Leeds United 0 Brentford 0: Whites fail to grasp the three points on offer - Yorkshire Post 22/1/23

Before Leeds United's game against Brentford, Jesse March talked the talk about substitutes but when his team needed them, he dithered.

By Stuart Rayner

The Whites coach says he wants to get to the stage where results can be taken out of the equation but the fact is, his team are a long way from that. So Sunday's 0-0 represented a missed opportunity more than the reason to be cheerful it might have looked like in isolation.

Leeds were better than the Bees throughout the second half at Elland Road but when they needed that extra nudge to turn possession into goals, Marsch demurred.

In the 79th minute he not unreasonably opted for someone in Patrick Bamford with three goals in his last two appearances over the possibility of handing a debut to Georginio Rutter, who had spent a lot of the afternoon under a blanket.

Rutter and Joe Gelhardt never got on.

For those that did, it was too little too late.

Brentford have been so good since joining the Premier League that a 0-0 draw against them, even at home, is not to be sniffed at.

But Leeds really needed a win. They needed to build on the momentum of their midweek victory over Cardiff City and they needed it because they their only Premier League wins since August came in consecutive weekends before the World Cup. And it is not like there are easy wins lurking around the corner either.

So we can chalk another weekend where the positives outweighed the points. Leeds really need to start showing some pointy elbows in the congestion at the wrong end of the Premier League table.

What was pleasing was that when the game was more open, centre-backs Max Wober and Robin Koch stood up the challenge. But every time they get one half of the equation right, the other seems to elude them.

Willy Gnonto buzzed around to good effect up front but too few of those around him were quite at the level required.

For most of the one-way second half the home supporters were waiting for rather than expecting a breakthrough.

"Come on Leeds, come on, we can win it!" implored one fan in the Main Stand as they stood over a stoppage-time free-kick but when the ball ended up in David Raya's hands, hundreds did not wait for the full-time whistle to head for the exit.

The first half was much ado about nothing with Leeds seeing plenty of the ball in Brentford's half but doing little with it.

Much of the first half was bitty and niggly, with a succession of soft free-kicks generously awarded to both sides by Peter Bankes.

Leeds got their first really good sight of goal from one, Brenden Aaronson falling softly just outside the area less than a minute after his backheel to no one drew groans from Elland Road.

Wober's curling free-kick dipped too late but it did nothing to spoil a good first impression. Twice early on he got his shorts muddy sliding into tackles and another left a bit on Bryan Mbeumo without ever threatening a free-kick. It seemed to inspire his centre-back partner, Koch.

The German managed to both set up and deny a Mathias Jensen shot with consecutive headers midway through the first half and would later cut out Rico Henry's pass when the Whites were at their most vulnerable in the first half.

When Ivan Toney touched a curling cross on, the left wing-back was the man over but seemed to hesitate at the enormity of it all, neither smashing the ball in nor picking out Toney.

The wing-back had earlier mishit a cross onto the crossbar with Illan Meslier nowhere to be seen.

The goalkeeper's positioning seemed to be something the Bees' antennae were attuned to, judging by Jensen's direct free-kick from 45 yards and Toney's shot from near the touchline 35 yards out. Both missed.

At the other end Aaronson had a shot block and Raya made a sprawling save from fellow Spanish international Rodrigo from a shot which was actually going just wide.

The second half was pretty much all Leeds from the lovely sweeping move inside the first minute that saw Pascal Struijk just run out of road to put in a decent cross.

Aaronson curled a harmless shot, Wober's drive hit former Barnsley centre-back Ethan Pinnock.

Reyna's save from Rodrigo in the 57th minute nearly presented Gnonto with a chance. Nearly, but not quite.

Elland Road was near full volume, trying to do its bit.

Rodrigo just overhit a ball down the middle to Gnonto, and it was so tight when he took Jack Harrison's pass his touch let a defender in. When Rodrgio played the Italian in, Raya turned his shot around the post.

The goalkeeper tipped up a Harrison shot and held it second time.

It just felt like Leeds needed that little extra oomph.

One of Sinisterra's first touches was heavy enough to draw groans from all four sides, but fortunately for Leeds Bankes spotted one of a number of off-the-ball fouls, this one putting Toney's name in his book to end the counter-attack before it could really get going.

Bamford was also unable to make an impact.

At least there was no sucker punch.

Mads Roerslev ought to have provided it when the ball fell to hi in the 84th minute but his shot was lamentably weak.

It was good from Leeds, but not really good enough.