Aston Villa 1-1 Leeds United: Season of the witch
One of the straight up delights of Anton Stach this season is that Leeds United have a technical and witty player who can and does fire free-kicks, without fuss, straight into the back of the net.
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This season's Premier League has been given to set-pieces, and Leeds United's two games with Aston Villa have performed at the high aesthetic end of the dead ball delivery scale, where beauty is achieved but blame, football's black dog, still drags.
Watching from the bench, United's reserve goalkeeper Lucas Perri must have envied Karl Darlow's luck at Villa Park. Back in November, at Elland Road, Perri was four starts in to his second attempt at becoming United's number one. Leeds took an early lead, but Morgan Rogers won the match for Villa with a 'knuckleball' free-kick that made Perri look lead-footed and foolish. Like the divot that deceived Illan Meslier at Sunderland, Perri has carried that goal on his charge sheet since, despite it being his most defensible 'yeah, but' of the season. He didn't, when you analyse that goal, do much wrong. Yeah, but: yeah, but, he still should have saved it; yeah, but, it's the sort of thing he wouldn't. Get him out the team.
The other angle on that goal, from behind Morgan Rogers, was the more interesting one. The Athletic had plenty to say about it, on their Villa verticals at least. Jacob Tanswell went through it frame by frame to discover how close Rogers came to perfection: a snappy action, a locked ankle, an optimum caress from his boot an at unorthodox sidefoot angle, a little underneath the ball's dead centre. Rogers' technique put wobble on the ball that the goalie couldn't read.
On top of that, Gregg Evans produced a full rundown on how Rogers honed that method. Evans highlighted the 'Trackman launch monitor', an orange box full of ball-tracking technology that was developed to give feedback about speed and spinrate to professional golfers. It has been adapted to football at Bayer Leverkusen, whose Alex Grimaldo mimed golf swings to celebrate three free-kicks in three games he credited to practising with a Trackman. Joao Neves has scored knuckleball style for Portugal, and a week before Rogers' performance at Leeds, Emi Buendia had scored one for Villa against Bournemouth. Austin McPhee, set-piece coach for both Portugal and Villa, was the first to bring the Trackman to the Premier League, and Buendia and Rogers had been practising with the orange box and a bespoke training wall for two years.
'Goalkeeping coaches across the country recognise the growing difficulties', Evans noted, and Trackman's head of football spoke of a former goalie having his mind blown by the results free-kick takers were getting by practising with this new tech. From positions that were not previously a problem, "these top-spinners are suddenly an issue."
But still. That bloody clown should have just bloody saved it. Maybe. But three months later, after all the replays and self-analysis and specialist coaching, I imagine Perri is still looking at videos of that free-kick and looking for the ball's actual trajectory. Save it? Save what!
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Easier to save what Aston Villa put up against Leeds at their own ground. Because the beauty of Rogers' knuckleball against Perri had its hilarious inversion in his teammates outfoxing themselves in front of Karl Darlow's goal. In the third minute, with the ball dead on the wing, three Villa players left the penalty area and converged on Douglas Luiz, intently miming an argument like a village am-dram club, trying to create an element of surprise before Luiz lifted his cross into the six yard box. In the end, his own attackers seemed least prepared to attack the delivery and the whole charade died on its backside.
There was more of this later, when Ian Maatsen tried to pass a free-kick down the line but none of his team had the script. As clever as Austin McPhee may be, one of the sideways delights of this new age of set-piece coaches is when a camera focuses on them after efforts like these, standing in the technical area, bereft, their schemes rubble.
And one of the straight up delights of Anton Stach this season is that Leeds United have a technical and witty player who can and does fire free-kicks, without fuss, straight into the back of the net. There was a short run-up and shallow follow-through rocket that swerved into Wolves' top corner. There was a golf chip over Crystal Palace's wall that Dean Henderson watched, quite sadly, as it dropped into his near corner. Then there was this.
I'm quite sure Stach spends hours practising his technique with or without topspin-analysis technology. But the glory here, in an eleven-a-side sport that is growing to include long benches, set-piece coaches and mid-match tactical breaks, is the solo inspiration and improvisation that even amazed Stach's own teammates, but in the really good way.
"I saw that the goalkeeper had been lurking for the second post," Stach explained later. It feels appropriate to mention on Stach's behalf that 'the goalkeeper' was Emi Martinez, the World Cup winning Argentina international twice voted the best goalkeeper in the world. "And then," Stach continued, "I just thought, 'I'll just do it'."
Bravo. That's what's been missing from too much of the set-piece era. Talented players whose techniques have been whittled and honed, who then have the personality to look the world's best goalie in the eyes and go totally rogue.
Instead of crossing from out wide, with his teammates lining up for a cross to the back post, Stach disguised his run up to the ball, even disguised how he was kicking the ball, and snapped a powerful shot towards Martinez's front post. The arc of the shot is gorgeous. Its final placement close to the post and bar is a finely crafted flourish. One of the world's best goalies panicking, rushing, grasping and falling on his head is a final comic touch. Should he have stopped it, seen it coming, stood differently, reacted more quickly? Plenty of commentators seem to think so. But I mean, come on. Who cares? Martinez is a great keeper and that only makes what Anton Stach did better. So look at what Anton Stach did.
What Anton Stach did was necessary because it was United's best way of scoring a goal in this match. Too often we fail to include moments like this in the category of creativity, but Stach embroidered this whole goal himself in a match when Leeds struggled to stitch chances from open play. Its only rival was a second half chance for Lukas Nmecha, when he came off the bench, and was asked to aim a diving header at goal with his first touch. He did that, from Jayden Bogle's lovely early cross, but Martinez's quality was too relevant this time and his diving save proved it.
Villa's comedy set-pieces were a hindrance to them because they weren't making much happen from open play either. In first half stoppage time a cross was flicked on to Amadou Onana and Darlow had to dive fast to block his close range shot then act fast to punch the grounded ball away. If Perri was jealous when Villa's free-kicks went nowhere near him, he would recognise Darlow's good work in that one.
Otherwise, the Villans struggled to make a chance. With their best midfielders injured, Leeds sent their full-backs in amongst their understudies as if Ethan Ampadu alone wasn't more than they could get past. Stach and Ilia Gruev helped make sure every Villa attack met a crowd, and if the Claret and Blues still broke through, Joe Rodon, Pascal Struijk and Jaka Bijol were eager blockers of any shot.
By and large Farke chose to let the players keep dealing with what they were dealing so well with, but the introductions of Ross Barkley and Jadon Sancho lifted Villa and eventually merited a response. That was Nmecha, to work alongside Dominic Calvert-Lewin to force them back. Unai Emery decided it was time to sod sophistication and went two-up as well, adding Tammy Abraham to Ollie Watkins, but United's descent to a draw wasn't through systems.
Villa produced an equaliser through one of the footie laws that are ensuring Leeds must endure lower table purgatory this season rather than be carried away by dreams of European qualification. All the late goals conceded — this was the fifth to cost Leeds points after the 85th minute — have roots in a truism that quality is measured by the time between mistakes. Pressure, on players at the Peacocks' level working as hard as they have to work, will tell, and often we're just hoping for the game to end first. 88 minutes was the breaking point here, when the ball was put over again after a Villa corner, Rodon was beaten in the air by Ezri Konsa and Abraham wafted his knee at the ball. Calvert-Lewin leapt to defend his post but the bounce was higher than even he could reach, and lower than the bar.
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It was frustrating for all the players' hard work to be diminished at the last, again. But a point at the 3rd place team is still not nothing. And the pain was less than that felt by relegation rivals Nottingham Forest, whose stout resolve at home to Liverpool only got them a 1-0 defeat incurred in the 97th minute. Gutted for them, honest I am. And quite content about Leeds. ⭑彡
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