Brisbane Roar 1-2 Leeds United: No overthinking
Yes there's a reason I'm just telling you the squad numbers now instead of talking about the football.
Pre-seasons are rarely perfect but Brenden Aaronson's nearly, nearly was. Before seventeen seconds had been played against Brisbane Roar, Leeds United scored the pinnacle of Jesse Marsch goals: after winning a loose ball high, attackers sped towards the net, Joe Gelhardt swivelled and played a clever reverse pass, Dan James squared, Aaronson finished in the six yard box. He's got money, looks, ability and charm. He's polite — his "Nice meeting you, man" to Diego Llorente stands out among the summer's pre-season training videos. But before you start to wonder if you should hard dislike this golden child, his wonder start to what we hope will be a wonder season was chalked off: offside. That might be why Joffy angled his pass the other way — Brenden, bursting through the middle, had been ahead of the play. He scored on his MLS debut for Philadelphia Union; he scored on his debut in a friendly for the Salzburg franchise. It's almost reassuring to find out he's not perfect, only close. But watch out for his Premier League debut.
That's all a good sign, even if Aaronson did fade a little as the first half really got going. That was more due to other players dominating, demanding Leeds play in their areas. The player of the half contest was between James and Gelhardt, James taking it on numbers — a goal and an assist — Gelhardt on wow factor, as usual. James only played for half an hour, as Marsch shared out the minutes, but it was enough for him to put Leeds ahead for real with an atypical goal. He shot. He scored! That doesn't happen. James was put through by Adam Forshaw, to where I've become very used to seeing him miss chances for Leeds and Wales, and bashed the ball in past the goalie at the near post. This is what James has lacked. I've wondered sometimes if he needs a finishing coach, but I think this is more like it, he's been needing a 'just whack it at the goal, son' coach.
That was the 22nd minute, and a couple of minutes later it was 2-0. Kristoffer Klaesson's long clearance was headed on by a Brisbane defender who put Gelhardt through; he had to hold up and get the ball to Rodrigo, who almost did all the rest himself, dribbling into the penalty area as if about to emulate Pablo Hernandez's solo winner against Western Sydney Wanderers in 2019. That eluded him, and James diverted his new whacking technique to a low cross that ricocheted around the middle. Then came the best bit, maybe? Gelhardt doing a spinning jump over the ball and backheeling it to Forshaw. Forshaw sent it wide to James again, and now he was a bit more careful with Gelhardt's request for back-post service, chipping this time so Joffy could rise over a defender and force his header into the net. Maybe that was the best bit, not the backheel. Never mind the new Wayne Rooney stuff, he could be the new Ian Baird.
This was good, but perhaps a bit too easy. Leeds were tilted so far forward that at times Pascal Struijk and Robin Koch were only thirty yards from Brisbane's goal, with Forshaw just a few steps behind between them; he was technically in a double pivot next to Marc Roca in another 4-2-3-1, but there was no real need for that, so Roca went forward to foul lots of people further up. As against Blackpool, width was coming from the full-backs, but unlike against Blackpool, the full-backs were Rasmus Kristensen and Jackie Harrison. We learned little about them as defenders except that, when the opposition invites them into their penalty area this much, they can be caught out of position quite easily.