Crystal Palace 4 — LUFC 1
Leeds’ defense in desperate need of improvement
Leeds United are glad to have banked 10 points early on, because this is going to be a hard patch of games in their first season back in the Premier League. The win at Aston Villa has been followed by successive 4–1 defeats, and their upcoming opponents are not going make things any easier.
Fortunately, they now get a two-week break. Previous breaks have been problematic for them, interrupting a spell of good play — the win at Villa followed by ten days off and then Leicester City, which had been able to keep play and improving in Europe — but right now, Leeds really do need this break.
For one thing, this allows Kalvin Phillips’ shoulder a chance to heal without missing games. They’ve missed him a lot; it’s no coincidence that he’s been out of the squad the last two games. He’s the linchpin of this team, and his injury has done almost as much harm to the team as James Vardy and the Palace counter-attack.
Losing Rodgrigo to covid protocols didn’t help, either. Leeds played Palace even most of the game, and out-played them for long stretches in the first half. The equalized in the 18th minute, in fact, only for VAR to make one of those bizarre offsides calls (apparently Bamford’s left hand was offsides). Had that goal not been over-turned, the match is likely to have gone a different direction.
But it’s the equivalent to the start against Leicester: a great opportunity to score and, while Leeds are still concerned with that, Leicester streaks downfield and gets their own goal. Leeds just never seemed to get the confidence they needed to get back into the game. Ayling and Harrison had terrible games, seemingly incapable of making the simplest of passes. Koch gave up another foul that led directly to a penalty, and the defense let yet another attacker stand five hards from the goal with no one around him.
Bielsa was beside himself at the end, especially when Harrison slammed an easy passed down the left side straight out of touch. Cooper and Koch got cards for being late on defense; Koch only avoided a second yellow because the referee decided not to punish in the 88th minute of a 4–1 game for a foul that wasn’t actually dangerous.
Two weeks from Sunday, Arsenal come to Elland Road. This may be Leeds’ best chance to turn things around. Whether or not Phillips returns, and that’s unlikely, Bielsa has to sort out the defense. The goals Leeds are conceding are too easy. The passes they are missing are also too easy; time and again, the simplest of passes are off-course and struck far too hard.
I’m not concerned about Leeds surviving; they’ll win and draw enough games to keep them clear of the bottom. But mere survival doesn’t help a team improve. They need to recover the swagger and confidence they had in the second half at Villa. The trouble is, playing Arsenal, even at home, is not going to make that easy.
