What, exactly, are Leeds United trying to do right now?
Clarity is one of Marsch’s favourite words, he’s always trying to get the players to see with it, think with it. I wonder if he’s been upstairs to ask if anyone there has any to offer.
We’re not even a week into a new year and Leeds have drawn a game they should have won, let a player go who they should have kept, bought a centre-back to play left-back, and been linked in stories about new parties to disrupting the planned stately takeover by 49ers Enterprises. It’s been a busy start to 2023 at the boring club where nothing interesting ever happens.
Any thoughts that the World Cup break was going to give Leeds the time and space necessary to, let me put it like this, find itself again, have ended up misdirected. A not as bad as expected performance while still losing to Manchester City, a point more than expected while defending with unexpected strength at Newcastle, and two points less than expected or wanted against West Ham, plus all the stuff from the first paragraph, means we’re still looking like the same club from back before the break.
That club looks a little lost, which is why I wanted to say that about Leeds finding itself. It doesn’t look like hope is lost — I’ve seen bits of Everton lately, bits of Southampton, and that can make you rethink what a club looks like when its decline is becoming desperate. Leeds United still play with spirit, effort, some desire to win for the fans and for each other. That’s not always enough, but it is a massive help.
What’s lost is a clear direction. What, exactly, are Leeds United trying to do right now? Jesse Marsch had some of his usual answers in his press conference before we play Cardiff City this weekend, and they don’t really help.