Mighty Leeds Weblog

If ever there was a week to remind Leeds United that when it comes to Premier League football, they are one of the have-nots, the last one of 2022 is it. By Stuart Rayner Fresh from an Elland Road mauling by Manchester City, the Whites end the year with a daunting trip to Newcastle United. Since being bought by Abu Dhabi United in 2008, City have been English football's biggest financial heavyweights but now the Saudi Public Investment Fund owns Newcastle, that status is under threat. Leeds, by comparison, are also-rans, having been out of the Premier League picture for 16 years where bank balances overflowed and financial fair play rules tried to pull up the drawbridge to sugar-daddies arriving at the wrong time. That £18m Rio Ferdinand was the club's record signing for 18 years until the disastrous acquisition of Jean-Kevin Augustin in 2020, speaks volumes. It matters because in the Premier League more than any other English division, finances dictate finishes, an...

Elland Road was filled with cheers and jeers for Willy Gnonto and Jack Grealish, respectively, on Wednesday night as Leeds United were beaten by Manchester City Joe Donnohue Leeds’ summer addition of Willy Gnonto came as something of a surprise, given the expedited nature with which the deal was confirmed. It was only at the eleventh hour on transfer deadline day that Leeds’ pursuit of the teenage forward took on greater significance than column inches in the gossip columns, as United moved swiftly to bring forward an already-planned transfer. Weeks prior to Gnonto’s arrival, head coach Jesse Marsch had made attempts to temper expectation surrounding the then 18-year-old by declaring him not quite ‘Premier League ready’. Upon his arrival, it soon became apparent that Gnonto boasted bags of ability, evidenced further by repeated call-ups and appearances for Roberto Mancini’s Italian national team. Since then, Marsch has backtracked on his previous comment having witnessed the di...

Leeds United were always expected to lose to Manchester City and the 3-1 scoreline did flatter them a little, but it was not a night of entirely lost causes at Elland Road. By Graham Smyth There were a few performances of note that gave the hosts positives to cling to ahead of a tricky trip to Newcastle United – including that of the returning-from-illness Illan Meslier. Without the Frenchman’s interventions, Leeds could easily have stared down the barrel of a rout and it took just 40 seconds for the goalkeeper’s importance to show. Not everyone in White covered themselves in glory, however. Here’s the YEP take on an inevitably difficult evening, as Premier League football made its return to LS11. Good day Willy Gnonto It's very difficult to see how Jack Harrison gets his place back with Gnonto playing as he did against Manchester City. The 'Premier League ready' debate was put to bed as he ran at Manchester City defenders, went past them and drew fouls in dange...

Erling Haaland took his Premier League goal tally to 20 after scoring a brace against Leeds United on Wednesday but the Norwegian international decided against celebrating Erling Haaland has admitted that he didn't celebrate his two goals against Leeds United because he has "respect" for the club after being born in the city. The Manchester City forward struck his 19th and 20th Premier League goals of the season as Pep Guardiola's side ran out 3-1 winners at Elland Road. Rodri also found the net for City, who closed the gap on leaders Arsenal to five points at the top of the table heading into their New Year's Eve clash with Everton. But, unsurprisingly, it was Haaland who stole the show yet again with two excellent finishes to continue his impressive start to the campaign. His first was a simple tap-in after Jack Grealish pinched the ball off Robin Koch, before running through on goal and squaring across to Haaland to stroke home. Grealish was also the pr...

HUMAN ERROR Written by: Moxcowhite • Daniel Chapman There was something diabolical about Kevin De Bruyne as he moved over halfway to create Manchester City’s opening goal. For 45 minutes Leeds United had been compact, tight, as difficult as they could be to play through, but in first half stoppage time they’d seen a gap and decided to attack it. When that fizzled inevitably in favour of the red and black shirts, De Bruyne looped the loop into space out wide, and as the ball went to him, so did the television director’s camera, broadcasting the moment when De Bruyne, the ball rolling in his feet, scanned the empty field ahead of him. He almost smiled, indistinguishable from a frown, like a devil. He knew his team could score now. I knew they would score now. Everyone knew that, for Manchester City against Leeds, scoring would be winning. A handful of well-designed passes later and Rodri had the ball in the net. The last kick of the half decided the game, and De Bruyne could relax. ...

The ill-defined limbo that exists between Christmas and New Year was perhaps a fitting time for Leeds United to return to action. By Graham Smyth Bank Holidays, unusual working patterns, spiking blood sugar levels and the awkwardness of exchanges that should neither begin with 'Happy Christmas' or 'Happy New Year' combine to make that handful of days after the Yuletide festivities and before the Hogmanay celebrations a weird period. It can be difficult to know how to feel and what to think. And so welcome to Leeds United's world. A club finding itself in a limbo between an ownership era quite evidently coming towards its end and the obviously quite imminent beginning of another, is a difficult one to define or pin down. That World Cup break was a weird time for everyone in the Premier League, bringing with it such uncertainty and unknown effects for player form, fitness and team cohesion. Then there's the January transfer window, just around the corner...

Jesse Marsch rued Leeds United's nerves and Manchester City's quality after a 3-1 Elland Road defeat. By Graham Smyth The Whites held the title favourites until first half stoppage time, when they conceded a disappointing goal from a counter attack. Prior to that Marsch's men won the ball regularly but failed to keep it well enough. "I think in the first half we were stable defensively and we won a lot of balls but because we were a little nervy we were so quick to just give it away," said Marsch."That was the message and was going to be the message at half-time. They were having a hard time breaking us down but we can stay on the ball. I showed a few scenes where we won balls and they weren't pressuring us and we had more time than we thought. "Then obviously the second goal is a tough mistake and that makes the challenge that much harder. "However then you saw us coming into the game more, this is part of being brave. At 2-0, 3-0 you k...

SEEING a glut of goals at Leeds United's Yuletide matches had been becoming a bit of a Christmas ‘tradition’ alongside roast turkey and all the trimmings, mince pies and mulled wine. By Leon Wobschall Last December, United let in seven to Wednesday's feted visitors alongside four against Arsenal. In the previous festive season in 2020, they conceded six at Manchester United, but did counterbalance things with five of their own against Newcastle and West Brom respectively. This was a night when Manchester City scored a mere three times, although it probably should have been several more. Before the decorations went up this year, the numbers were ominous in truth regarding the defensive concessions of Leeds, who have now eclipsed their worst Premier League tally of 70 in a calendar year set in 2003. Leeds shipped a combined total of seven goals in chaotic games with Spurs and Bournemouth ahead of the World Cup hiatus before even bumping into someone special in the opp...

Manchester City beat Leeds 3-1 at Elland Road on Wednesday night. By NEIL SQUIRES Erling Haaland is carrying on where he left off before being rudely interrupted by a World Cup he wasn’t invited to. The Norwegian followed up his Carabao Cup goal against Liverpool with a second-half double on Wednesday night as Manchester City cut the gap at the top of the Premier League to five points with victory in his home city of Leeds. In front of watching father Alf-Inge, once of the United parish, Haaland took his tally to 26 goals in 19 games this season as the champions exposed the gulf in class between the two sides. Leeds manager Jesse Marsch, who played a hand in Haaland’s development at Red Bull Salzburg, could only wish for such playing riches. Haaland could have scored inside a minute as he outpaced the Leeds defence only for Leeds goalkeeper Illan Meslier, passed fit to start after a bout of glandular fever, to thwart him with a flailing left hand. He sprang the Leeds defence ju...

Leeds United 1-3 Manchester City: Rodri broke the deadlock and Erling Haaland added two more before Pascal Struijk’s late reply for the hosts Richard Jolly They were goals scored by a player born in Leeds, celebrated by a former Leeds footballer and, for most at Elland Road, they had a certain depressing inevitability. Of course Erling Haaland struck in his first match in the city of his birth, against the club his watching father, Alf Inge, played for. Unsurprisingly, he found the net at the expense of Jesse Marsch, his manager at Red Bull Salzburg. As Haaland scores against everyone else, he was unlikely to make an exception for a club or a coach close to his heart. There was a late chant of “you’re Leeds and you know you are”. Sadly for the majority present, he was in Manchester City’s colours. Haaland being Haaland, he did not settle for one: a brace took him to 26 goals in 20 games for City. Perhaps more remarkably, he has 20 already in the Premier League. It is more than Ch...

CHONKY Written by: Moxcowhite • Daniel Chapman When Kalvin Phillips, the Leeds born and raised midfielder, scored the winner in Leeds United’s centenary celebration match against Birmingham City in October 2019, manager Marcelo Bielsa described the moment as a gift from god. “Sometimes, God puts things in the right place,” he said, and while there had been no better candidate for scoring that goal than Kalvin, it felt like a touch of the divine was needed for the right thing to be done. Leeds United’s history has rarely been about the right things falling into the right places. Since Phillips went over the Pennines to join Manchester City this summer, Bielsa’s words have allowed different interpretations. Maybe the right place for Kalvin was Leeds all along, because Manchester sure hasn’t looked like home from home for him so far. Or maybe it was about the level that goal was scored at, and the Championship was where Phillips belonged. Or perhaps this is a question of which deity...

Jesse Marsch has spoken with the media ahead of his side returning to action at to Manchester City, on Wednesday evening (8pm). The Whites get their Premier League campaign back underway at Elland Road after a long international break for the recent World Cup.   As always, the head coach began with a fitness update on his squad. “We didn’t have a bunch of guys in the mix because of a few little injuries, then we had a sickness going around the team,” Marsch explained, beginning his press conference. “We’re hopeful that everyone can be healthy and be back in training this week, with exception to Stuart Dallas, who had another surgery yesterday to clean some things up. They felt that was successful. “Luis Sinisterra is making good progress and we feel he is on track. We have to be cautious with his injury but we’re hopeful in a couple of weeks he can be back in training. “We’re hopeful everyone else is back this week, we’ll wait and see but hopefully we can be healthy and...

Leeds United are finally closing in on a return to Premier League action and Whites boss Jesse Marsch held his pre-match press conference today ahead of next week’s hosting of Manchester City. Lee Sobot Leeds signed off for the World Cup break with a 4-3 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur way back on Saturday, November 12. Forty-six days later, the Whites will return to action next Wednesday evening with the visit of Pep Guardiola’s defending champions and odds-on title favourites City. City are in EFL Cup action this evening at home to Liverpool in their first game back after the World Cup at which they had 16 players representing the club. Leeds had three players in action in Qatar in USA international duo Tyler Adams and Brenden Aaronson plus Rasmus Kristensen with Denmark. As part of the six-and-a-half week pause to the season, Marsch’s side took in a week-long training camp in Spain where they recorded a 2-1 victory against Elche on the back of a win against Preston North End in ...

Kalvin Phillips has paid tribute to Leeds United supporters as "the best fans in the world" after leaving the club to join Manchester City. In an emotional open letter, Phillips also hailed Marcelo Bielsa as "the best manager I have ever come across". The 26-year-old midfielder has signed a six-year deal with the Premier League champions, for a fee thought to be in the region of £45million. Addressing the Elland Road faithful directly, he said: "You are the best fans in the world. I love you all and will miss you." Phillips was at Leeds for 12 years, having joined at the age of 14, during which time he helped them win promotion to the Premier League and became a fixture in the England squad which made the final of Euro 2020. In his letter, Phillips says: "I would like to express how much of a privilege it has been to play for this amazing club. "Since making my debut at 17 it has been a journey any Leeds lad could wish for." Ph...