Aston Villa 2-1 Leeds United: Complete, or something
“This, for me, was our most complete performance that we’ve had since I’ve been here,” said Jesse Marsch afterwards. “The best example of the way that I believe the team can play.”
In a pleasant but fruitless reversal of recent trends, Leeds United set up to play very well against Aston Villa, and did. Instead of turning in a forlorn half and having to change, they dominated and should and could have scored more and won. The flip was that, as United's hopes grew into a goal, the changes for chasing the game eroded all the good stuff they'd been doing. Leeds didn't play worse all night than in the last ten minutes, when they were trying to clinch a comeback draw.
It had been chaotic all night, the good kind of chaotic, but by the end, nobody in a Stilton shirt knew where any of their cheesemates were playing, defenders were panicking about nothing at all, Illan Meslier was miles out of goal and slowly clotheslining Philippe Coutinho round his neck. With his thigh. Which was actually quite impressive. With more and more attackers on the pitch in something like a 2-1-7 formation, Leeds lost sight of their one reliable tactic — giving the ball to Wilf Gnonto, as the minutes melted like years through Villa right-back Ashley Young's centuries old legs — until one time in stoppage time they remembered the idea and he won a free-kick out wide. Sam Greenwood's delivery was superb, now it was the Villains panicking, and I still don't know how Max Wöber put the ball over the bar instead of under it. Well, I kind of have an inkling. Maybe I'd rather not know.
The other things to ignore were Villa scoring from a Leeds United corner in the third minute and a Leeds United attack just after the hour. They're not the first team to do those things, so it's nothing special, although there were a few perverse new elements to the first one. As Jackie Harrison got ready to take the corner, Pascal Struijk and Liam Cooper lined up on the edge of the area, two of United’s most dangerous headers of set-pieces into nets. When Jackie kicked, they ran — backwards. They ran away from Villa’s goal, Tyler Adams staying in front of them, to cover any breakaway, so it was Marc Roca in the six yard box leering uselessly at a ball Cooper or Struijk might have buried. And this training ground routine didn’t even stop Villa breaking and scoring anyway, so what the hell.
Villa scored again by breaking in the second half, while Tyler Adams was still picking Young up and congratulating him for a goal-stopping tackle at the other end. Both times, it was Leon Bailey mixing up Pascal Struijk for the crucial bit. For the first goal, Bailey cut inside Struijk and curled a shot around Meslier. For the second, he repeated the trick but smacked his shot at the goalie, and Emi Buendia popped the rebound in. There was a lot going on for both goals — the lousy corner routine for the first, Adams caught upfield for the second — but both times it came down to Struijk to stop them and he couldn’t. He has looked miserable since Wöber turned up. He's a sensitive lad.
So ignore these things, and clear chances for Alex Moreno and Danny Ings that could have got Villa a third. The rest of it? “This, for me, was our most complete performance that we’ve had since I’ve been here,” said Jesse Marsch afterwards. “The best example of the way that I believe the team can play.” I’ll take the first part of that, but the hyperbole in the second half doesn’t help. Because while this was good, for what it was, I really hope it wasn’t the best.