There’s flirting with disaster, and then there’s Leeds United.
Leeds’ style of play is something that is been a rather interesting topic of discussion recently. The way that Leeds can dominate when it comes to possession and shots, yet somehow either take them forever to get the breakthrough, or not even make the breakthrough at all.
Marcelo Bielsa himself has even spoken about it, saying that Leeds need ‘six chances to score… we need a lot of situations to score one goal’, so it’s obviously something that he is aware of. Whilst it may seem OK when we’re winning, I feel that whilst we are doing well that’s actually the best time to point these sort of things out. At the end of the day once you’ve reached the top you have to keep evolving or you’ll end up going backwards.
It’s what cost Leeds promotion last year, not killing off teams particularly towards the latter end of the season, and if we’re not careful we’re going to end up in the same situation again.
These sort of results and performances might work against team near the bottom of the league like Barnsley, Stoke City and Wigan Athletic, but when it comes to the teams near the top like Nottingham Forest and Swansea City, we’ve shown that the style of play doesn’t always end up in us getting the three points, and at the end of the season those dropped points against teams that are fighting it out with us to get promotion could prove costly.
Given the high expectations that were placed on Leeds at the start of the season, Bielsa doesn’t have a lot of wiggle room when it comes to success this season. There was already a lot of hype around him when he first arrived but the honeymoon of his first year is well and truly over. Whilst Leeds might be top now, just as they were for a lot of last season, they really can’t afford to go through another stretch where they end up squandering points.
Whilst one close call with promotion might be acceptable to some, failing to do so a second time under such a high profile manager could mean the end of the road for Bielsa.
What about you? Do you think that the style of play is sustainable throughout the whole season? Or do you think that changes have to be brought in?