Leeds United 0 Blackburn Rovers 1: All in the mind as Whites go jelly-legged at the wrong time — Yorkshire Post 14/4/24
Strikers often say the first couple of yards are in their head. When it comes to the Championship promotion race, it is the other way around.
By Stuart Rayner
Leeds United, Leicester City and Ipswich Town have suddenly
and unexpectedly all gone jelly-legged at once.
That is the comfort for Leeds after a horrendously-timed
first home defeat this season, 1-0 to Blackburn Rovers, extended their recent
sequence to two defeats and a 0-0 draw in three matches – at least everyone
else is struggling too.
Everyone bar Southampton, taken away from the heat by a
wobbly run of their own but now six points behind Leeds with an extra six to
play for, plus a final-weekend trip to Elland Road.
The permutations – at the bottom too, where Blackburn are
five points ahead of Huddersfield Town and next opponents Sheffield Wednesday –
are for the likes of us to worry about not, as Leeds manager Daniel Farke
stressed, those in the camp.
His team just have to get back to looking more like their
own selves.
They have been a pale imitation since an international break
that disrupted them with injuries in a way they were immune to before.
Elland Road is the fortress on which everything has been
founded but at squeaky bum time, home advantage can be the opposite.
Every English football fan knows what a powerful force
Leeds' home can be but its passion can become nervousness. The next few weeks
should all be about football but what happens ideally between now and May 4,
perhaps the 26th, will have a huge bearing on the future of a club with £190m
of transfer instalments to pay in the next few years.
Blackburn, who should have been in a mental spin after a
midweek 5-0 hammering, played the role of away team brilliantly and Sheffield
referee James Bell made it easier for them.
Rovers knew not to try to play. They added an extra
centre-back and even the strikers in their 3-4-1-2, Tyrhys Dolan and Sam
Gallagher, had to get close to the Leeds full-backs when the hosts had the
ball.
They almost always did but were unable to build rhythm or
pepper Aynsley Pears with shots.
Part of it was down to Blackburn's shameless timewasting,
noticeable when ex-Middlesbrough goalkeeper Pears lingered over an
eighth-minute goalkick and almost every restart after. At times the crowd
counted the seconds Pears clung onto the ball for but football's six-second
rule is the most laughable waste of ink in its rulebook.
That timewasting is a bookable offence is taken seriously,
though not on Saturday, when Bell waited 85 minutes to caution Pears. He added
just one first-half minute and even six in the second felt inadequate.
But the point was, Leeds did not help themselves, passes too
often astray, final balls not incisive enough, only five shots on target with
Junior Firpo hitting a post.
Whilst the Whites did not make the most of what they could
control Blackburn did.
They scored with only their second shot on target. Gallagher
flicked on a goalkick and Dolan threaded a lovely pass to Sammie Szmodics, a
midfielder whose 30th goal this season had been delayed by Illan Meslier’s low
first-half save.
As he rises to the challenge some of those in what had
looked a mentally-resilient Leeds have shrunk.
Crysencio Summerville and Georginio Rutter have not shone as
they did before Easter. The recalled Joel Piroe's touch was so heavy, his play
so poor, it was surprising he was not substituted. Patrick Bamford came on but
headed Willy Gnonto’s cross over, put one from Firpo wide and another at Pears.
Right-siders Connor Roberts and Gnonto looked sharp and
bright but neither had a full game in their legs.
These are all good players, just as Leicester's and
Ipswich's are, so the shortfall must be mental.
Their rivals’ lack of ruthlessness means that in the
promotion race, Leeds' has not been fully punished but time is running out to
make one of the two automatic places.
A longer-than-usual wait for the next game, at Middlesbrough
on April 22, could refresh tired minds. On the other hand, wins for Southampton
(twice) and Leicester will crank up the heat.
The two mentally strongest teams will persevere. It is
anybody's guess who they are.