Leeds United emerge from bubble as reality looms - Graham Smyth's Verdict on Elche 'trophy' win - YEP 9/12/22
Oliva is not Dubai, nor is it San Francisco, but what it has been for Leeds United this week is a positive, productive bubble.
By Graham Smyth
Jesse Marsch's big thing is stress and how to protect his
players from it, having felt it gripping the team when he first arrived, so
taking them away to a place where training and each other's company are the
only real distractions was an ideal opportunity for him to focus on the work
and not its results.
And as Liverpool and Newcastle United swanned around in the
Middle East, the Whites spent their days on the Oliva Nova Sports Centre
pitches, in the gym and in each other's pockets, partaking in quizzes and
watching the World Cup together. Other than an afternoon round of golf or game
of padel, there wasn't a lot else for them to do, not a fat lot going on in a municipality
that comes alive with golfing, biking and beach seeking tourists in the summer
but feels dead in winter months.
'Middle of nowhere,' was how Adam Forshaw described it,
speaking 'with the greatest of respect' on the day of the friendly with LaLiga
outfit Elche after a tough, bonding and useful week. When they weren't
competing with each other on and off the pitch, the players spent quality time
with Jesse Marsch and one of his assistants Cameron Toshack, who has been
tasked with individual performance plans. And in a series of one-to-one
meetings the head coach delved into what it is that makes each of his players
tick and how to get them to the next level.
Even for a man known to be effusive, Marsch has been gushing
in his appraisal of the individual appraisals, and the way his players have
worked in a world away from the pressure, urgency and stress of Premier League
fixtures.
Oliva and the World Cup break has provided the kind of work
environment in which full focus can be given to what many managers describe as
the process - a concept that almost has to transcend individual fixtures, yet
all the while showing its positive effects within them. And from the
self-contained training camp to the bowl stadium that houses Elche, Leeds have
this week given their full attention to the process, unfettered by consequences
or league tables.
'Amazing,' is how Marsch described what can happen when the
stress is removed, as it was this week. That makes sense. Protecting them from
it out on the pitch is quite another challenge, however. Even in friendlies.
A scrappy first four minutes didn't give Leeds much of a
chance to showcase any of the in-possession work they had got through in
training all week, but it did present a big opening for Elche. Luke Ayling
couldn't cut out a cross from the hosts' left and Joel Robles made a big stop
from Lucas Boye, before the rebound was stuck away and the offside flag went
up.
The stress levels had little time to simmer down before
Crysencio Summerville was limping off, struggling to put weight through his
left ankle after a collision that also cost Elche defender John Nwankwo. Sam
Greenwood came on to play centrally, Jack Harrison moving to his familiar left
flank role, and on Leeds went, struggling in possession and out of it.
Elche had by far the best of it as the first half reached
its midway point, threatening and winning corners then playing through Leeds'
press from their own half to release Roger through the middle before a shot
that blazed over. On the half hour mark it could easily have been 1-0 as
one-touch passing did for Leeds again and had Roger spotted the man over in
space at the back post a goal, not a corner would likely have been the result
of the move.
It took 45 minutes to arrive but it had always been coming
and it was thoroughly deserved, a big switch putting Josan in behind Leo
Hjelde, the 33-year-old dinking Robles to open the scoring. At half-time Leeds
had work to do, to show the work that had been done.
But still they toiled, making it look hard work, as Elche
played the simpler, better stuff, Pedro Bigas squandering their first chance of
the second half.
A Hjelde header from a Greenwood corner fell well wide
before the hour mark brought an equaliser, Joe Gelhardt finishing from a
Greenwood pass, Leeds finally putting together something cohesive and instantly
profiting from it. The move was nice, starting in their own half and quickly,
directly progressing up the field. The final few touches did, at last, resemble
what had been seen on the training ground.
Marsch immediately made a raft of planned changes, six in
all, and Elche freshened things up too, giving it even more of a disjointed
pre-season friendly feel but at least prompting a few half chances at either
end.
Another injury, this time to Perkins, saw Leeds finish the
game with 10 men and yet they did so strongly, Mateusz Klich curling a beauty
into the top corner from distance to win it two minutes from time. A memorable
moment, for a man who could soon depart, in a game to forget. The trophy that
came with that goal allowed smiles to return to faces and the week to end on a
pleasant note, if not the high Marsch would really have wanted. This, in all
truth, was a bit of a smash and grab raid.
"We have work to do,” he said at full-time. “And
getting some of our guys back and getting certain guys healthy. That will be
important.”
Leeds will soon return to reality, and the harshest version
of it, when Manchester City visit Elland Road, but two friendlies remain for
the head coach to continue stress-testing his work and his system. But he
knows, after this many months in charge, that a stress-free version of this
football club is difficult to imagine.