Harrogate Town 0-3 Leeds United: Give me a J

The first pre-season game feels more needed with every passing summer of online hysteria, reminding us to focus on the real-world problems that really matter. Like, for example, that while everyone was worrying about the red of the Red Bull logos besmirching Leeds United's new shirts, we weren't paying attention to the shorts. What are these big blue tusks turning every player's backside into a walrus' mouth? Another year, another home kit falling victim to a shrugging designer complaining, 'Well, we had to do something, we couldn't just leave it all white' when, actually, you could just leave it all white. Including the front while we're at it, because it's not so much the red that's the problem with the new sponsor's logo, but the way it makes our team look like all their other teams already.

Our team does not yet look like the team that will canter to the EFL Championship title this coming season, but at Harrogate on Friday it looked different to the one that cantered into a brick wall at the end of their last campaign. We'll have to wait and see whether playing three centre-backs lasts through the trip to Germany and into the season itself, or was a bespoke arrangement to deal with the specific threat posed by Harrogate Town, and obviously Daniel Farke isn't going to be giving much away about that. But it gave us some clues about what Farke might be thinking about for the coming season, and reassurance, if you want to be cynical about it, that he's thinking at all.

This switch in formation, from last season's 4-2-3-1 to a 3-4-2-1 with pitch-length wing-backs, makes some sense first by getting Leeds closer to Farke's old, successful Norwich City scene, with those wing-backs for width and two no.10s rather than two wingers. This might have been in the works last season had Max Aarons not turned his back on his old boss and gone to Bournemouth, leaving neither old man Sam Byram or young man Archie Gray quite up to the task. Now, with Jayden Bogle's betrayal leaving Chris Wilder down in Sheffield muttering about how even putting a gun to Bogle's head couldn't stop him wanting "to play up the road", and Dan James apparently willing to do almost anything, plus pre-season to practice, our Canary act is back on the cards.

Joe Rothwell, too, is a fit for this. We don't know whether he's here because Glen Kamara simply fancied Rennes more, and the straight one-year loan does make him feel like a low level replacement. Once Rothwell was through the opening minutes in Harrogate, though, he seemed perfectly happy taking the ball upfield at his feet and sending it out wide in forward looking fashion that helps our new look. Some of the background on Rothwell includes his former Blackburn teammate Elliott Bennett - don't say 'who', be nice - praising his dribbling: "His ball control at a high speed is one of the best I've played with, especially for a central midfielder." We didn't quite see him going full Maradona on Friday, but he - and Charlie Crew in the second half - seemed willing enough to go forward into spaces Kamara might have turned from.

There was some of that old turning, especially in the opening minutes, when I started to wonder if three centre-backs just meant an extra player to piss around our own penalty area with. What it might mean is answering the question about Ethan Ampadu's best position with 'Both - he can just be Kalvin Phillips now', as being a third centre-back still allows him to push forward into defensive midfield. Here, he should take the ball off Joe Rodon, at least until Big Joe has got the hang of passing to his own team. Rodon might have been distracted by helping James Debayo through the game alongside him, but Debayo didn't seem to need that much help.

My best description for how things worked in attack is a kind of pushing motion with my hands into the nooks and crannies around the pitch, like a sort of accordion effect but perhaps less noisy. When Ampadu moves forward it lets Ilia Gruev move forward which lets Rothwell move forward which sends Georginio Rutter and, when he's not on standby like an old video recorder, Joel Piroe go wider where they meet up with Dan James or Junior Firpo, and the idea is that in each area they move forward into Leeds will have more players and more options than the other team so they can work the ball into the box for Mateo Joseph to score. Or for Mateo Joseph to cross so Junior Firpo can score, as happened for the opener here. To what extent Firpo was in the six yard box as part of a new tactical scheme and how much, given he was doing this last season, is down to him being an utter maniac doesn't matter when the ball goes in the net. But it was a good example of a nice thing that can happen: Illan Meslier chipping the ball to the right for Ampadu to meet it on the run; Piroe going into the box while Joseph dropped deep to beat a defender and pass wide to James in loads of wide space; a return pass to Joseph down the side of the six yard box and a dangerous low cross.

There was more of a game to the second half when substitutions started happening, Harrogate smacked a free-kick off the post, and Wilf Gnonto and Crysencio Summerville made the new formation look like the most fun they'd had for at least an hour. Summerville as one of the two 10s had plenty of opportunities to get Gnonto on the ball and into the full-back without too much to worry about behind him - and Gnonto was willing to get back and sort that out when it was needed. The only moment of misery was when Summerville, clean through in a perfect position to score, didn't. It could be that these two are soon having fun for some other teams, and two departing wingers could be a factor in Farke's new thinking. They seemed happy enough here though, and the mixture of attacking attributes in United's squad could benefit from the loosening up that comes with leaving the wings to the wing-backs: Summerville, Gnonto, James and Rutter can all play inside or outside up front, while Piroe can manage it at a push and Pat Bamford is someone we can worry about when he's fit. Mateo Joseph, at one point, tried to find Rutter in the box with a flick going backwards over his head, so let's say he seems comfortable leading the line at the moment.

The second half also brought the swarthy return of Pascal Struijk with Sam Byram joining in as a centre-back, except when he was moving over more like a right-back so Dan James could stay forward. Those sorts of moves were a reminder that notations like 3-4-2-1 or whatever are only good for as long as the players never actually move around, which is hopefully not something that will afflict Leeds next season.

That's all probably as much as should be read into the first pre-season friendly of July: that everything seemed fine. Rutter made it 2-0 by rebalancing his long legs and jabbing in an uncleared corner. The third happened in stoppage time when Joe Gelhardt carried the ball from the centre circle to the D, his shot was blocked, and young midfielder Sam Chambers whacked a shot in through the goalie. I didn't mention Joffy as a player who could benefit from the new system but maybe I should have; life as one of two no.10s behind a central striker could work for him, and I really wish that something would.

My final piece of analysis is about a new squad policy replacing Victor Orta's all left feet, all the time preferences. Leeds United 2024 is being brought to you by the letters J, R and G: Joe Rodon, Joe Rothwell, Joe Gelhardt, Mateo Joseph, Joel Piroe, Daniel James, James Debayo, Jayden Bogle, Junior Firpo, Georginio Rutter. I jot down initials when I'm making notes but now not only do we have two JRs in the team but they're both JoRos so I'm halfway to writing out their whole damn names. J-Rod? Jo-Roth? That's before trying to get the hang of a DJ and a JD. What am I to do with those? Now Jayden Bogle is here I'm expecting Brian Jones through the door at any moment. ⭑彡