't go through a
wall, you just find a way over it, guiding a sublime free-kick into the top
corner.
Leeds, again, would contest the decision but there was no
arguing with the finish.
Down 2-0 against a side presenting a compact front, the game
took on uphill struggle status.
Such games call for difference makers and in Sinisterra,
Leeds have one. His flick over the head of Rico Henry turned a good position
into a dangerous one and no sooner had he brought the ball down than he
whistled it past David Raya.
In first half stoppage time, Leeds were back in it, but
Marsch wanted something different in the second half and replaced Harrison with
Patrick Bamford.
There was almost an instantaneous dividend, Bamford running
in behind and shooting just wide, then darting onto Joe Gelhardt's chip through
to blaze over.
Marsch was preparing for another swap when a Brentford ball
forward was misread by Llorente, Meslier rushed out and only directed the ball
to Toney and he stayed calm to dink home number three.
It was a hat-trick of pure composure, everything Leeds had
been missing.
Marsch threw on Klich and Crysencio Summerville, the latter
straight into it with a strong penalty appeal that VAR did not believe
warranted a viewing from Jones, which proved too much for Marsch. A red promptly
followed but worse was to come.
Nothing said 'day to forget' quite like Bamford sliding in
at the back post, with the goal gaping, only to send the ball backwards.
And while Ayling assisted a Roca goal to tease a comeback at
3-2, it was quelled within seconds as Mbeumo went in on Meslier to get the
fourth.
After a week of teeth-gnashing over a striker, the defence
then falling apart was pure last season.
Llorente's hapless drag-back attempt provided the assist for
Yoane Wissa and Brentford's fifth.
If the new boys didn't know, they do now.
There'll be days like this.
Their number will determine this season's trauma levels.