It has been a rollercoaster opening few weeks for Leeds United in their first stint back in the Premier League since 2004.
After successive 4-3 score lines in their opening two matches, things settled down quickly and encouragingly, with Marcelo Bielsa’s side picking up 10 points over the course of five games. They ended October with a run of conceding just two goals in four games.
However, the prevailing narrative can shift swiftly and back-to-back 4-1 defeats have derailed any early momentum and left the club’s goals against column looking particularly troublesome.
No team has conceded more than the 17 Bielsa’s side have shipped in their opening eight games of the campaign, but the spread of those goals has been deeply uneven.
Leeds have conceded four goals on three separate occasions, added to conceding three at home to Fulham; conversely, they have kept two clean sheets away from home and conceded just once against both Manchester City and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
A key issue has been the instability at the heart of the defence, which was identified as a potential problem after the club failed to secure the permanent signing of Ben White from Brighton & Hove Albion this summer.
White played in all 46 of the club’s Championship matches last season and was partnered by Liam Cooper, who started 36 games. White’s absence has been a huge loss, while Cooper has been unavailable for three of the eight matches thus far due to injury.
Two central defenders with international pedigree were signed this summer and their arrivals generated a great deal of excitement.
Diego Llorente joined from Real Sociedad, but is yet to make his Leeds debut due to injury. Germany international Robin Koch has been available, and has started every game to date due to the unavailability of others, but he has struggled due to the instability around him.
Pascal Struijk played in the heart of the defence in the opening day defeat at Liverpool and has featured since, while right-back Luke Ayling has also been deployed in the position, both as a central defender alongside Koch and as part of a three-man defence, which Leeds have used twice this season as per Whoscored.com.
In stats compiled by the Premier League official website, Leeds have made 168 tackles this season, 10 more than the nearest side, Everton. At the time of writing, it is more than double that of Manchester City (78) and significantly more than Aston Villa (85), Liverpool (86), Arsenal (87) and Manchester United (94).
While stats such as these can be interpreted differently, it suggests that Leeds players have needed to make tackles because they have lost control of the ball in dangerous areas and players were caught out of position.
This could be linked with Bielsa’s high-risk and expansive style of play. Too often, Leeds can be caught in possession with their defence left exposed.
The theme is seemingly backed up by how often Leeds have been dispossessed this season: 79 times, according to the Premier League website, with only four clubs caught in possession more often.
As per Whoscored.com’s analysis, Leeds have three major areas of weakness in their collective style of play: avoiding individual errors, defending against skilful opponents and stopping opponents from creating chances. This is shown by the club’s xGA data, as compiled by understat.com; Leeds have the second-worst xGA – the measurement used to predict how many goals a team would concede on average over the course of the season – with their value of 14.15 only better than the 15.55 of West Bromwich Albion.
All this suggests that the problems are both collective and individual. Of course, these two measures are linked: the high-risk style of play will lead to more individual errors, the need for more tackles and stopping their opponents in dangerous positions.
However, the fact Leeds have not been able to field a consistent central defensive partnership this season should not be discounted and Llorente, a player with a significant profile in Spain, has yet to play.
Bielsa is no pragmatist and is unlikely to change his approach this season. Leeds will stay true to their principles, even if this costs them defensively.
But with the return of players from injury and having a more settled starting line-up, it is probable their defensive numbers will improve.
