Leeds United 1-1 Villarreal: Quick to the grind
That solid outfield nine with their lone striker and their height for set-pieces could be just the thing for survival. But what if it's not fun?
Maintaining optimism as a newly promoted Premier League side involves believing in a mirage anyway, so perhaps it's better to be stumbling into realism as soon as possible. Leeds United have had it good the last couple of years, using August to predict how close to winning a trophy we'll be coming by May. Based on the top-flight's bottom-three during that time, this pre-season should be about asking Old Mother Shipton if drawing 1-1 with Villarreal means we will or won't be relegated by Christmas. Igor Paixão was being proposed as a 'difference maker', but most influence on this game was exerted by Isaac Schmidt and that might be a lesson for the season ahead.
United started well but Schmidt floundered as the first half went on, giving up possession, losing tackles, letting the left winger drift by him. Joe Rodon and Pascal Struijk, playing out from the back, had to take their routes over to their left — fine by me, as Gabriel Gudmundsson is my pick of the signings so far, but not fine by whatever the afternoon's plan was supposed to be. They, and the midfielders, also had to compensate more on Schmidt's side. Suddenly the day's aim became covering for Schmidt's wayward proclivities, and we were watching how a team at higher levels can become distorted around its weakest points, no matter its strengths.
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Ideally Schmidt won't be playing for Leeds beyond August this season, because he wants to be a first choice player and take this level of performance to the World Cup, and Leeds want Jayden Bogle to play all the time. Bogle, however, was injured for this match — 'a bit of concern' with his hip flexor keeping him out. Daniel James was also missing, with vampiric sounding 'light problems', and Sebastiaan Bornauw who hurt his calf in Germany, and Lucas Perri who arrived injured, and Jack Harrison, who is combining adductor problems that Daniel Farke says are 'hopefully a question of a few days' with seeing a consultant on Monday. I don't want to labour this point, but after the fans couldn't follow the squad on tour this summer because the club wanted them at the one specific training camp that would prepare them the best, that's more pre-season injuries than I might expect from working at the one specific training camp selected as the best.
Moxcowhite • Daniel Chapman
This was about that training camp
This might just be the normal course of things building up to a campaign, but it made this home friendly dourer than the bright sunshine and new kits were wanting. Leeds put out a different team in each half, neither a first eleven, nobody getting away without being shoved over by an eagerly pressing Villarreal player. Joe Rodon had a good moan at them, but it took until the last few minutes for Largie Ramazani and Adrià Altimira to raise the temperature, and that was only through some petty shoving about. Wilf Gnonto in the first half then Ramazani later, as the quasi-designated wildcard wingers, did their best to get the crowd on their feet. But arguing with Altimira was more effective.
Villarreal's highlights included a first half header that Karl Darlow tipped over the bar to applause, and a second half header that Illan Meslier tipped onto the bar to despair, when Etta Eyong put the rebound in. This might be among Meslier's last games at Elland Road, and this summed up his and Darlow's respective experiences: Karl made an easy save look hard, Illan made a hard save look hard and conceded anyway. If he leaves maybe Meslier will come back in a new form one day, like Alfonso Pedraza, our loanee from the Garry Monk era who came off the Yellow Submarine's bench.
Moxcowhite • Daniel Chapman
Here's Alfonso Pedraza's A-Z entry
Eyong's goal came just after the hour and was soon equalised. Brenden Aaronson, in his rarer configuration as a winger, stayed in his typical configuration as a pest all day and, after mixing skill and scrambling to get around the left-back, he crossed to the front post where, let's see, it looks like Sam Byram was waiting to tap in. At least Farke isn't showing signs of leashing his left-backs now Junior Firpo has gone. Byram didn't tap in but a defender tapped the ball to Joel Piroe, who did.
Aaronson to Byram finished by Piroe is not the Premier League attacking threat even Daniel Farke is dreaming about. "We're not naive," he said after the match. "Even compared to our Championship offence you can't say we're improved. We know we're not ready for Premier League level. We've proven today we can be ready for one game." United's key people, Farke went on, are doing their best to buy new attackers before the transfer deadline, if not sooner. He's willing to "grind out results for one or two games" until some flair is found and integrated.
I can't help coming back to Piroe, though. I don't have stats for his touches in this match but I know by sight it was low; and I don't mean to compare him to Erling Haaland. But, y'know, a striker who does nothing but finish chances in the box is by no means a bad guy to have around. Harry Gray, when he came on, came close to scoring with a header — from an offside spot, fine — and Lukas Nmecha was a first half handful. And I guess I'm just softhearted, too, or don't really believe in what a £40m striker offers that's £10m better than a £30m striker, nowadays. It all just seems like it's about putting the ball in the net, to me, and yes I'm going to mention that over in Oslo last week Joffy Gelhardt scored four. Four! Igor Paixão? More like Igor Pshaw!
Leeds look well enough for some of the necessary grinding this season, their 4-3-3 often becoming a 4-5-1 out of possession so that while Nmecha or Piroe might be isolated, Ethan Ampadu, Sean Longstaff and Anton Stach can plug gaps and dominate midfield and keep the ball away from their goal. On first looks, Stach takes big man good touch cliches to a long passing extreme, and shares with Jaka Bijol a nice line in sliding tackles that VAR will spend long hours with next season. Ilia Gruev, when he came on, had me thinking like Piroe that he might actually be just fine, while Ao Tanaka is generally expected to take Kevin De Bruyne's place in the Premier League next season so we don't even need to look at him.
One slight worry is that, from a cursory glance at the line-ups at Norwich City, Farke switched from 4-2-3-1 in the Championship to 4-3-3 in the top flight in 2021 and lost their opening six games by an aggregate of 16-2. I'd hoped for a new idea since then. The plan instead seems to be proving that the Canaries' hierarchy relegated themselves by not buying better players, so, fingers crossed on that for the rest of the transfer window.
The biggest risk I can feel, at the moment, is from repercussions of succumbing to the grind rather than risking the glory, even if it is necessary. It's the Premier League — the step up is borderline impossible — the main aim is 17th — the first aim is not being 20th at Christmas. If all those are known possibilities, the added worry for me is that Leeds might make it boring.
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That solid outfield nine with their lone striker and their height for set-pieces could be just the thing for survival. When fit, Dan James and Jack Harrison can join Brenden Aaronson in putting workrate where Manor Solomon's flair used to be. Someone, known or new, can scramble chances into the net.
But Elland Road was the venue where the last two seasons of high-scoring record-breaking winning football were not deemed fun enough until the results were read in the second May, and where the last three promotions from the second tier — 1964, 1990 and 2020 — have been followed by instant top flight success and joy. Opening the season at home to Everton without new thrillsoaked attackers could take us teetering into becoming what is coming to us — Everton. Perpetually lowly, Jack Harrison crossing high beyond Dominic Calvert-Lewin's fit stand-in forever, cycling between Allardyce, Dyche and Moyes. If Leeds don't have some new forwards in soon I think it might be best to start with Harry Gray against the Toffees, just to make it jolly. Or get Joffy back for that, whichever. ⭑彡