Good day for striker and 'season best' performer but Leeds United hierarchy suffer nightmare - YEP 24/10/22
If Leeds United are not in full-blown crisis territory yet then they appear headed directly towards it after that 3-2 defeat at home to Fulham.
By Graham Smyth
A game that took on must-win status in the wake of a 2-0
loss at Leicester City, who were bottom of the table prior to kick-off on
Thursday and now sit 16th, two places and two points clear of new relegation
zone dwellers Leeds.
Here’s the YEP take on how Sunday played out.
Good day
Joe Gelhardt
It hasn’t been an easy season so far for the youngster, who
has struggled to impose himself with admittedly scant minutes in the first
team. He is often being asked to come in desperately late in games in which
Leeds are desperate for a goal and at 20 years of age it’s always a massive
ask. At least, against Fulham, he showed again that he has a game-changing
ability, which was evidenced at times last season, by setting up Crysencio
Summerville’s consolation.
Crysencio Summerville
Got his first Premier League goal and carried the ball well
on occasion. He’s clearly a bright talent with considerable potential yet at
times in the Premier League has looked shy of the confidence levels he exudes
when playing for the Under 21s, so sticking the ball in the net should do
wonders for him.
Aleksandar Mitrović
The Fulham striker is disproving the theory that he’s too
good for the Championship but not good enough for the Premier League. He won’t
score any easier goals than the first for Fulham at Elland Road. Slack marking
is a golden invitation for a player with his finishing ability.
Anthony Taylor
The referee put in one of the most consistent and impressive
officiating performances of the season at Elland Road. The bar is admittedly
quite low on that front, but Taylor was good. He let the game flow, he took no
nonsense, he ignored theatrics and only maybe got one or two minor decisions
wrong. Even those were debateable, however.
Bad day
Jesse Marsch
The American, ordinarily so charismatic, enthusiastic and
positive, looked totally sapped of energy as Fulham scored their second and
third goals. At full-time, he looked like a man with a body brimming with all
kinds of frustration and no appropriate outlet for it. It will be hurting him,
badly, that things have gone so painfully wrong in such a short space of time.
The changes he made to the team did not yield the performance or result he
needed and now his position is being quite fairly but intensely questioned. How
he comes through it is now anyone’s guess.
Andrea Radrizzani
The club’s majority owner has had tough days out at Elland
Road and while there have been more intense and sustained expressions of
dissent towards him and the board previously, than the ones in the Fulham game,
he finds himself in a nightmare position. The man Leeds believed so vehemently
to be the right successor to Marcelo Bielsa has led them to a winless run of
eight games. Fans have not taken to the head coach in sufficient numbers or
with enough gusto to buy him much more time and when an appointment is
questionable, the questions come thick and fast for the ownership. Steering
Leeds through this crisis will be difficult but vital, because so much hangs on
Premier League status.
The players
Whether they pre-date Marsch or came in as part of the summer
recruitment aimed at giving him the right tools to do the job, this must be one
of the worst and most stressful periods in their careers and much of it appears
self inflicted. Missing big chances and making such sloppy mistakes are a
combination that put you in real trouble at the foot of league tables. Marsch’s
tactics are, rightly, under the spotlight and so too is the failure to sign a
striker and a left-back, but players have got to look at themselves too and ask
if they’re giving the head coach a chance with some of their on-field decision
making.
Off-camera moments
Franky’s Schiemer role at Leeds United changed once
relegation was staved off last season and he moved into a coaching consultancy
role, working mostly in a remote capacity from his home in Austria. On Sunday,
though, he was at Elland Road and that was perhaps a sign of the ‘all hands to
the pumps’ requirements of the situation Leeds are in. He was present in the
West Stand during the match, with Cameron Toshack moving down into the dugout
to support Marsch alongside Rene Maric and Mark Jackson.
As the teams emerged for the game Marsch must have been
feeling some nerves, given the magnitude of the game, but still merrily sang
along to Marching On Together as he took his place in the dugout. At full-time,
as he trudged around Elland Road clapping supporters his mood and demeanour had
changed dramatically. Kicking a stray football with, it has to be said, only a
little venom showed a manager unsure quite how to deal with all the emotions swirling
around after yet another poor performance and result.