Watford 0-4 Leeds United: The right place
Confidence breeds confidence but this form must be inspiring a contagious 'oh no' in the rest of the Championship that gives Leeds an advantage before they have to do another thing.
Into the ledger goes Edo Kayembe of Watford, under the heading of misdirected backpassers who helped Leeds United AFC. He doesn't beat the big name there, Sheffield United's Brian Gayle, who on 26th April 1992 tried twice in ten seconds to get the ball to Mel Rees at Bramall Lane and instead gave Leeds the title. But he might rival Plymouth Argyle's Andy Thomas, whose entry on 1st November 1989 helped Bobby Davison give Leeds an important 2-1 win and was written into immortality by John Boyd, commentating on the Race for the Title video: 'Giving the ball to Davison with a misplaced backpass is like throwing your Sunday joint to a shark'.
Kayembe's attempt at playing a no-look pass to fellow midfielder Ryan Andrews did not decide a title and it didn't settle the game, but it felt like an important redirection of the match at Vicarage Road. After some other fellas (and Ethan Ampadu) got knocked out of the FA Cup by Millwall, Leeds reverted to the team that played in Coventry and, in the first twenty minutes, reverted to how the team played in Coventry. Seven shots inside the penalty area, one on target, six blocked: United had started strong but, forgive me my stats, I was already looking at the Expected Goals figure rising while the Real Goals stayed nil and it felt like Watford's players were intuiting the same. That, in fact, seemed to help Leeds, as Watford ventured forward for an attack of their own then settled into some neat passing around in the backfield. At which point Kayembe threw his dinner in Dan James' direction.
The fluffed early chances suggest there is still some lingering uncertainty among the Leeds United first eleven, but the way Dan James took this goal suggests the barrier between nerves and confidence is narrowing game by game, becoming more porous and easier to reach through. There can't have been a doubt in James' mind as he took Kayembe's pass and advanced on the goalkeeper because the way he finished, by shooting with power and a touch of swerve into the very corner of the net, had all the authority of a pompful Jermaine Beckford. Before half-time James was trying to score a hat-trick by shooting from halfway like, well, like a pomped up himself against Hull last season.
James got to that point via his and United's second goal, less than ten minutes after the first, which came about because Watford were busy in the Peacocks' penalty area, trying to equalise. James was nearby applying pressure, Ao Tanaka intercepted a pass, Ampadu cleared it, and a shake of Brenden Aaronson's hips around James Abankwah was the signal for Leeds to get running upfield. His straight pass was into Joel Piroe's path to one side of Matthew Pollock. Piroe's diagonal pass ahead of Pollock was into the path of James. James, without a single alternative thought intruding, took his shot from the edge of the box and hit the ball into the top of the near corner of the net.
This self assurance, in this Leeds team, feels a bit new. The draw at Hull, at the season's halfway point, is now looking like a significant moment. The campaign began with a topsy-turvy and uncharacteristic 3-3 draw with Portsmouth, and its second half began with the same sort of stuff on Humberside. Occasionally this season Leeds have thrown up this version of themselves, the team they don't want to and can not be, as if trying to get it all out of their system. The draw with the Tigers had echoes from last season, too, when two miserable defeats around the halfway stage, at West Brom and Preston, took Leeds to a low point and set them up to win thirteen of their next fifteen unbeaten games. The comparison to last season, though, is that the lows have not been as low, and Leeds have packed their suffering into draws rather than defeats. What's still to be seen is how high the highs might be, but we'll find some things out about that on the next two Mondays.
For now it's fair to wonder if the halfway point has been an influence both on Leeds and their opponents. After playing everyone once, the team now knows it has nothing to fear from this season's Championship and looks able to relax a little bit in moments that, before Christmas, might have been tense. Watford were one of the better teams at Elland Road this season but Leeds still won. And the Hornets are in a poor run of form, depleted by injuries and suspensions, so Leeds needn't worry in advance. And Dan James had eight goals going into this game, so he could feel better in front of goal than he did last time Leeds played Watford, when he'd only scored one and was starting from the bench. From Watford's perspective, and the rest of the Championship's, they now know what Leeds are about in ways that they did not know in autumn, and it can't be helping them. Confidence breeds confidence but an opponent with a goal difference of +47, that hasn't conceded in six games or lost in fourteen or scored-and-lost all season, must inspire a contagious 'oh no' in the rest of the Championship that gives Leeds an advantage before they have to do another thing.
What's worse for everyone but better for Leeds is that even the weaknesses seem to be smoothing out of their play. Strikers might have thought Illan Meslier would be giving them gifts after his bad night in Hull, but he's actually started making more saves since then, and better ones, including a fresh few at Vicarage Road. It must feel to forwards like when Robin Williams went from Mork & Mindy to Dead Poets Society, seeing a clown doing serious stuff now. The defence as a whole is being kinder to itself lately, looking a little more willing to just get the ball launched from danger. It must be a useful loosening of fears if a midfielder, say, going back there to help out, feels like he can just bang the ball upfield and won't have to get involved in tight passing combos in a difficult spot. Perhaps Piroe has had a chat, volunteering to go Lee Chapman mode if it will help Leeds out of trouble.
James' halfway line hat-trick attempt came that way, from Ampadu kicking overhead to clear a corner, and it's kinda how Leeds got to 3-0, although both moments had a lot to do with simply being better than Watford at soccer. Meslier cleared upfield and although Piroe didn't win the header, Aaronson was as quick onto the knockdown as he was onto every loose ball all night and put Watford into a situation where they had to give away a couple of throw-ins. Junior Firpo took the second and in the TV coverage there's a close-up of him with the ball in one hand, his eyes flicking from teammate to teammate, and I can't decide if the wag of his finger is a 'no' to Aaronson down the line or a 'go inside' to Manor Solomon, to whom he then threw the ball. If it's the latter then let's put this down to his salad days in training with Lionel Messi, because the throw was perfectly over Solomon's shoulder and helped him turn, get the ball under control as he ran infield, hold off Imran Louza, and shoot in off Pollock's boot. Solomon and Firpo, after, shared a hug and a smile while Piroe laughed aloud with them, and I just have to think they knew what they were doing.
Watford started the second half with a brave looking attempt at doing whatever they could from 3-0 down at home, but their aims all ended on the hour after Tom Cleverley tried to help his players with fresh legs. It took Leeds another two minutes to make it 4-0, and no substitute should come on a pitch and be as bad as Tom Ince was for this goal. Solomon passed inside to Tanaka who started by holding off Ince's challenge and ended by making Ince chase him like a farmer fuming about corn circles. Round and round went Tanaka, followed at combine harvester pace by Ince, and his tap into the penalty area was to Solomon, whose pullback was to whoever of three Leeds players wanted the ball on the edge of the penalty area. Piroe took charge, and he took the ball around Mattie Pollock, who landed on the grass buttocks-first with a satisfying bang. Satisfying because, after Tanaka had made a fool of former Manchester United midfielder Paul Ince's son, Piroe made it an anti-Manc double by involving the offspring of former Manchester City midfielder Jamie Pollock. Keeping his cool amid this one-two of 1990s cross Pennine gratification, Piroe stood still on the edge of the six yard box for what he can make feel like a meditative hour before rolling his shot into the perfect corner.
Perhaps this is just what Leeds do now. Without getting into expectations of goals, in the last three games they've taken 28, 20 and 20 shots, scoring seven, two and four. Including the Burnley-imposed debacle at Turf Moor, Leeds have hit at least seven shots on target in four of the last five games, something they'd done in seven of 27 games til then. I won't bore you with the actual graphs, but trust me and the spreadsheets that the trendlines are up and up. Daniel Farke, as is his wont, wants more. "We could have dominated and controlled the game a bit more in parts of the second half," he said, "We can score more from set-pieces, chip in with midfield goals. We have other players than Ao who can chip in and his goal tally isn't that impressive so far." Some of this is standard fare from a manager who uses victories to ask for more and defeats to defend his players, and amid all the questions about Farke's managerial potential in the league above I wonder if the true problem will just be tiredness if his tropes, good for now, wear thin on the team in a third season. Tom Cleverley, though, already sees Leeds safe in higher company. "We went to Fulham in the cup and you see what a midtable Premier League side looks like," he said, "and that looks like something close to that level tonight." The more Championship teams looking at Leeds that way, the better this season's run-in can be. We can probably discount Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder from any admiring Leeds love-ins, but he can't guarantee against his players feeling a bit Brian Gayle at Bramall Lane in a couple of weeks. ⭑彡