Jesse Marsch's Leeds United picture clear as mud - Graham Smyth's Verdict on collapse at Spurs - YEP 13/11/22
Making sense of Leeds United's game at Tottenham Hotspur was an exercise in futility even before they threw it away.
By Graham Smyth
The same could be said for their season. Goals are flying in
at the right end, despite the struggles and absences of Patrick Bamford, and at
the wrong end too.
They've been impressively competitive against big six sides
but not against a number of teams they count as natural competition.
And for a team coached by a man whose watchword has been
'clarity' it's alarming how unclear the picture is after 14 games.
Are they, as Jesse Marsch believes, a good side with a plan
that will work, or were the Liverpool and Bournemouth wins simply a detour en
route to a destination that looked inevitable prior to those games?
That's not the question that will occupy Marsch as he heads
off to a friend's wedding in Peru during the World Cup break, but he has plenty
of others to keep his mind going ten to the dozen.
How to maintain a goalscoring habit that has seen 11 go for
them in four Premier League games, while eliminating the defensive frailty
responsible for the 11 at the other end is a conundrum that could cost him more
sleep than his best man's speech.
Leeds themselves are a bit of a conundrum, so unpredictable
have they been. Had they held onto the 3-2 lead they took in the 76th minute at
Spurs, nine points from the last three games would not have been enough to
banish the doubts but the mood would have been very good. Pleasantly confused,
perhaps.
Instead, the defensive collapse that handed Antonio Conte's
men a 4-3 victory retained all of the confusion and none of the delirium.
It's not so long since there were calls for Marsch's head
and whenever that's the case it takes a serious amount of distance to put a
coach in the clear. Any setback can quickly transport you back to the most
unenviable of places and so emerging from the break at the end of December with
some clarity evident in the next performance will be key, even if next opponents
Manchester City could play the Grinch who stole Christmas better than anyone
else.
Marsch would have loved nothing more than a three-game
winning streak to take with him into a battle with Pep Guardiola, alas it did
not work out that way at Tottenham. It could and should have, though.
After an even first 10 minutes, Leeds took a shock lead
through a goalscorer whose identity was no surprise. Rasmus Kristensen won an
aerial battle, Willy Gnonto flicked on to Brenden Aaronson and though his pass
still left Crysencio Summerville with plenty to do, he did it all brilliantly.
A touch to go forward, a show of strength to hold off Eric Dier and a calm
finish made it four goals in four games for the Dutchman.
The goal simply provoked Spurs and their response was waves
of attacks, most of which focused on the Leeds left. Slick combination play
pulled the visitors apart, creating space and chances, the best of which should
have hit the net when Emerson Royal was found in acres of space at the back
post but blazed over.
Spurs' pressure was punctuated by brief but effective Leeds
counter attacks, Aaronson playing Summerville in for a second time only for the
on-fire youngster to find Lloris' legs.
What Marsch did not need was a reminder of where Leeds were,
and yet the kind of challenge on a goalkeeper that results in a free-kick every
day of the week and twice on a Sunday went unpunished by referee Michael
Salisbury, his assistant and, somehow, VAR. Illan Meslier was bundled into his
net by two players as he punched the ball as far as Harry Kane, who lashed in
an equaliser that could only have stood in London.
No matter, though, because Leeds hit the front again before
the break, Liam Cooper and Kristensen flicking headers on for Rodrigo to match
Summerville's four-game tally.
The interval brought a change to a 4-3-3 shape for Leeds,
Sam Greenwood replacing Gnonto, and if the desired effect was to shore things
up on the left then it was undermined entirely by that flank falling asleep at
a Spurs throw in just six minutes in.
A Harry Kane shot was blocked on the line by Kristensen and
Ben Davies' rebound effort went through the Dane and Meslier.
Had VAR decided that Marc Roca's high foot challenge on Eric
Dier was red card worthy it could have got ugly for Leeds, but a yellow
sufficed and the visitors were still very much in the game and what's more
dominating.
The problem was that Spurs looked entirely comfortable
defending patient build up and what Leeds were crying out for was a bit of
broken play, a slip or something to draw the hosts out of shape. A big
challenge from Tyler Adams, that the hosts felt was a foul, did the trick. Roca
got on the ball, sprayed it left to Rodrigo and he drilled a wonderful finish
beyond Lloris.
For five minutes, Leeds took up residency in dreamland and
were headed for nine points from nine. But it just wasn't to be.
A cross, from Spurs' right, was headed out to the edge of
the area and hammered back in by Rodrigo Bentancur, taking a nick off Luke
Ayling on its way past Meslier.
Ayling had been thrown on in the 79th minute as Marsch went
to a back five, a decision that paled in significance to the direction of the
header, he later insisted.
Two minutes later Spurs went right, as they had all
afternoon, Kane's pass took Cooper out of the play and Dejan Kulusevski capped
a superb performance with a cut-back for Bentancur to score the winner.
A painful inquest into how it went so wrong, and how quickly
it did, was already underway when Adams took a second yellow that all-but
confirmed the result.
Leeds were good, in the second half, said Marsch and the
blame lay at the feet of tactical lapses. That will be the focus of some of the
work carried out now, as the Premier League gives way to the World Cup.
But the questions over how good Leeds really are and if indeed they and Marsch are good enough, remain, and the overall picture is as clear as mud.