Leeds United’s recent form has taken a tumble with back-to-back 4-1 defeats at the hands of Leicester City and Crystal Palace.
The discontent has been compounded as both losses came in the same week, adding to the disgruntled murmurings. Nevertheless, Leeds can take positives from the two games, and the recent 1-0 defeat to Wolves, all of which were matches when Premier League pragmatism won out on the day.
Wolves, Palace and Leicester are established Premier League sides, and each have a distinctive way of playing. Dissecting Leicester’s setup has perhaps been the easiest task for the amateur tactical sleuth as much of their success has been based on the vibrancy and straight-line speed of Jamie Vardy and Harvey Barnes.
At Elland Road on a sodden Monday night, Leicester put Leeds to the sword, with Vardy positioned at the tip of an extremely jagged, fast-breaking blade. The Foxes allowed Leeds the majority of the ball, with Leeds enjoying 67.5% of possession, which was entirely part of their strategy.
According to Opta, the average position of the Leicester defence was deeper than what was seen last season, with Marc Albrighton (No. 11) doubling as a right wing-back, seeing James Justin (No. 2) tuck inside to become an auxiliary centre-back, with Nampalys Mendy (No. 24) sweeping up in front of the deeper central defenders. Albrighton still had the licence to get forward into a wide-open right-hand channel, which he did to good effect, pinning the arduous Stuart Dallas on occasion.
At the other end, Leeds struggled to break down Leicester’s rearguard without Kalvin Phillips’ ability to switch the point of attack in an instant, and the Foxes’ fast-breaking bypassed the midfield duo of Pablo Hernández and Jamie Shackleton.
It was a similar story against Wolves, a team who are renowned for being one of the league’s least active pressers. Even without Diogo Jota, Wolves are still one of the league’s most counter-attacking sides.
According to WhoScored.com, Nuno Espirito Santo’s men have generated nine shots from counter-attacking situations this season, two more than any other Premier League club. Their 1-0 triumph over Marcelo Bielsa’s men was another evening at Elland Road where the visiting defence sat extremely deep, with wing-backs tucking in to create a miserly back five.
Leeds’ most recent outing and latest defeat came at the hands of Crystal Palace who typically rely on the dynamism and individualism of Wilfried Zaha to generate opportunities on the break. There was an element of that to Palace’s attacking play, but rather their most effective ploy against Leeds was similar to Wolves’ and Leicester’s before them.
They smothered the Leeds attack at every opportunity. Whenever a long diagonal ball was floated to wide-men Jack Harrison and Hélder Costa, Palace’s full-backs suffocated the space around them, while one of the midfielders tucked in to create a 2-vs-1 situation, limiting the creative output of Leeds’ wide players.
It begs the question whether there is now a blueprint for Premier League sides in how to nullify and beat Bielsa ’s men. It happened on occasion in the Championship where teams like Luton Town and Wigan Athletic set up to frustrate and sneak a goal on the counter.
With the added Premier League quality of sides in the top flight, Leeds have been punished dearly on a handful of occasions now.
However, there are caveats to each of the three defeats, firstly; each team in this league does not possess elite counter-attacking assets like Adama Traoré or Jamie Vardy.
Secondly, the number of goals conceded by Leeds over their past two games is not reflective of how the game panned out. Leeds’ expected goals total for their 4-1 defeat to Palace was 0.85 according to Understat, while Palace’s was just 1.30 – suggesting the hosts were lucky to score as many as they did.
Additionally, a mistake from Robin Koch in the opening stages of the Leicester game allowed Brendan Rodgers’ men to set up in such a fashion, protecting a golden lead and forcing Bielsa to amend his gameplan from almost the first whistle. Leeds’ concessions against Palace were punctuated by immense quality from a dead-ball situation and a freak own goal too.
On the whole, despite the similar structures that were used to beat Leeds, the fact the team have been competitive in each outing suggests that while matches have not gone in United’s favour, they will not be beaten by three clear goals every week.
