Most of the 591 passes went side to side and side to side and side to side then side to side. The whole thing was a collective failure to engage brains, summed up at what's supposedly United's new superpower, set-pieces.
At least Sean Longstaff has experience of handling this sort of defeat: he's lost 4-0 and 4-1 at the Emirates for Newcastle. You can either view that as the record of a loser or assume it has instilled resilience, and that might go to the heart of the argument.
The symbol of it all was Nigel Martyn, saving shots, catching crosses, and submitting himself to Leeds United's permanent pictorial history by failing to notice when his head was cut at the feet of apologetic Bernhard Winkler.
These three precious points are one more gift from the 2025 Champions to themselves and the players getting ready to join in.
Tony Currie was a symbol of the post-Revie transformation of Leeds United from a clinical winning machine to something more relaxed, and much less effective. Nicer hair, taller floodlights, no more trophies. But what Don Revie had drilled into his players, they now drilled into Tony Currie.
An experienced Premier League striker who has scored two consecutive seasons in double figures and played and scored for England, who just needs to stay fit and recover the form he showed under Carlo Ancelotti for the next few years to become the prime of his career — and he's free?
Bill Fotherby was keen to stress that this wasn't a spur of the moment urge. Buying Paul Gascoigne was the culmination of a plan that began when Howard Wilkinson took over at Leeds in 1988 and made headlines by taking his ball-clutching nemesis, Vinnie Jones, to Division Two.
Every part of this match was untraditional, bordering on blasphemic. A lot of this feels like what a lot of people absolutely do not want football to be like, but then when football is like this, it starts to feel quite fun.
The main show came from Costas Kapitanis. The Champions League had been the Peacocks' aim for a decade, or three, and achieving it meant remembering the bad times Leeds had in Europe in the 1970s.
Gordon Strachan had been worth two players to Leeds, but Rubén Sosa could be the one to replace him. But he would cost two player's salaries.