Mighty Leeds Weblog

Leeds United did it the easy way in their FA Cup third-round replay. By Stuart Rayner Yes, you read that right. From the moment Willy Gnotno scored a stunning volley after 26 seconds, the only team at Elland Road who looked capable of beating Leeds was Leeds. The pessimist who remembered the first game might not have been sitting comfortably when Rodrigo made it two in the 34th minute, but when Gnonto added his second two minutes later, it really was time to get out the cigars. When Cardiff City had a goal harshly chalked by referee Thomas Bramall's review, they could safely be lit. It was if the Whites forgot they are supposed to be the worst team around when 1-0 up, but in case you doubted it was really them, Luke Ayling clumsily let a Sheyi Ojo cross through his legs for former Sheffield United player Callum Robinson to score a not-in-any-way-consoling consolation goal.. In the second half Patrick Bamford helped himself to his second and third goals in two games as...

SCHOOL REUNION Written by: Rob Conlon It is rare for Victor Orta to watch a footballer for the first time and be immediately convinced by their ability. “It’s actually happened only a few times,” he told La Media Inglesa in 2021. There was Sergio Aguero, scoring goals for fun in a South American Under-20s tournament; there was Angel Correa, playing for San Lorenzo Under-15s, destined for Atletico Madrid and a World Cup winner’s medal; there was a fifteen-year-old Douglas Costa, playing in a Sao Paulo youth cup, Orta asking, “Who’s this guy?” More often than not, Orta and his recruitment team monitor players, and if they’re worth pursuing they’re eventually placed in a ‘band’ between one and six depending on what league they are playing in: bands five and six are leagues that struggle to register the required points for a player to earn a work permit; bands one to four are “priority leagues”. “When a player — and this is the ideal case, it doesn’t always happen — is on the list ...

CUP MAGIC, LEEDS STYLE Written by: Moxcowhite • Daniel Chapman Should have known, really! Should have known. There was a bit, a short time before kick-off, perusing Cardiff City’s team news, comparing their new stadium to the old and angry Ninian Park, thinking about the quality that exists in Leeds United’s Premier League squad, when I thought: this might be fine. This game could be simple. Leeds could calmly win 3-0. Our opponents, from the bottom of the Championship, were ill and understrength. Leeds United were also understrength. And it was them who made me sick. There was not much to object to in United’s starting line-up, especially once Jesse Marsch reeled off the list of muscular injuries affecting absent players. But sure, give Junior Firpo a shot, bring Rasmus Kristensen back, try Darko Gyabi in midfield, give Joe Gelhardt some playing time, put Pascal Struijk to centre-back — and captain. All moves with merit. But on top of the changes, Marsch asked them to play like…...

Teenage substitute striker Sonny Perkins bagged a 93rd-minute equaliser to save Leeds United’s skin in the FA Cup third round and seal a 2-2 draw at Cardiff City and Elland Road replay. Lee Sobot Cardiff went ahead with their first real attack in the 24th minute as Jaden Philogene-Bidace fired home after Mark Harris had been played in behind Pascal Struijk and Junior Firpo. The Bluebirds then doubled their lead just seven minutes later as Sheyi Ojo netted from the middle of the box after Andy Rinomhota this time played the ball in behind Diego Llorente. But Leeds finally burst into life following a triple substitution ten minutes into the second half and one of the substitutes in Rodrigo pulled a goal back less than five minutes after coming on when heading home from a short corner after a Sam Greenwood cross. The Whites were then awarded a penalty with ten minutes left as Joel Bagan kept out a Junior Firpo drive with a handball on the line for which he was sent off but Rodrigo...

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. ...

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...

TWO NUMBER NINES AND A MICROPHONE Written by: Moxcowhite • Daniel Chapman Okay. What’s going on? It’s not only Marvin Gaye who wants an answer. As season 2022/23 breaks for its mundial interruptus, a month after our previous unplanned pause, Leeds United fans are reeling from weekend to weekend, 4-3 to 3-4, late winners to late losers, blindfolded trying to pin a tail on this donkey of a season. Are Leeds good? Are they bad? Is Jesse Marsch good? Is he bad? It won’t stop anybody asking, but there isn’t an answer. It’s a football fan’s failing to treat games like cups of tea to be slurped down hot, taking no time to find a flavour beneath the burning taste on our tongues, hurrying to read the tea leaves and find out our fate. A match ain’t just a match, it’s a plot device with implications not only for our futures but our pasts. Will we be happy, 24 games from now? Or will we be cursing the people who brought us pleasure three years ago, for the sins we could never then foresee? O...

MOCK EXAMS Written by: Moxcowhite • Daniel Chapman This was a confusing night in the year of our football 2022, as measures of success were zapped in the magnetic field generated by these competing interests: winning a game, winning a cup, (re)building a football club, personal professional development of young footballers, appreciation and realisation of said young players as assets, and ‘minutes’. Of all the terms that have entered the soccer lexicon in recent years, fans copying coaches by talking about ‘minutes’ might be my least favourite. ‘Minutes’ are the necessary evil that cover up for any number of sins against entertainment, the dubious promise that if this game was a bit disappointing, that’s okay, because those ‘minutes’ will ensure that the players will put on a much better show at some unspecified point in the future. Just, not in the later rounds of this cup this season. And maybe eventually at some other club. At Molineux, Darko Gyabi, Mateo Joseph and Sonny Pe...

FALLING AND LAUGHING Written by: Rob Conlon When I grow up I want to be like Wilf Gnonto. I’ve got ten years on him, yet I can only dream of being as mature as little Willy. By the age of eighteen, he had lived in three different countries, mastered three different languages, and was learning how to cope with the hype of becoming Italy’s youngest ever goalscorer. Gnonto was expecting to spend the rest of 2022 still living in Zurich, until a call with a few hours left of the transfer window told him, actually, Leeds have messed up, pack your bags. I don’t think I’d cope very well with moving across Europe at a couple of hours’ notice, and that’s without thousands of fans expecting me to save their football club’s season. Judging by the way he celebrated his nineteenth birthday, Willy isn’t easily fazed. That maturity translates onto the pitch. After sending Elland Road delirious by creating Crysencio Summerville’s winner against Bournemouth, Gnonto sparked a cheer almost as loud...

THE LEEDS WAY Written by: Moxcowhite • Daniel Chapman It can be hard to tell what’s wearing Jesse Marsch down most, the defeats or the wins. “I hope it doesn’t continue this way,” he said on Saturday, after Leeds United came back from 3-1 down to beat Bournemouth 4-3 in an exhilarating match. “I want to try to make things simple on us,” he went on, “but that’s not the Leeds way, I hear.” That’s not the first time Marsch has rebelled against the adrenalin sustaining what, at other clubs, might be impossible results. The first question put to him in May, after Sergi Canos’ implosion and Jackie Harrison’s goal kept Leeds in the Premier League on the final day, suggested that ‘If there’s a Leeds way of doing things, that was it.’ Jesse didn’t seem keen on the idea. “I’ve heard this a lot about Leeds United and the community,” he said, “that we always think we have to do it the hard way. Honestly, part of the job of being the manager of this club is to change that mentality, to chan...

Whatever you say Leeds United are, they’ll be damned if they cannot prove that's exactly what they are not. By Graham Smyth It's little wonder Jesse Marsch is finding it hard to enjoy his job at present, when the Leeds team that finishes a game is not the same one that came off at half-time, never mind the one that finished the last match. Even Leeds themselves appear confused as to who or what they are this season. The boos that rang in their ears as they walked off at half-time 2-1 down and second best, by a long way, were every bit as deserved as the roars that serenaded them off at full-time as 4-3 winners. Jubilation and three points were a million miles from Leeds' grasp when Bournemouth took a 3-1 lead early in the second half and yet somehow Leeds came back. A story written too many times already this season, of a team who have developed an expertise in wasting strong positions, was on the wall again until goals started flying in at the right end. We've ...

YOU can never ever predict Leeds United. By Leon Wobschall If ever a game summed up their helter-skelter past few decades, this was it. Forget the fireworks outside. Booed off at half-time and at 3-1 down early in the second half, Jesse Marsch was hot under the collar again. Days like these are made for United’s fanatical support and they provided the fuel and in their final home game for 53 days, they had their unforgettable victory. After an early Rodrigo penalty, Leeds were ripped apart. Goals from Marcus Tavernier, Philip Billing and Dominic Solanke gave Bournemouth a lead that was not unflattering. The introduction of Sam Greenwood proved a masterstroke. He pulled one back superbly on the hour and set up Liam Cooper’s leveller. After his thrilling heroics at Anfield, Crysencio Summerville provided the winner with a glorious encore from a pass from good mate Wilfried Gnonto. Football, eh. Bournemouth came into the game with thoroughly lamentable defensive statistics. They had the j...