The year 2021 was undertaken with a poor performance by Leeds United. Of the three matches that have played, all ended disappointingly. Shaved 3-0 by Tottenham Hotspur, lost humiliatingly in the FA Cup by EFL League Two club Crawley Town 3-0, and finally lost 0-1 at home to Brighton & Hove Albion in the English Premier League.
The three defeats had similarities, namely Marcelo Bielsa’s men failed to score. A situation that worries the coach. “I am worried. Losing three games without scoring a goal is not something that can happen without worry, “said Leeds coach Marcelo Bielsa, quoted by the Yorkshire Post.
To start the year on a three-game losing streak and not score at all is a bad thing. However, as a promotion club, Leeds United have performed quite well so far. At least if you look at the standings table, The Whites appear charming by gaining 23 points from 18 matches, entrenched in 12th place in the Premier League standings.
Leeds United is also a promotion club that has so far been free from the relegation zone. While the other two promoted teams, namely Fulham and West Bromwich Albion, still have to struggle in the relegation zone.
So, what makes Leeds United have high expectations? Football connoisseurs and lovers see Leeds United as a great team that has a great history in the English football scene by winning three First Division trophies. After being sidelined for sixteen years, Leeds was finally able to return to playing in what many think is the best league in the world.
Of course his presence has been eagerly awaited by fans of English and world football, especially Leeds United fans themselves. Moreover, Leeds is headed by Bielsa, whose arrival also attracts many eyes. Not a few are waiting for what breakthrough “El Loco” will make.
The Argentine coach is indeed admired by football fans, not because of his achievements, but because of his idealistic philosophy and tactical mix with coaching methods that are known to be quite tough.
His prowess in concocting tactics has inspired many of the world’s top coaches, for example Mauro Pochetttino who was able to bring Spurs to the Champions League final for the first time in the club’s history, or Diego Simeone, who is still successfully managing Atletico Madrid. Even a coach of Pep Guardiola’s caliber praised Bielsa as the best coach in the world, even though he only won few prestigious trophies.
The most memorable individual achievement was of course when Bielsa was awarded the 2019 FIFA Fair Play Award. After bringing Leeds to promotion to the Premier League in 2020, Bielsa was nominated for The Best FIFA Men’s Coach, eliminating Thomas Tuchel who last season was able to deliver Paris Saint-Germain to qualification. Champions League final.
Bielsa presents attractive attacking football based on ball possession and a very open game. With a 4-1-4-1 formation and often being 3-3-3-1 when attacking, Bielsa applies a fast attack build-up from behind to front. The transition from defensive to aggressive attacking and high-intensity pressing requires players to immediately win back possession, then combine it with short or diagonal passes to the flanks.
This playing philosophy is what makes football fans see Leeds not like a promotional team, or any other Premier League team that relies on counter attack or reactive football.
From the review above, it is actually enough to raise high expectations among football fans for Leeds and Bielsa himself. But is it worth it if Leeds get their high expectations to do well every game and occupy the top 10 of the Premier League standings at the end of the season? Or even get tickets to the Europa League for next season? The answer is of course no.
If we analyze more deeply, the composition of players and the depth of the Leeds squad are actually not that flashy. We need to remember, Bielsa’s men departed from the Championship Division whose maturity has yet to be tested in the Premier League.
Leeds United only filled with Kalvin Phillips, Stuart Dallas and Patrick Bamford as key players. Leeds also have Rodrigo, Diego Llorente, Raphinha and Robin Koch, but they have been competing in the Premier League mid-table.
In addition, we can take the positive side of the absence of a star labeled player. With a makeshift squad composition, Bielsa quite often provides flying hours for young players to show off. Call it wonderkid, Illan Meslier, who since the end of last season has been trusted to fill the position under the crossbar.
Then there is Pascal Struijk, a player who has Indonesian blood and is able to fill the void in the position of central defender and defensive midfielder, then there is Ian Poveda, an agile winger who this far has played as many as ten Premier League games. Even if we take a peek at the Leeds U-23 squad, they topped the England U-23 Premier League Division 2. So, don’t be surprised if many academy players are promoted to the senior team.
Back to the game side, the attacking game built by Bilesa is also very visible. From the statistics presented by WhoScored, Leeds have scored 30 goals (8th best in the Premier League) from 266 kicks taken. Meanwhile, in terms of ball possession, Leeds is in 3rd place with an average of 57.9% ball possession.
However, his impressive record when attacking was not matched by a solid defense. Leeds have conceded 34 goals in 259 shots faced. Only West Brom have beaten this record by conceding 41 goals.
But of course we already know that that is the risk of a team with attacking football, difficulties when dealing with teams that rely on low block defense and counter attacks, plus the lack of creativity and poor finishing from the attack line. These two weaknesses were evident in Leeds’ last three matches and several other matches.
Despite its status as a big British land team and coached by a “crazy” coach with an “attacking-minded football” philosophy, it is not necessarily that football fans, especially Leeds United fans, have to have high expectations for this team. The season is still long and there is still much to be done. So, let’s just enjoy every game Leeds will go through!
ASL
