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Published 09:48 12 Feb 2020 GMT
Updated 10:14 12 Feb 2020 GMT
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Against Nottingham Forest on Saturday, Leeds conceded two goals through lapses in their own concentration. The first was the fault of Kiko Casilla letting tame Sammy Ameobi effort in at his near post. The Spaniard remains the goalkeeping equivalent of a Mentos-filled bottle of Coke plummeting down a rollercoaster. The second was due to Jack Harrison forgetting how to control a football, then forgetting he was playing football, then forgetting he was playing football in a live football match, happening now. All of which allowed the superb Joe Lolley to pick his pockets, glide upfield (and around Casilla) to square for Tyler Walker to tap into an empty net.
Against Brentford on Tuesday night the song remained the same. Leeds were relentless in the first 25 minutes, forcing Brentford into uncharacteristic errors and dominating possession. They went into halftime with over 66% of possession, unheard of for an away side at Griffin Park. Before the game, Bees manager Thomas Frank called Leeds "the best footballing side in the division." And they looked it. It never seems to matter for Bielsa's side, though, as they continue to find new and increasingly painful ways to concede goals. This time it was... oh no wait, it was just Casilla again, channelling his inner Peter Enckelman and letting a harmless backpass roll under his foot whilst he was scouting the upper tiers for his presumably disappointed family members. Saïd Benrahma anticipated it, as you would, as he, unlike Casilla, has a brain. He couldn't miss. Captain Liam Cooper equalised before half-time, thanks to an uncharacteristic David Raya error. Always reassuring to see the goalkeeper's union in action.
After the break, there was only one winner: 'Not Leeds'. They were the team with all the attacking initiative, more drive in midfield and more bite in the tackle and yet... you just knew that the breakthrough wasn't coming. This is the great paradox of Leeds United. They're often the better team, usually by a wide margin, yet that superiority never really manifests itself in the way you'd expect. Opposition never fear Leeds as they should. Whatever pressure Marcelo Bielsa's side put them under, there is no impetus to capitulate. They know they'll always get a sniff at the other end. Like Homer Simpson sat at his control panel, mulling helplessly over the buttons with his coworkers watching, self-inflicted mortal disaster is never far around the corner for Leeds United.
It's funny, really. 60 years on they still have a true revolutionary at the helm, one searching for all the fine edges, tactical dossiers like encyclopedias. An unwavering belief in the same core of players. They still lack firepower at one end of the pitch, over-reliant on a physically-weak centre forward incapable of scoring the goals they need. Leeds are still Leeds, in other words, and sometimes it seems that no matter what they change, their fate stays the same. Hope and heartbreak for as long as their fans can take it. It's probably worth revisiting Don Revie's decision to change from blue to white. Was it truly to make his players better, to help them on the pitch? Or did he just tell Jack Charlton that because what he actually wanted was for Leeds to be someone else. A team no longer burdened by the deep psychological trauma of being themselves.
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