The ideal picture, with Sam Byram — Square Ball 31/10/23
FROM THE WILDERNESS
Written by: Rob Conlon
The olés started ringing around Elland Road two minutes into
first-half stoppage time. In the East Upper, an old bloke on the row in front
of me had already been cheering each Leeds pass on his own since the fourth
official signalled Huddersfield’s torment was going to last another five
minutes.
Leeds were 3-0 up, but the old fella sensed United weren’t
done yet. The olés stopped when Sam Byram backheeled the ball to send Georginio
Rutter past Tom Edwards once more. Byram had tried the same trick when the game
was still goalless, only to be harshly penalised for a foul. This time, the
game continued, allowing Georginio to find Crysencio Summerville in the penalty
area, who completed Leeds’ scoring with a half to spare.
“The fourth goal felt like 500 passes,” Daniel Farke said
afterwards. “We were so calm to exhaust them with our possession and then to
find the right moment to speed up the game, with a perfect give and go with
Rutter and Byram. There were spells when it came pretty close to our ideal
picture.”
The plaudits were never going to go to the left-back after a
game in which Leeds’ attackers were peacocking, but yet again Byram was
excellent against Huddersfield. There was a question whether he would even be
able to play, Farke admitting in his pre-match press conference they would have
to make a late decision whether Byram could start for the third time in a week.
There’s a tendency to talk about Byram as if he’s as old as the fan oléing in
the East Upper. He has the injury record of a man who spends the week at Thorp
Arch hobbling to and from the physio room on a zimmer frame. But when he gets
onto the pitch, he doesn’t play like an old Sam Byram. He attacks like a young
Max Gradel and defends like a… well, I’m not used to a Leeds left-back
defending well, so I don’t really know.
The build-up to Dan James’ opening goal began with Byram
winning an important tackle by the touchline, then clearing Edwards’ long throw
to Rutter to launch a counter-attack. In between goals, Byram wasn’t going to
let the forwards have all the fun. He was taking the ball off the toes of
Summerville to show off his own stepovers, beating defenders and creating a
chance for Joel Piroe from the byline. By the time Summerville put Leeds 2-0
up, Byram had drifted off the left touchline and was hovering in the box as a
centre-forward, leaving space for Summerville to dance past the Town defence
and keep dancing all the way back to a celebrating Wilf Gnonto.
In between goals Leeds went full murderball. It was attack,
attack, attack. On the rare occasions Huddersfield touched the ball, United won
it straight back off them and started attacking again. Byram was at the heart
of it all, imperious in the air whenever the Terriers pawed the ball forward,
and lurking dangerously in the Devil’s Triangle by the North-West corner where
Edwards had disappeared. No wonder Tony Dorigo responded to Leeds’ third in
LUTV commentary by yelping, “Woohoo!”
The only worry was when Town’s right winger Sorba Thomas
tried to rake his studs down Byram’s achilles after he had passed the ball.
Thomas couldn’t even do that properly, meaning Byram was quickly back on his
feet and giving him a shove, letting him know he couldn’t take any liberties.
Of course, it always helps when you’re facing a team as
laughable as Huddersfield, who played like a side that had prepared for the
campaign with a pre-season BBQ round Colin’s and friendlies against Cornwall’s
finest Bodmin Town, Tavistock, and Liskeard Athletic. They beat Bodmin 9-0 and
Liskeard 13-1, but could only draw 0-0 with Tavistock.
At Elland Road, the biggest cheer from their fans was when
Delano Burgzorg charged down a Meslier clearance and gave Leeds a goal-kick.
One of their midfielders didn’t even realise he was playing with a bootlace
untied. “Let’s be honest, Huddersfield have been rubbish,” Dorigo said at the
end of the first half, “but we’ve been very good.”
Byram doesn’t need telling how bad Huddersfield are. It
wasn’t even his biggest win against them. In a few months it will be ten years
since Byram was part of a Leeds side that thrashed Town 5-1, Ross McCormack
scoring a hat-trick even though he could barely see due to a migraine. Tom Lees
was there that day too, playing alongside Jason Pearce in defence, while Byram
had Jimmy Kebe and Cameron Stewart ahead of him on the wings.