Why does it have to be like this? — Square Ball 1/4/25

Euuuuuurrrrrrggggghhhhh

Written by: Chris McMenamy

I’d like to take this opportunity to say sorry to Illan Meslier for calling him a useless so-and-so after gifting Swansea not one but two goals at Elland Road on Saturday. I’m sorry for piling my angst upon you, Illan, for it should have been equally distributed among the eleven players on the pitch, as well as Daniel Farke and whoever is left in the boardroom that hasn’t run off to a team that plays in blue.

The suggestion that Leeds United must do things the hard way, the ‘Leedsy’ way, is unbelievably tiresome. It’s exacerbated by watching the most recent fixtures in which Sheffield United and Burnley won difficult away matches while Leeds didn’t. Then Meslier and the boys made a total mess of a home match against Swansea, while the other two promotion chasers did enough to win their respective fixtures. Leeds have shown signs of weakness at the time when we expect them to find their stride and see it through to the end.

Leeds have gone seven matches without putting in a dominant performance. Wins against Sunderland and Sheffield United came in dramatic circumstances after slow starts in both matches, courageous comebacks necessitated by our own inadequacies in the early exchanges. That was fine, because it worked. It was fine until it wasn’t. We could stomach drawing at home to West Brom because it came after winning five matches on the bounce and it was our ‘toughest’ remaining home fixture. Until it wasn’t.

The problem with Leeds’ infuriating 2-2 draw with Swansea isn’t just that the fans think they can see what’s happening (again), but that the timing of the team’s drop off in form isn’t ideal. Why now, Leeds? Don’t answer that, it’s rhetorical, and I think I know the answer anyway.

Momentum is always important in any promotion challenge and Farke knows it. His Norwich team went unbeaten from mid-February in 2018/19 and lost only twice in the final seventeen matches in 2020/21. Both had blips around late March/early April and at the risk of reading too much into past events, there has to be some hope that this is just the stumble before galloping over the line.

Farke’s team selection has always been a topic of discussion, but no more so than any other Leeds manager since the dawn of time. Not only Meslier, but Manor Solomon and Dan James. Both wingers looked knackered throughout Saturday’s match, which is to be expected since Farke has played them at every available opportunity even after they both played twice for the country during the international break. But the fitness of Willy Gnonto relegated him to a five-minute goalscoring cameo and Largie Ramazani looked like someone who hasn’t played much football since October when he replaced Solomon after seventy minutes.

What now? Howard Wilkinson told his players to trust their swing as Leeds battled the pressure of a First Division title challenge in 1992. Marcelo Bielsa sat his players down at the end of a ten-match run that yielded only two wins and told them how great they were. Now is Farke’s time to make his own indelible mark on Leeds United history and do what he’s done twice already with Norwich, but his consistent stubbornness and conservatism leaves many — myself included — somewhat unconvinced.

Form is temporary but Leeds’ recent form suggests something other than automatic promotion. It has been the team’s worst five-match run all season. I get that we’re meant to be able to see past that, but watching Leeds fail to defend a lead after scoring in the final few minutes of normal time does nothing to inspire confidence. What would give the Leeds fans some much needed reassurance at this point is an away win at Luton this weekend. And maybe they follow that up with another result against Middlesbrough before a crucial home match against Preston. Maybe. The only team that can stop Leeds is still Leeds, but the worry is that they might actually stop themselves.

There’s a modicum of comfort upon which to finish and that’s Leeds’ final ten matches of 1989/90 and 2009/10, two promotion-winning campaigns. Leeds won only half their matches in both, so maybe they do have to do it the hard way. But this time, could they just not? Please and thank you.