Leeds United team and club caught in weird moment - Graham Smyth's Verdict on Man City defeat - YEP 29/12/22
The ill-defined limbo that exists between Christmas and New Year was perhaps a fitting time for Leeds United to return to action.
By Graham Smyth
Bank Holidays, unusual working patterns, spiking blood sugar
levels and the awkwardness of exchanges that should neither begin with 'Happy
Christmas' or 'Happy New Year' combine to make that handful of days after the
Yuletide festivities and before the Hogmanay celebrations a weird period. It
can be difficult to know how to feel and what to think. And so welcome to Leeds
United's world.
A club finding itself in a limbo between an ownership era
quite evidently coming towards its end and the obviously quite imminent
beginning of another, is a difficult one to define or pin down.
That World Cup break was a weird time for everyone in the
Premier League, bringing with it such uncertainty and unknown effects for
player form, fitness and team cohesion.
Then there's the January transfer window, just around the
corner. How this one will look and how it will be funded is undoubtedly planned
and mapped out in Victor Orta's office, but the summer edition was as stark a
reminder as any that the best laid plans can mean very little when football's
cattle auction is in full swing.
The needs, both in terms of position and impact, are obvious
and yet even by filling them with confidence fuelled by umpteen hours of
analysis and scouting, there are no guarantees of what the rest of the season
will look like for Leeds, a team who thus far are not really one thing or
another. Not convincing enough to stave off fears of another tension-riddled
relegation battle, but good enough to beat Chelsea and Liverpool. After Fulham
you would have said one thing about Leeds’ destination, after Bournemouth maybe
another. Lower midtable limbo is their current reality.
Jesse Marsch, as hyper-focused as he will be on the next
game and the one after that, is himself in a state of flux because the court of
public opinion has swung this way and that over the course of his tenure and
any managers know that it takes but a few defeats to move the needle the wrong
way once again.
Maybe, then, this was a good time to face Manchester City
because nine times out of 10, the result is pre-written and only the severity
of the scoreline is in doubt. Losing would raise no eyebrows and coming, as it
did, at the start of a fresh block of fixtures, it could not compound any
misery or frustration lingering from a previous defeat. The 46 days between the
loss at Spurs were a healer, in that regard, but that game came on the back of
two big wins.
Had Marsch been forced to face City in the midst of a
significant losing streak, the collective blood pressure would have been
through the roof. But a 3-1 loss to restart the Premier League was never going
to cause that.
Illan Meslier made it back from glandular fever in time to
face Pep Guardiola's firing squad and sniper-in-chief Erling Haaland, who took
all of 40 seconds to test the keeper's sharpness. Played in behind, Haaland saw
his shot partially blocked by Meslier and then cleared off the line by Pascal
Struijk. Welcome back, Illan.
Leeds saw little of the ball in the opening minutes and still
managed to create a moment, if not a chance, Struijk's interception and link-up
with Willy Gnonto getting the ball to Rodrigo in a promising, but ultimately
wasted position.
Carelessness, rather than application or tactical
discipline, was letting the hosts down. They were winning the ball back well
enough but giving it away needlessly and even if Manchester City went through a
quiet spell, they always held inherent danger. Struijk's struggle with one high
ball led to a Ilkay Gundogan header that flashed wide, from a right-wing cross.
Having survived until the half hour mark Leeds rode their
luck and Meslier's ability as City twice came close. Haaland was once again
foiled by the Frenchman and Jack Grealish skied a back post volley, to Elland
Road's delight.
The response to the pressure was good, Gnonto causing a
problem or two and hammering a shot over the top from a loose ball in the area.
That was about as good as it got though, the pressure building even if Grealish
continued to sent great chances over the bar.
The bitter disappointment for Leeds was that it was a
counter attack in the final 25 seconds of first half stoppage time, that did
for them. An attack broke down, too many white shirts were caught high and
Marsch could smell the danger, waving players back frantically as the hosts did
their thing, moved it well and beat Meslier at the second time of asking, Rodri
sticking in the rebound from Riyad Mahrez' initial effort.
One moment of tactical indiscipline, and of course the
technical excellence of the visitors, wiped out 45 minutes of hard work and
suddenly a first half performance just on the right side of impressive was
viewed quite differently.
It might have taken an entire half for Manchester City to
find a way through for the first, but the second arrived six minutes after the
break and Leeds only had themselves to blame. Liam Cooper's pass to Robin Koch
was a deadly combination of too short and unexpected, so when it was snaffled
by Grealish he was able to run in on Meslier with Haaland for company, leaving
a simple square ball and an even simpler finish for 2-0.
Elland Road, as is its way, responded to adversity with
resounding noise and incessant chanting, and the team tried to respond.
Off the pitch, Kalvin Phillips, in a limbo of his own after
being so publicly criticised for returning from World Cup duty outside of
Guardiola's weight limit, emerged to warm up and received both a fine reception
and merciless barracking. The sight of him in red and black was as weird as
could be.
The singing then turned to his golfing buddy Mateusz Klich,
another player in an uncertain situation given the interest from DC United and
Leeds' reticence to lose him. Before either could come on to kick a ball in
anger, however, Leeds were 3-0 down, Haaland finishing well after a slick,
flowing move. How do you even begin to sum up or explain his 20 goals from 14
Premier League games? It was a weird night for him too, against a club he holds
in such affection, at a ground where he decided he could not celebrate his goals.
He planned not to celebrate, in full knowledge that he would score. Everyone
knew he would.
Leeds, though, with Klich, Luke Ayling, Joe Gelhardt and
Diego Llorente all on, did not give up against the inevitable striker and his
unbelievably good team-mates, and a Struijk header from a corner gave the crowd
something, at least.
Had Gelhardt's little flick, from Greenwood's pass and
Aaronson's good work, found the net then the final 10 minutes could have been
decidedly uncomfortable for Guardiola's men. They didn't canter to victory,
though, as Aaronson, Gnonto, Ayling and others gave it everything to find a
second goal that didn't come, effort falling short as quality won the day.