PRE-SEASON HERITAGE — Square Ball 22/7/24

Harrogate Town 0-3 Leeds United: Exotic

Written by: Chris McMenamy

New faces. New shirt. LUTV charging a fiver for a jumpy stream. This is Leeds United pre-season heritage. The same old, same old. Or so I thought until 7.30pm on Friday night.

Leeds United lining up in a back three? How exotic! Joe Rodon and Ethan Ampadu resumed their Cymry partnership at the back, this time with a new friend in Under-21s defender James Debayo. At half-time, Pascal Struijk returned alongside Sam Byram operating as a wide centre-back in what appeared to be a 3-4-3.

Well, this is new, isn’t it? And here was me thinking I had sacrificed a Friday evening in the sun to watch Brenden Aaronson get hazed by a group of League Two footballers. This is not Sam Allardyce’s interpretation of a ‘back three’, like when he played four centre-backs and two full-backs on the day Leeds needed to win to avoid relegation. No, this is a trendy back three like those of Antonio Conte, Atalanta’s Gian Piero Gasperini or, er, Chris Wilder. Marcelo Bielsa always expressed an admiration for Wilder’s overlapping centre-backs, to be fair to the ham-faced cry baby.

Social media philosophers may spend time theorising whether Daniel Farke’s decision to play with a back three here signals a tactical shift or a protest at the lack of full-backs at Leeds United. I want to say it’s the former, so that I have an excuse to talk about the Italian art of defending, but really it feels more likely that Jayden Bogle’s subsequent arrival will push us back into a Farke Four in defence. (On Bogle, did you know he was one of Frank Lampard’s Spygate boys? There’s a picture of him doing the binoculars gesture after that fateful night in May 2019. Moving on…)

The funky new formation posed the first questions of this new season, then we swiftly moved on to players and performances. Joel Piroe, what exactly does he do? Not much, apparently. How soon is now for Mateo Joseph? What is Joe Rothwell? Are the kids alright? Why was Aaronson left to sit beside the dugout like a teenager who Farke had reluctantly offered to take on work experience?

Ninety minutes in the tropical climate of North Yorkshire couldn’t possibly provide Leeds fans with the clarity and reassurance that we all want, but it’s a start. Headlines? We have some talented children, Rothwell looked like a competent Champo midfielder, and Joseph left the impression that he is ready to make his mark this season.

I’m sure it happens elsewhere but it seems like Leeds United fans are particularly prolific when it comes to calls for [YOUNG FORWARD] to start ahead of [JADED OLDER FORWARD]. Ryan Edmondson, Tyler Roberts, Eddie Nketiah, Joffy Gelhardt and now Mateo Joseph all touted as the future, ready for the present, without ever dethroning the established number nine. Until now? Maybe.

Forty-five minutes in pre-season is far from a litmus test. Still, Joseph stood out as particularly sharp and, dare I say, Champo ready. For Leeds’ first goal, he received the ball from a roving Ampadu, took a couple of defenders out of the game, played a one-two with Dan James, and gave Junior Firpo a tap in from the middle of Harrogate’s six-yard box.

In taking the number 19 jersey, it seems Joseph has absorbed the powers of those who wore the shirt before him. Well, the Spanish ones at least. There was nothing about Joseph’s positivity that Steve Morison or David Norris can take credit for.

Joseph will almost certainly play a more prominent role this season. He must. While Piroe flatters to deceive and Pat Bamford has more surgeries than Simon Cowell, the time is now for Farke to show faith in (some of) the kids. Speaking of playing the kids, the next epoch of the Gray dynasty began in this game. Archie has been shipped off to London to pay for the Orta x Marsch financial crash of 2022 that Angus Kinnear and the 49ers definitely weren’t involved in, so now Harry is the future.

His fifteen-minute cameo in his hometown of Harrogate might have been overshadowed by his Under-18s teammate Sam Chambers scoring Leeds’ third, after Georgi Rutter had earlier finished emphatically from a corner(!) to double United’s lead, but there’s plenty to get excited about with the latest Gray. I’m already looking forward to clamouring for him to start ahead of a jaded Mateo Joseph in three years’ time.

One last talented child to mention is Charlie Crew, whose senior debut for Leeds could have been over minutes after it began as he channelled his inner Kalvin Phillips with a rash tackle that could well have been a red. He shrugged that moment off and put in a delightfully assured, controlled performance alongside an experienced colleague in Ilia Gruev.

Crew should get some minutes this season, not only because he deserves to, but it might also grant the regulars the much needed rest that they weren’t allowed last season. Fingers crossed Kinnear can avoid the temptation of referring to him as a Wales international while justifying not signing another midfielder.

Leeds now travel to Germany for a pre-season tour shrouded in secrecy. We don’t know when or where or even who we are playing The games won’t be broadcast live either. What are they hiding from us? Are they really that worried about how Aaronson and Max Wober’s ‘reintegration’ will go? Whatever it is, it’s hard not to feel like it would have been easier just to play Shelbourne like in the good old days.

Anyway, the opening game of pre-season gave us more positives than negatives, so without getting carried away and jumping to conclusions, that must mean we’re going up as champions, with Rodon at the back and Joseph in attack.