Leeds United 3-1 Middlesbrough: It's good to shout
Sam Byram went whomping through Riley McGree, Dan James hit the top corner, and Boro were done at that point. Yes, I know it's Leeds, but sometimes you can just tell.
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The need for turning games into referendums, for a match to tell us more than the score but whether a team will be remembered as legends or derided as suckers, for individual results to be enough to save a manager or sack them, means there's always more to prove. What do you get for proving you're a good team once, twice, ten times? You get what Manchester City have got, mockery and complaint the moment they're not good. And what Leeds United got, by comprehensively proving their promotion credentials against Middlesbrough, are demands to go to Preston this weekend and prove themselves again. Away from home this time, which is the fair difference. Against Paul Heckingbottom, who surely cannot make any difference.
Meanwhile, can we bask a little? This was great. And, speaking of expectations, greater than I expected. Or maybe Middlesbrough were worse than I expected, or maybe this was just me, but I was led to believe they were a very good team and even after Leeds beat them 3-1 I'm still hearing that they're a very good team who played very well — the best yet at Elland Road. Maybe we shouldn't use that last part as the bar, but even then, for the first ten minutes Leeds were dominating Boro like they were still berating Saturday's cowardly Derby.
In the first ten Leeds put seventy per cent on the possession chart, plus 95 per cent passing accuracy, two shots and an offside; from Teeside's side, three tackles, two interceptions, two blocks and five clearances — all five out of their own penalty area. A third minute mistake gave Dan James a chance to score. Brenden Aaronson had a shot blocked, went scampering around, got the ball back and set up James again. There was a dodgy moment when Ao Tanaka needed a man-on shout but by the time Max Wöber was trying to Luke Ayling a van Basten from the corner flag Leeds were well on top and Middlesbrough looked as terrified as any visitor to the Old Peacock Ground this season. I'd actually argue that Boro did worse than Derby or Plymouth because they stuck to their optimistic belief that this was a pitch they could play on, leaving room for Leeds to play because they thought they could play themselves, when the sensible idea was to do what everyone else does, find the coach driver, and get him to bring his bus round pronto.
There was no pronto. Instead there was a lovely pass by Sam Byram that went down the line, curving around Neto Borges to where James had space he's rarely seen so early in a game this season. His cross to the near post could or should have been finished by Mateo Joseph but definitely shouldn't have been booted off Wilf Gnonto by their floundering goalie Seny Dieng, because doing that made it 1-0 to Leeds United.
And, alright, from here I'll concede that Middlesbrough started showing something more than their peers, although I'm still intrigued. If Leeds had not scored in the first fifteen minutes, would they have stayed dominant until they did? Did Boro's foothold come from them chasing an equaliser, Leeds trying to hold their lead, or would the emphasis have changed anyway? We'll never know. So we've still got those things to argue about.
It was clear that Leeds couldn't kill this game with patient passing the way they did Saturday's. And there were moments they might not have got away with if Boro were actually as good as people say they are. Ben Doak was the perceived danger, a nineteen-year-old loanee from Liverpool carrying the Scotland national team's hopes of a new Gordon Strachan, but when he was put free in the first half he tried to show his skills instead of crossing, and Wöber put him straight for that. The second time Doak got free, with Wöber's whereabouts unknown, he lost the ball to an incredible dash back from midfield by James, who watched Pascal Struijk's position and zoomed round the other side to nick the ball from Doak's toe.
We'll keep going on this theme, because Doak's third chance came in the middle of maybe the most exciting football seen in Beeston since Aaronson's one-but-not-two on opening day: Dan James motoring forward, chasing his own pass and almost bursting through into the penalty area, the ball going to Doak, again absent without Wöber, and while Byram threw Emmanuel Latte Lath to the ground on the left Doak's shot was blocked by Joe Rodon on the right. Then Big Joe chased his big block up the pitch and Leeds were off, Gnonto going solo in off the left and battering a low shot that Dieng did well to stop. End. To. End. Football. Yes, at Elland Road.
End to end means there was stuff happening at Boro's end, too, like Dan James skipping around tackles and landing a cross in the six yard box but, and we'll have to ask Joseph how, not on Mateo Joseph's foot. Lest you think James was perfect in this game, when another Byram through ball even confused their goalie, James couldn't beat a defender with this cross for Joseph. We could ask Brenden Aaronson why with all the time in the world as the ball came to him in the penalty area he decided to volley it to the back of the South Stand, but at this point we should probably just give him a form to fill in after every game. Aaronson played very well in this match, but that just makes these moments melancholy. He could be so happy! We could be so happy!
This was all before half-time, with Middlesbrough's best spell and an equaliser coming soon after the break. I'd just been contemplating Max Wöber, who despite his wanderings away from Doak was playing well, and put a beautiful cross in at the start of the second half with all the technique his shot from a first half free-kick didn't have (please don't let him take free-kicks!). The phrase 'Championship cheat code' had come to my mind, and remembering how he was primed to be the inspirational captain to lead us straight back to the Premier League last season, I was wondering why on earth he didn't just do that instead of going on his stupid loan to the middle of the Bundesliga. Anyway, it was around the time I was thinking, 'Wöber could be like a post-hipster John McClelland' that he headed Boro's corner into his own net. Oh well.
Around 66 minutes Doak had a big chance to give Boro the lead. Tanaka, again, needed and didn't get a man-on shout — I wonder if the other players are as impressed by him as we all are, and don't dare to insult his genius by implying he's not seen an incoming tackle — anyway, Ao's human, so give him a shout, lads. Obviously it was Ao who chased Finn Azaz from halfway to the penalty area and stopped him with a slide tackle — okay, maybe he isn't human after all — but Wöber had been slow on the uptake so Hayden Hackney found Doak alone behind everyone. Meslier didn't just stop this chance one-on-one, he obliterated it, diving at Doak's feet and coming up in time to catch the slowly spinning ball as it sought the safe comfort of his hands. This is why we ever compared Illan to ice, and this is why Middlesbrough looked like a good team: they actually gave our goalie something to do.
Boro's interest in the match had to have limits and the crowd felt they were overreaching. Fans were urging Leeds into more counter-attacks, or just more forward movements in general. Joel Piroe came on to help, replacing ineffective Joseph, and put on one of his late-sub, complete centre-forward displays. He was a target Joseph hadn't been, winning headers and second balls. And he was a graceful provider. Dan James should have scored when Tanaka took one of Middlesbrough's many passes out to Leeds — by collecting this one he actually saved Hackney and Azaz from running into each other — and sent him through to score from an angle: the pass wasn't great, the shot wasn't good and the save was routine. Never mind. Moments later in the centre circle Byram went whomping through Riley McGree and, almost without moving any other muscle, Piroe extended his left leg to trap the ball then move it into James' path. This was a better pass and, with time to take a touch and pick his spot, James was always picking the top corner and putting it there. This is part of Dan James' charm, his persistence, and after hitting the bar at Wembley in the play-off final if he'd got another chance I think he'd have scored it. Instead he got a scarred head.
Middlesbrough were done at that point. I know it's Leeds but sometimes you can just tell. And they'd panicked. They'd had the confidence to come back from an early goal but couldn't keep their cool now, even with seven minutes of stoppage time at their disposal. Their defenders just couldn't get enough of giving Leeds the ball. Why does Matt Clarke play? If on the eve of 2025 my Wikipedia page's career stats were 'As of 1 October 2022' because nobody could be arsed enough to update them, I would simply retire from being a footballer. If Michael Carrick wants a ball-playing centre-back he's got one of Bielsa's on the bench. And Neil Warnock used to play little Jonny Howson there so he has got options.
Anyway, the 3-1 goal was a delight, a stoppage time treat to really make everyone's night. It was Clarke's partner George Edmundson who fed Tanaka on the halfway line. Piroe, again in the no.10 position nobody likes from him, played smartly to James, who wisely bypassed Aaronson's run for Tanaka's behind him, only to watch with I guess horror and amazement as, one-on-one with Dieng, Tanaka pushed the ball square to Aaronson anyway. Brenden's celebrations, sliding on his knees into the corner, were fun enough that nobody needs to look at his finish in any great detail. Watch Tanaka's assist, though, my goodness. And in slow motion you can tell, too, that Tanaka had called to Aaronson to leave James' ball to him. A good shout. It's good to shout! Shout this! Leeds are top of the league! ⭑彡