Leeds United, Marcelo Bielsa and a testing marriage with the Championship campaign

Ever since Pablo Hernandez suspended time with a beautiful shot into the top left corner of Bristol City’s net on the opening day, the 2019/20 season has flown by. It took Leeds United just 26 minutes of the new campaign to signal their intent, to state their promotion credentials and take control of their own fate. Rarely has it slipped from their grasp ever since. There have been few signs that the mental wounds of last season would open up once again because in an almost comically inconsistent Championship, Leeds have been one of just two sides with any legitimate claim to consistency. The table has shown West Brom and Marcelo Bielsa’s Whites to be the best two teams and if the ultimate objective is to finish in the top two, then it’s so far so good. Leeds are on track. They have controlled their destiny, thus far, by doing what Bielsa believes in - controlling the details. He has attempted to marry the same relentless attacking football that saw his side take the Championship by storm in the first half of the 2018/19 campaign with an improved defensive solidity. Marriage, as anyone who has experienced it will know, is not without its challenges or its ups and downs. So far this season we’ve seen something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. The old, with no disrespect meant, is the group of veterans who this squad is built on, players like Liam Cooper, Stuart Dallas and Hernandez who, by now, are well-versed in the Argentine’s ways. Cooper has been solid, Dallas has been malleable, willing to play anywhere and for the most part highly capable, while Hernandez has been magical, on and off. There has also been a continuity, a repetition of what last season’s Leeds side did so well for so long and a sense of momentum, despite the way last season finished. The new has rested on the more muscular shoulders of Patrick Bamford, Bielsa’s lone striker. The bullied has become the bully, thanks to the off-season work the striker put in. Even when the goals dried up, in a 10-game spell between August 24 and November 9, he continued to enjoy the backing of his manager and Leeds continued to enjoy his hold-up play. Bielsa trusts Bamford and by holding his nerve, despite the clamour for a change up top, his striker repaid it. Goals then did begin to flow again and Bamford went into 2020 with 10 to his name. Providing the competition for that striker role and probably the talking point of the season has been Eddie Nketiah, a striker brought in on loan from Arsenal late in the summer transfer window. Leeds went for something borrowed when it came time to strengthen for the 2019/20 season and Nketiah, a jet-heeled poacher, has made an impact in his cameo appearances. But the real find of the summer was another loanee, centre-half Ben White. Having never played in the Championship before, he was seen as one of the club’s biggest question marks, given the departure of the popular Pontus Jansson. Yet White’s duck-to-water transition into life in the second tier has been supremely impressive and a key to Leeds’ dominance both on and off the ball. He reads the game so well and sniffs out danger in the way Nketiah sniffs out goals. Only one will see the season out at Elland Road however, with Arsenal recalling Nketiah following a lack of game time. White has played so many games that Brighton cannot recall him this month, so his contribution to Leeds’ defensive solidity will continue. A sturdy backline has not been without its wobbles though. Something blue was in the Elland Road air, uttered by thousands all at once in a collective expression of disbelief and anger, when Cardiff City ran roughshod over the Whites’ defensive reputation to come back from 3-0 down and equalise on 88 minutes. The worst part of the season has come right at the end of 2019 and yet it hasn’t been that bad, as the table shows. Held by Cardiff, beaten by Fulham, held by Preston and terrorised by Birmingham, who they ultimately beat 5-4 in the craziest of games. A little reality check perhaps that it isn’t going to be plain sailing, not that anyone expects that. But equally, the Championship table is all the reality you need to judge how the 2019/20 season is going for Leeds United. Top of the tree, nine points clear of third place. It could be much better of course - when you think of the missed chances in the games they haven’t managed to win. Yet almost all other Championship sides would gladly swap their first half of the season with the one put together by Bielsa’s Leeds. It could be so much worse.

Leeds United, Marcelo Bielsa and a testing marriage with the Championship campaign - Graham Smyth