Leeds United 1-3 Manchester City: Protagonism - The Square Ball 29/12/22

HUMAN ERROR

Written by: Moxcowhite • Daniel Chapman

There was something diabolical about Kevin De Bruyne as he moved over halfway to create Manchester City’s opening goal. For 45 minutes Leeds United had been compact, tight, as difficult as they could be to play through, but in first half stoppage time they’d seen a gap and decided to attack it. When that fizzled inevitably in favour of the red and black shirts, De Bruyne looped the loop into space out wide, and as the ball went to him, so did the television director’s camera, broadcasting the moment when De Bruyne, the ball rolling in his feet, scanned the empty field ahead of him. He almost smiled, indistinguishable from a frown, like a devil. He knew his team could score now. I knew they would score now. Everyone knew that, for Manchester City against Leeds, scoring would be winning. A handful of well-designed passes later and Rodri had the ball in the net. The last kick of the half decided the game, and De Bruyne could relax.

Jack Grealish and Erling Haaland, both hyper-wound by their missed chances in the first half, relaxed even more when the second half began with dopey passing from Liam Cooper to Robin Koch on half-way, letting Grealish steal, escape, and set up Haaland to beat Illan Meslier. If the game hadn’t been done a second before half-time, it was done six minutes after. A moment of misplaced belief, thinking they could take the lead, undid Leeds for the first. A moment of misplaced idiocy undid them for the second.

Arguably Manchester City made more mistakes in this game than Leeds United. Haaland had four chances, İlkay Gündoğan had two, Riyad Mahrez had one, Grealish had five that he missed with increasing absurdity, all in the first half. Not putting any of those away counts as a mistake on the level Manchester play, as does John Stones almost sending United’s Wilf Gnonto through late in the game, and conceding — Leeds-like — to Pascal Struijk, when City couldn’t defend against Sam Greenwood’s pinpoint corner. The Peacocks’ errors were comparatively few, but cost them much more. This is what it means to be the protagonist in a match. City, with 69% of possession, had 26 shots, a volume that almost guarantees a return however many they miss or concede. I think Meslier, in Leeds’ goal, had a better night than unstoppable striker Haaland, making two big saves from him alone. Haaland still won player of the match, as his two goals took him to twenty in fourteen Premier League games.

His second made it 3-0 with 25 minutes to go, Manchester profiting again from spying Leeds unbalanced upfield, but proceeding more patiently this time. They had no need to rush, able to keep Leeds see-sawing out of control as they moved upfield, Haaland selling the defence by one-twoing with Grealish to give him room to score. There were 32 seconds between Greenwood hitting a free-kick into the red and black wall and Haaland hitting the net, stretching the definition of transition, but it was made the same way as the first, by De Bruyne motoring upfield with sin on his mind.

Leeds had been preparing Luke Ayling and Mateusz Klich and brought them on anyway to end the game by having a stronger say: Joe Gelhardt, a later substitute, almost added to Struijk’s header by brushing Greenwood’s low cross just past the post. Greenwood dipped another free-kick at Ederson’s goal, Gnonto kept dribbling towards it again and again. It never felt like enough. Games tend to dwindle once Manchester City lead by three. Playing matches against them might be the least interesting thing about the Citizens.

The stout first half was a more interesting development for Leeds, given we’ve seen a lot of the fighting-to-the-end from this team, but not much of the almost-level-at-the-halfness. Coach Jesse Marsch gave a Premier League debut to his winter’s idea of playing 4-3-3, and it worked until it didn’t. The infamous spaces behind United’s full-backs, those painful back-post fields Leeds give up to opponents, didn’t show up easily in front of the incisive visitors, even while Struijk was having a nervous nightmare on his side. De Bruyne’s devilish expression as he built the first goal could also have been relief, as Leeds were giving up some space at last. Until then Leeds had kept the game how they wanted it, smothering space and nullifying possession. Some of it was futile: City still made great chances, and at one point, while Leeds were high-pressing with the crowd roaring encouragement, City zipped the ball between their tackles as if relishing a training game. But here were, at last, signs of the more careful, pragmatic Leeds that Marsch and his superiors were promising back in March. Leeds still conceded three, but this was Manchester City. The three conceded to Bournemouth and Fulham, the four to Spurs, the five at Brentford, those have been the problem. Perhaps this is, at last, the way to stop that.

Leeds must be careful, though, that it doesn’t also stop everything they have in attack. As if they can only have one idea at once, the defensive stance seemed to leave them clueless going the other way. The few times Leeds got the ball in the first half, they couldn’t think of a better idea than giving it back to City. This might be a fault of personnel that January can solve. Brenden Aaronson was playing up front as a sort of false nine, swapping around with Rodrigo, adding work rate to the forward line but at the cost of his invention in midfield and a target in attack. If Leeds can find a real number nine — they attacked better when Gelhardt was on — Aaronson could have more influence in this shape in midfield. He’ll be joined there by Tyler Adams, suspended for this match, who is the team’s best midfielder so bound to make a difference.

I can imagine Adams in the West Stand, watching De Bruyne’s progress for the first and third goal, pounding his seat frustrated that he couldn’t be out there to kick him down. It was after Klich hacked Grealish and ruffled his hair, something Gnonto interpreted as an invitation to start a ludicrous fight with the City player, that Leeds looked most up for a result. Grealish was taken off to avoid more silliness and Leeds pulled back a goal, and there was a faint hint of what made the World Cup magic, great players looking aghast from the bench as the subs threw away the lead. But City had brought Phil Foden on for Grealish so were always likely to be fine. It’s the one hope you have against them, though, to make them play like humans, capable of the mistakes that almost, almost, meant it was 0-0 at half-time. If Manchester City were as robotically commanding as we fear they are, they could have led 5-0 by then. Their opponents have to count on them not.

Jesse Marsch, of course, is a people person to the last, and enjoyed a full-time hug ’n’ chat with his old coachee Erling Haaland, before letting Rasmus Kristensen take over for a longer Salzburg reunion. “When you know some of these young men and you see their qualities as people, you just want them to be their best, just not against you,” Marsch said afterwards. “My gosh, I’m happy for him and he’s such a great person. Really, happy for him.” That’s nice. And it was nice, too, to hear Haaland himself talking about having an Eirik Bakke Leeds shirt on his wall growing up, next to his dad’s Manchester City shirt, and how scoring for one team against the other at Elland Road had made his dreams come true, even if he had to suppress the celebrations. This is about the best you can hope for against Manchester City. You know they will be much, you hope they won’t be too much. They were enough, and now we wait to see if Leeds will have enough against the rest of the league, starting Saturday. Or starting Wednesday, if that goes like this one.