In this weeks column Clarkeonenil’s Monday writer Graeme Garvey wonders where it all went wrong.
Leeds United’s official website said after Saturday’s game “Beckford leveller secures point”. This claim was loyally backed up by manager, Simon Grayson, who told the BBC, “We played well today and I think it’s the best we’ve played for a number of weeks now. We passed it very well and we didn’t get our rewards today.” Did I go to the same game? I can’t believe it and that’s certainly not how the fans near me felt both during and after the match, judging by their criticisms. Why try to brainwash all those who witnessed it into believing it was a point won (salvaged)? Who are they kidding, except themselves? Perhaps they are frightened of the screaming rage the real but ever so secret owner of the club might go into at two more points wasted? The BBC, as you might expect, saw it more honestly, saying, “Jermaine Beckford scored his first goal in seven games to salvage a point for Leeds”. Salvage, of course, conjures up images of what is rescued from a wreck and that is a bit more like it.
I have been trying to decide how bad Saturday’s performance was. Was it a) awful, b) poor or c) not very good? And because I am a generous heart, I’ve settled on c) not very good. It is hard to feel that I saw a promotion team playing and it is feeling more and more like the supposed Cup win at Old Trafford was a case of mass hypnosis and did not actually happen. How can a team that I saw (or dreamt I saw) win deservedly against a top side in January, play so disjointedly in March against such an ordinary team?
There is nothing the Leeds players can learn if they are told the same story behind closed doors. I only hope that ‘Larry’ gives them it straight when he knows he’s not being quoted, unless he really is not seeing it right. In which case he needs to leave the touchline for a clearer, terrace perspective, to see it as we do. On Saturday, he would have seen a first hour of the team going through the motions with no sense of desire or urgency, with defenders miskicking and slicing the ball out of play as they tried to hoof it upfield. Even if it had gone where they had hoped, such service would have been useless for setting up attacks. There was a disjointed midfield which only occasionally strung passes together and attackers who hardly seemed to know each other. Players tried wonder passes of 30, 40 or 50 yards that did not come off. Worst of all, the ball was in the air all the time, a clear sign of a poor performance. I know Leeds are not Barcelona but surely we can learn from how simple they keep it, how they don’t do foolish long passes and how they like to play the ball on the ground?
Once Brentford scored, and only then, was there a sense of urgency. Straight out of Kevin Keegan’s thin little book of soccer tactics, Leeds tried the one for attack, ‘Charge!’ At last we had goalmouth incidents but Leeds are a much better team than such a performance suggests, or at least ought to be. No late winner this time but scoring late cannot always be relied on to spare our blushes. We should have had Brentford on the run from the start, game over by half time, goal difference boosted by full time. “We passed it very well”?
When are the play-offs?
