Leeds United handed brutal reminder and Huddersfield jibe inspiration - Graham Smyth's Verdict — YEP 3/3/24

Leeds United's welcome back to the Championship was not warm, nor particularly friendly and it served as a reminder as to why escape is so desired.

By Graham Smyth

For the last eight days Leeds have almost been on a little break from the second tier and all it entails. The game against Leicester City at Elland Road was, in Daniel Farke's estimation, the closest they had come to a Premier League game this season. And it served as good preparation for a game against actual Premier League opposition a few days later, when they travelled to Chelsea in the FA Cup. A refreshing amount of football was played by the teams contesting those respective games. Various players showed themselves to be at a technical level that was pleasing on the eye.

So to Huddersfield, where the bubble burst and Leeds were dragged, barged and kicked back to Championship reality in a 1-1 draw. Come the end of the season, no matter how it ends for Leeds, there will be games that no one chooses to relive and this was a prime candidate.

It can come as no real surprise when a team fighting for their very lives down at the bottom of the Championship turns up prepared for a scrap. And to Farke's credit, he turned up to the post-match press conference with no desire to complain about Huddersfield's physical approach to the game or the officiating of it. Because regardless of how many fouls there were, or how slow the officials were to clamp down, Leeds should have had enough to win this game and it all could have been so different. After a first four minutes of near-total dominance from the visitors, Willy Gnonto found Glen Kamara bang in front of goal and he chose to pass instead of score, before Crysencio Summerville's eventual effort was kept out.

It can come as no real surprise, either, that in another hectic period, in an early kick-off and in the face of a team prepared to do whatever it took to get a result, Leeds eventually chucked in a performance that was below the fine standards they set in a nine-game winning streak. What makes it more forgiveable is a 28-point haul from a possible 30 and an unbeaten 2024 league run that remains in place. And let's have it right, this was far from typical Leeds. If the rushed, forced way in which they attacked for too much of this game was a familiar theme then they would not have made up so much ground on leaders Leicester since the turn of the year. What's more, on a day when the Foxes lost, Leeds did not.

Still, for the record, this was a pig of a game and a performance that never quite looked right. Huddersfield were allowed to grow in confidence after Kamara and Summerville failed to score and soon Illan Meslier was being tested, twice, by Jack Rudoni. But rather than build momentum, the hosts showed more interest in taking all and any rhythm out of the game with persistent and sometimes brutal fouling. Jonathan Hogg crudely chopped down Summerville, injuring his own team-mate Yuta Nakayama in the process, and was perhaps lucky to only see yellow. Matty Pearson hit Willy Gnonto with more of a body shot than a challenge and having escaped a caution, was free to rake the back of Summerville's calf with his studs. That one earned a yellow, rather than the red it arguably deserved.

Leeds' response to the physical punishment was understandable but not what was required, as referee Andrew Kitchen continued to show bizarre levels of leniency. Patrick Bamford left one on Rudoni, who was incensed by whatever Gnonto said in the afters. And Gnonto was then baited into a clumsy foul in his own defensive third, conceding a free-kick from which Huddersfield took the lead. Pearson rose above Ethan Ampadu and though Meslier kept out the header, Michał Helik reacted first to find the net.

With a lead to defend, the script was written for Huddersfield. If only Hogg had read it. Leading with his elbow and felling Junior Firpo was as brainless as it was obvious and though Andrew Kitchen again reached for his yellow, that meant the red had to follow. Off he popped and the hosts would have to dig incredibly deep to survive the second half unscathed.

Re-emerging in an even more defensive shape, Huddersfield sat back and relished their task. It was Leeds' lack of patience that made life easiest for the Terriers, though. It was all too frenetic. Passes were hit too hard or too early and eventually Farke went for experience over youth, sending on Joel Piroe, Daniel James and Connor Roberts. All three gave Leeds a heftier presence on the right and that was exactly where the equaliser was made. James found Roberts, he slid it across the box and Bamford arrived to make it 1-1.

Goals change games and that one settled Leeds down, a little. There was more patience in their build-up, a bit more accuracy and had Rutter headed home, instead of over, from an excellent James corner, they would have had lift-off. It still wasn't vintage Leeds, though. Even when Summerville got into his office and jinked to the right, the shot kissed the post instead of the net. And that was that. Six minutes of injury time, which felt woefully short given how long each restart took in the second half, elapsed and the winning streak was at an end.

"We're looking forward to seeing you again next season," came the cheeky jibe from relegation-threatened Huddersfield's PA man, as the home side had the last laugh. If Leeds want to laugh loudest and if they want to avoid games like this against teams like this next season, they know exactly what to do. The football played on this day should be forgotten, but it should serve as inspiration.