On April 7 last season Gaetano Berardi was sent off for the third time that season.
That lack of discipline led to a five-game suspension which meant he missed a total of 10 games of the 2017/18 season due to suspension.
He wasn’t the only one. In total, Leeds United players missed 28 games of last season for disciplinary reasons. In one crazy period, players were shown a red card in four matches out of five which led to the demise of head coach Thomas Christiansen.
That's a stark contrast to this season, which - with seven games to go - has seen players missed a combined total of just seven games through suspension.
Although Leeds United currently find themselves 18th in the Fair Play, with the joint second-most red cards in the league, it is the fact that players have missed a quarter of the amount of games compared with last season which tells the story in defining the difference between the two seasons.
In 2017/18, Berardi missed 10 games, Samuel Saiz missed six and Liam Cooper missed four. This season only one player has missed more than two games - Kalvin Phillips who has missed three.
Last season Pontus Jansson and Kalvin Phillips missed games because of the amount of yellow cards they’d received, this season not one player has missed a match for that reason. Barry Douglas and Gjanni Alioski tie for the most yellow cards with eight across the season in 2018/19.
So how does 2018/19 compare to 2017/18 in terms of disciplinary stats?
Team performance
*Including 2 games carried over from 2016/17
* Including one for Jansson’s comments following Brentford match
The fact that Leeds have seen 21 games less missed through suspension than last season is no doubt playing a signifncant part in the club's promotion push this season, especially given how unlucky the club have been with injuries.
With the cut off for a yellow card suspension now sitting at 15 cards for the season, only a late spate of reds would see this stat change significantly.
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