Leeds United 1-2 Birmingham City: Let Them Play
Luke Ayling had a solid debut at right back, playing arrogantly in a good way; he'll probably make several eyecatching mistakes (it's the ponytail) but he'll probably also score a couple of sensational goals and serve some long suspensions for winning fights (it's the ponytail). He'll be popular.
The pleasure of Pablo Hernandez's performance at Fleetwood in midweek was that he was everywhere, doing everything, his influence only limited by how quickly he could get across the grass to take part, and lead, the play.
From a starting position just behind Chris Wood Pablo roamed, and made things happen when and how he wanted them to. He linked his teammates together, he sent them on runs with piercing through balls, he danced around defenders and changed angles.
It was like something from a whole other Leeds United, a team throwing off its workaday cares and chucking its lot in with a free spirit, a creative and joyful spark. United might be in with a chance of making me happy, if every teamsheet was ten others plus Pablo Hernandez, free.
Hernandez stayed in the team against Birmingham City, but he didn't keep his place. Instead he was moved alongside Ronaldo Vieira as part of an orthodox midfield in an orthodox 4-4-2, and we found out that orthodoxy doesn't suit Pablo Hernandez very well at all.
Partnering a caged sprite in the middle of the park doesn't suit Vieira, either. It's not hard to imagine, five years from now, Vieira running a midfield much like his powerhouse namesake (the Arsenal one, not the other one), and if he could have the Hernandez of five years ago next to him at the same time, that just might work. As it was, by putting them together, Leeds got less than they might have offered separately.
For the first forty-five minutes it did feel like it might work. When Hadi Sacko got the ball through Tomasz Kuszczak and scored, I said, out loud, "What a goal," the first time anything like that has happened at Elland Road since Lewis Cook fully Mowatted into the top corner against Fulham. There was no equivalent force about Sacko's goal — he barely got it over the line — but in the eleven passes that preceded that moment there was delight. Sacko was involved at the halfway line, exchanging fluid passes with Hernandez, who was artfully pulling Birmingham's defence out of its shape; Hernandez then played another stretching pass to Luke Ayling, who rapidly gave the ball to Sol Bamba to give to Vieira, who had passed it to Hernandez in the first place.