The week they needed
Losing to Southampton was by no means a disaster for Leeds United after taking a six-match unbeaten run down to Hampshire. The manner of that loss was concerning and it required a response with two immensely winnable home fixtures before the international break.
This week’s scorelines reflect the nerves which materialised late on in each match, but they say nothing about the domination the Whites enjoyed for long spells against both Queens Park Rangers and Bristol City. Daniel Farke knew his side had to take care of business and polish off two bread-and-butter servings that form the backbones of Championship promotion tilts.
Save for the blip of Kal Naismith’s header, this was virtually a flawless week that patched up any confidence dented at St Mary’s Stadium. Joe Rodon reminded everyone of his importance to the side, Pascal Struijk had a spring in his step, Sam Byram was at his season’s best level, Glen Kamara virtually ran yesterday’s game and the front four were among the goals.
The buzz of Archie Gray’s introduction to senior football only wore off because the 17-year-old was so consistently good in midfield it had become the norm. Everyone had acclimatised to what this teenager was doing on a football pitch and began to take it for granted.
Kamara has been well used in recent weeks to keep the midfield fresh and to take the strain off of Gray, who started the first nine games of the season in a row with only late substitutions along the way to manage his minutes. And yet it feels like we went back to square one yesterday.
Gray’s inspired shift to right-back had us all reaching for the thesaurus all over again. Seeing him in a new role and showing such authority there right away was a throwback to the way it felt seeing him at the start of the season.
New demands are put on this boy’s shoulders and, yet again, he barely bats an eyelid. Gray did not put a foot wrong in this new role and while Farke has made it clear every opponent has different tactical necessities, the temptation to now keep the teen there is immense.
Not only is Gray able to invert like a great many modern full-backs and display the technical proficiency needed as an additional midfielder, but he has the pace and dynamism to bomb up and down that flank too. Making space for someone of Kamara’s quality in the centre is not a bad by-product either.
Not only was Luke Ayling having to weigh up a straight scrap with Djed Spence for minutes this season, but Gray’s now made as compelling a case anyone else to keep playing in this corner of the team. Gray scored while playing as a right-back for England at this year’s UEFA European Under-17 Championship, so he’s not a complete novice, but the leap from that to this is massive.
The more he adds versatility to his catalogue of technical, mental and physical attributes, the harder it is to escape those comparisons with English midfielders of the recent past who have stormed onto the scene at 17.
Byram keeps getting better
The season is long and we are not even a quarter of the way through it yet, but based on the evidence of the opening two months, Byram has to be one of the Championship signings of the year. As has been the case for much of his recent career, injuries will ultimately determine how successful the full-back is.
If the 30-year-old can stay fit enough to continue starting eight of every 11 league games between now and the end of the term, as he has done up to now, it would be worth wagering Byram ends up in the player of the year conversation at Elland Road.
Ethan Ampadu, Struijk, Gray and Georginio Rutter have also consistently caught the eye, but Byram’s arguably edging them all up to this point. The Thorp Arch academy product’s football intelligence sums up why West Ham United came calling for him all of those years ago.
This is a Premier League-level defender who has been let down by his body for far too long. It would be fair to admit there were major reservations in the media about Leeds taking on a player with Byram’s injury record in the summer, especially to play a position where they have struggled for so long to find a reliable custodian.
Byram’s made us all eat our words up to this point. He has an expert judgement on when to attack, when to defend, where to position himself for team-mates, what type of a pass they want and when they want it played.
Two late blocks, which salvaged the three points, were just cherries on a cake he had already sculpted with such aplomb on Saturday afternoon. Must keep him fit.
Kamara shows himself
Ostracisation from Glasgow Rangers’ pre-season programme made it difficult for Kamara to hit the ground running at Elland Road. Farke could only introduce the 27-year-old in fits and starts, but Finland duty helped immensely during the last international break.
His full debut against Watford was decent enough, if overshadowed by a few others reaching new heights in white, while Southampton was a miserable day for everyone. Yesterday was Kamara’s real arrival and the culmination of weeks spent building sharpness and integration with his new colleagues.
The former Arsenal trainee dovetailed nicely with Ampadu, who prefers to sit, disrupt and distribute. Kamara roams further forward, nicks possession in tricky areas from the opposition, instigates turnovers and gets counters going.
Kamara was key to both of United’s goals on Saturday. The Finn applied the pressure that robbed possession for Rutter to set up Daniel James before showing the perfect delay of pass to assist Joel Piroe for the second.
The aforementioned shift of Gray to right-back made the space for Kamara to return and it will be hard for Farke to resist the temptation of having them both, along with Ampadu, in the same line-up without compromising his 4-2-3-1 preference.
Ahead of the pace?
We head now into the second international break with another vital opportunity for Farke and his players, at least those not with their countries, to reset their minds and bodies. There are 13 days to go until Farke heads into arguably his most poignant fixture of the season: Norwich City at Carrow Road.
While Leicester City and Ipswich Town threaten to set records for the highest top-two points tallies in second-tier history, it would be easy to dismiss the Whites and their 11-point deficit. However, to have come back from a very challenging August to get to within one point of Preston North End, a previous pace-setter, is no mean feat.
It is progress and whatever the top two are doing, Leeds remain ahead of where Farke’s Norwich were after 11 games in 2018/19, when they won the title with 94 points. The Canaries had 18 at this point five years ago, while Leeds, as you know, are on 19 after yesterday’s win.
Farke’s title winners of three years ago were, however, ahead of United’s 19-point tally at the same point. They were on 21 points from 11 games in 2020. Either way, the Whites are in the mix and in the ballpark of where the German would like to be in early October.
On the other side of the break, United will play the form table’s (based on the last six matches) 16th, 21st, 13th, first and 20th-placed sides before the last round of internationals before March. That’s an appetising run.