Leeds United against
Southampton in the eagerly awaited automatic promotion play-off. You can
imagine that the opening line of the Sky Sports coverage was written nine
months ago when the fixtures came out. However, Ipswich Town didn’t get the
memo, so Leeds and Saints are taking part in a game with not much significance
whatsoever. It has absolutely zero
significance for us because we are finishing fourth whether we win or lose 9-0
today. Leeds on the other hand, need to win today and then hope that Ipswich
lose at home to relegated Huddersfield. It
is somewhat unlikely. Truth be told, the Ipswich versus Huddersfield game is a
much bigger story than what is going on there and it will affect the mood
inside Elland Road today. If by some miracle, Huddersfield take the lead then
the ground is going to go mad and the Leeds players will suddenly start playing
like lunatics. If Ipswich go ahead then Elland Road will be subdued and it
becomes a real nothing game.
For the first time in weeks, Saints have no excuse for
tiredness seeing as they have had a whole week to prepare. Russell Martin has
hinted at this being treated as a preparation game for the playoffs to come, so
we can expect the minutes of Flynn Downes to be carefully controlled. We are
also expecting to see a few minutes from the Crock Ness Drogba, Mr Ross Stewart
who in case you’d forgotten, was signed to score the goals to fire us to
promotion. Maybe he can still do that. I still cannot help but feel that if he
had been fit all season and turned out to be as good as we wanted him to be, it
would’ve had a massive transformative effect on this team.
We turned to Ross Stewart when we couldn’t sign Joel Piroe,
who of course had played for Russell Martin at Swansea but eventually signed
for Leeds. It was never really adequately explained why we didn’t sign the big
Dutchman but desire to comply with FFP and profit and sustainability rules was
never far from the surface. Though
Stewart has had his injury issues of course, Piroe has been slightly
underwhelming in terms of his goal output and recently has found himself out of
the team with the likes of Georginio Rutter, Crycensio Summerville, Willy
Gnonto and Patrick Bamford preferred to him. Longer term we might be better off.
Stewart was apparently a cheaper option in terms of wages and it was a gamble
because of his fitness record. When we signed Danny Ings a few years ago it was
seen as a risk because of his injury record and after a stop-start first
season, he certainly proved this worth before moving onto pastures greener. By
greener I am of course referring to the colour of money. Maybe Ross Stewart can
be the man up front for us next year, whatever division we are in.
Leeds looked like they were coasting to the title on the back
of a 12 game-winning run that started in early January and just at the time
when a large percentage of their fan base was celebrating an impending title
win, they shit the bed and shit it repeatedly, culminating in a 4-0 defeat at
QPR, which was their equivalent of our defeat to Cardiff.
A result of their implosion has been that people have been
looking at and questioning the abilities of Daniel Farke. Leeds certainly have
the strongest squad in the division outside of Leicester (how do you Leicester
have such a strong squad – it’s a bit of a mystery?) and Farke has picked up
quite a lot of stick as they have fallen away. He too has made noises this week
about this being a preparation game and whilst the football world at large will
be looking for some pointers about what might happen in a potential play-off
final, I don’t think it’s really gonna tell us that much.
The first meeting of the season of course saw us steam roller
Leeds in the first half and ultimately comfortably win 3-1 at St Mary’s, which
was the first game of the long unbeaten run that we went on. We could do with
today being the start of a four-match unbeaten run.
The eleven names on the teamsheet are interesting. All three centre backs plus two full backs,
which either points at us abandoning our usual back four or it points at KWP on
the wing. Flynn Downes starts as well so
we’ve gone strong. Time will tell if
that’s the right move but at least we are trying something different.
Saints have in fact lined up with a back three which is an
interesting change and initially we start playing fairly long because it looks
like we haven’t quite sussed where the passing lanes are in this new formation.
There seems to be loads of room in the Leeds midfield and Downes gallops
through and it gets to the edge of the box before taking being taken out by
Ampadu but the referee decides that despite coming in from the wrong side,
making contact with a player and not getting anywhere near the ball, that it
isn’t a freekick.
Leeds put us under a bit of pressure down our left with Gnonto cutting in past
Stephens and Aribo goes to ground to try and win it but absolutely trashes him
about a yard outside the penalty area. The free-kick is whipped in by Firpo but
it’s at a comfortable height for McCarthy to just flick it over the bar.
We go almost Route 1 as a clearance by McCarthy is flicked on
by Aribo out to Adam Armstrong on the right.
A simple ball inside and KWP drives through the non-existent Leeds midfield
and slides a ball into Smallbone but there is no conviction on his shot
whatsoever and Meslier blocks easily and out for a corner.
It's Happened Again....
In it comes from Manning and cleared, headed back in by Downes, half cleared again and Downes flicks it left to Adams. Che has clearly decided that his ‘strength’ stat is turned up to 99 today and holds off Kamara before putting it back across and there is Adam Armstrong about ten yards out, completely unmarked and with a swing of the left boot and not the cleanest of connections, he sends it goalwards and chocolate wrists Meslier can’t keep it out. You can hear the cheers all the way from Portman Road.
Oh, we seem to have poked the bear. Leeds come out straight away with some hesitant defending by THB allowing Summerville to get a shot away which is well saved down low by McCarthy. Macca rolls it out to Stephens who stolls in midfield and dawdles with it and gets tackled by Gruev. Gnonto fires it in from the right, half a clearance by THB straight to Piroe and he drills it in from fifteen yards via a deflection off of Downes. Shit. Any jubilation at the prospect of Leeds possibly being back in the automatic promotion picture dampens down a bit with news that Ipswich have taken the lead against Huddersfield.
It's time for some refereeing. Having not awarded the one earlier on with Ampadu trashing through Downes, the ref seems to be making up for it by awarding soft ones as Summerville hits the deck under no challenge at all from Smallbone. In comes the freekick and Ampadu’s header is tipped over by McCarthy but he was well offside anyway.
Having weathered the mini-storm, Saints get back on trying to exploit the Leeds non-midfield and win a corner, put in from the left by Smallbone, inadvertently flicked on by Byram and it looks for all the world like Adams is going to bundle in at the back post but with the boots swinging everywhere it’s a combination of Gruev and Meslier who manage to block and then the ball gets cleared.
A few minutes later, some controlled possession and Bednarek goes for the big diagonal to KWP on the right hand side, in a move rarely seen since the days of Vestergaard. Now, I know that KWP is going to keep that in but Firpo can’t be bothered to make sure and when KWP does keep it in, Firpo overcommits and that’s the invitation KWP needs to piss past him and cut in before laying it along the six-yard line to where Smallbone has arrived to easily knock it into the net. Get in!! Leeds are all looking at each other.. Rodon has just stood there watching Smallbone run in front of him and Gruev hasn’t bothered tracking him. Neither are to blame as much as Firpo however, for one of the shittest, laziest, Under-11 pieces of defending you could ever wish to see.
Time for some more refereeing – good and bad. Firstly, Rutter pulls out a bit premeditated dive in the box under no challenge at all from Stephens and he doesn’t buy it. But then, Manning and Gnonto get into the mildest disagreement whilst smiling at eachother and both get a yellow card in the shadow of Daniel Farke standing there with his arms wide apart like he’s got some big issue with something. The arms are out again a minute later as Gnonto spins away and goes down and Manning is now on a tightrope having picked up the ridiculous booking earlier.
Leeds have one more effort before half-time as Saints crowd out Summerville on the left of the box and it’s played back into the middle and eventually out to Gnonto on the right and he screws his shot across goal and wide.
Half time and this has been good so far. Not much to worry about from Leeds as long as we stay compact in defence and midfield and opportunities for us if we can play through the press. With Manning having yellow card issues thanks to the ridiculous double booking, there is a sub at half-time and it’s Ryan Fraser coming on, so I assume the Wee Man is going to go to left-wing back. This is certainly a more progressive substitution than bringing on James Bree would’ve been. Wee Man is in the action straight away as Adam Armstrong bundles past Firpo on the right, with his cut back been cleared as far as Aribo who rolls it perfectly for Wee Man to hit first time and he curls it narrowly over the bar.
Saints are still playing some good stuff with Bednarek finding Adams who has come away from Rodon,who doesn't want to get drawn out of the defensive line and Adams has space to turn and slot the ball through and Adam Armstrong who has made a run-off the right, skipped around the goalkeeper and scored but the flag was up early so no excitement at all.
On the hour mark and it’s time to save some legs and Adams is off to be replaced by Sulemana, who will play up the middle. Ten minutes later and Downes is off the be replaced with Rothwell. It’ll be a challenge to keep the performance levels up having taken off the best midfielder and best attacker, losing as we do, the hold-up play and the defensive shield.
No problem as yet as Stephens drives forward and plays it right. THB is on the charge and Rothwell finds him and cross of the day from the centre back, met in the middle by Sulemana, darting in front of the static Rodon, but it slides off his head and wide.
Our tactic for defending Summerville on the Leeds left is to basically stand on his right foot so he can’t shoot. He wants to bring it in on his right foot every single time and has no clue what to do otherwise. Eventually he gets frustrated with Saints blocking that off and aimlessly lashes a ball across the box with his left foot which McCarthy pushes away easily enough.
And then the moment we didn’t think we’d ever see, certainly not this season, with Adam Armstrong being given a rest and being replaced by Ross Stewart who immediately gets involved and looks to have a good touch. Bree is also on for KWP as we look to give another one of our star men a rest.
Despite two attempted scything tackles in midfield, Saints break away down the right with Smallbone, who lays it into the path of Stewart who gets taken out from behind by Firpo who has of course already been booked for being a twat or being shit, but for some reason, he doesn’t get the second yellow that would have made his performance complete. I wonder if Daniel Farke is standing on the side with his arms wide apart imploring the referee to do the right thing. Anyway, with the free-kick to the right of centre, Smallbone tries to go low to the near post and it spins in towards the near post but hits the side netting.
The game is starting to get a bit feisty now with Smallbone being cynically tripped by Ampadu and when Smallbone reacts, Ampadu responds to the merest bump, by throwing himself to the ground like the big hard man that he is.
90 minutes are up in Leeds win a free kick on the edge of the box from another Summerville dive and the same player eventually steps up and smashes it into the wall and we get it clear. From the next leads attack, Saints snuff it out on the edge of the box and Piroe comes in with a very high and late challenge on Rothwell, he doesn’t take too kindly to it. Don’t like losing this lot do they?
The referees whistle blows and thus endeth a thoroughly deserved win. A superb performance all round with every single player playing at a decent level.
I am absolutely delighted that Russell Martin used the game to find out something different and the formation change suited us absolutely down to the ground. A week of training not only helped us regarding a boost in energy but also in hatching this plan and formation. The opening 10 minutes looked a little bit like we were struggling to find a passing options out of the defence but after we settled into it, it was generally excellent and once we beat the initial Leeds press there were so many chances for us because Leeds basically don’t have any defensive midfield structure at all and they have defenders who are always likely to cough something up. All of that was encapsulated in that little period in the first half where Adam Armstrong was completely unmarked to score from 15 yards, we coughed up possession to allow Leeds to equalise and then the chances kept coming with the shockingly bad Junior Firpo coming up with a bit of under 11s defending to allow KWP to set up Smallbone’s winner.
Everything that we tried today came off and even the half-time substitution, bringing on Ryan Fraser at left-wing back in place of Manning, worked out superbly with Fraser putting in a really good performance. We also managed to substitute virtually all of our key players with KWP, Adams, Adam Armstrong and vitally, Flynn Downes all getting minutes off in preparation for the playoffs. Not only did we withdraw those players, we still managed to win the game with in addition to Fraser, Sulemana, Rothwell and Ross Stewart, yes, Ross Stewart, all playing their part. Even if we had allowed a Leeds equaliser in the last few minutes today with all the subs on, it would not of taken away from the fact that we played very well and it would’ve put a lot of confidence back into the team and into a vast majority of the fan base who aren’t beyond any persuasion.
The new formation seemed to suit every single one of our players and it gives another string to our bow. It is also worth remembering though that Russell Martin knows exactly how Daniel Farke sets up his teams from playing with him at Norwich, so it might be a one off thing because he knew it would be effective against a Farke team. That said, I thought the formation got all three central defenders onto the pitch, allowed the full-backs to concentrate on what are good at and it also seemed to help Smallbone and Aribo get through 90 minutes. It was generally a lot more compact in defence so even when Downes went off and was replaced by Rothwell, we still managed to maintain a good defensive structure in front of the defence. Up front, Che Adams and Adam Armstrong made sure that they weren’t static and easily marked by the central defenders and kept moving into the channels and Leeds defenders basically had no answer.
Ryan Manning was unlucky to get substituted at half-time but he had to be after picking up a ridiculous booking where he and Willy Gnonto had the mildest of disagreements and the referee decided to book both of them. I don’t think I’ve seen a more unnecessary double booking in my entire life of watching football. Flynn Downes looked much sharper than against Stoke and was probably cruising towards the man of the match award before he came off. Che Adams had an absolutely superb game up front. Proper centre forward play holding off Rodon with ease and keeping the attacks moving. Ross Stewart got ten minutes on the end and he look lively with some good movement and he looked pretty sharp and it’s certainly more encouraging to have him on the bench then our usual forward option.
The referee Matt Donohue was hilariously inconsistent throughout the game. As said, the double booking he handed out for absolutely nothing completely made a rod for his own back. If he was consistent then Manning should have been sent off for a second yellow. He then went completely the other way. If you look at Junior Firpo‘s contribution to the second half where he got booked for dissent, then sarcastically clapped the referee, then did something similar at the linesman, then deliberately blocked KWP off the ball then brought down Ross Stewart from behind and still didn’t get a second yellow. Mind you, it actually helped us with him being on the pitch. Then there was Connor Roberts with his cheap shot on Sulemana, just barging into his back that went on punished, then there was the Ampadu and Smallbone incident. Joel Piroe got a booking for what should’ve been a red card for a very high challenge on Joe Rothwell.
Tedious Farker
I said at the start that Daniel Farke had come under a bit of scrutiny for Leeds collapse at the end of the season and he deserves it. All he seems to do is stand at the side of the pitch with his arms out wide, imploring the referee after a decision has already been made. The referee really isn’t gonna change his mind as a result of you doing that so stop doing it you dickhead. He looked like a guy who had no idea how to change the direction that the game was heading in. Yes, the score at Portman Road made this game a slightly deflating experience for Leeds but he certainly didn’t help. His whingeing seemed to translate to his players at the end.
The incident where Ampadu cynically fouled Smallbone and then dived when confronted about it by all eight stone of Will, was pretty embarrassing. Call yourself a captain and leader? Ha ha ha.. Leeds have some good players up front as everyone knows but they don't want to do any defending and today anyway they had absolutely nothing behind them in midfield and it was so easy for us to get at them. As we have seen ourselves on many occasions this season, if you don’t have a defensive structure in midfield then your defence is always going to struggle. Mind you, if one of your centre backs spends more time doing his hair than he does getting close to the opposition centre forward, then you are always going to struggle. That’s you Joe Rodon. Every time Rodon does anything, take the corner or free kick quickly because he’ll be doing his hair.
I love the fact that today we were a little bit more pragmatic. We didn’t have 75% of the ball but we did a hell of a lot more with it than Leeds did and that is ultimately what it’s all about. After that, I’ve come away with more confidence to Russell Martin knows there is more than one way to get the job done and that’s only gonna stand us in good stead in the three game season to come.
Other results meant that we are taking on Carlos Corberan and West Brom again and we should go into those games with absolutely no fear having beaten them twice this season already. It won’t be easy but then nothing worth achieving ever is and those previous games will probably count for very little. If we meet Leeds again in the final, this game will mean very little as well. Leeds will be better, of that I have no doubt.
A week to prepare, like we had today and now we have a trip to the Hawthorns to look forward to.
Up the fucking Saints