Staring relegation in the face
Leeds United are in a very tight spot and staring relegation in the face with the bleakest outlook to date.
Somehow a run of seven defeats in eight matches has not been poor enough to drop the Whites into the relegation zone, but it felt like it was in the post last night.
Everton and Burnley’s forces have been massing at the gates for weeks, unable to find their own ladders over the walls, but the five games they have in hand between them on Leeds should be enough timber to find their way over the top.
The Clarets have the ability to nudge themselves beyond Leeds with 0-0 one-pointers while the Toffees have the ammunition, on paper, to blag the one win they need to sneak in front.
While the Leicester City loss provided some causes for optimism in the statistics, the solidity of the defence and the persistent work Kasper Schmeichel was given to do, Thursday had no silver linings.
Confidence drained from the side as soon as Pascal Struijk stuck out a hopeful boot to Philippe Coutinho’s opener, and the decent restart injected by Jesse Marsch into the second half was long forgotten by the time Junior Firpo showed Matty Cash the way to goal.
The team looks fragile and as they head into the most financially important match the club has faced in 18 years, nothing like a side ready to embrace the nerves of a must-win game against the division’s worst team.
It’s hard to see where United’s next point is coming from. Aston Villa was supposed to be an at least vaguely winnable clash, but the visitors won with same kind of ease Tottenham Hotspur or Everton have shown in recent weeks.
Radrizzani feels the heat after dispensing with his shield
Marcelo Bielsa’s unmitigated success of three seasons ensured there was never any meaningful appetite for turning on the board inside Elland Road.
If a rot ever did set in, the faith and belief in what Bielsa was trying to achieve always proved enough to retain optimism things would get better in the stadium.
With the idol gone, and all the credit he had in the bank with him, frustrations have nowhere to go other than on the players and, from a much closer distance, the board.
Marsch has been here five minutes and cannot be legitimately blamed for the two defeats on his watch, but supporters cannot help seeing this slip down the table is on Andrea Radrizzani’s watch.
There was no mass mutiny at Elland Road on Thursday, but when the third goal went in it was impossible to ignore the pockets of supporters turning around to clap sarcastically at Radrizzani, Victor Orta and Angus Kinnear.
Garry Monk, Thomas Christiansen and Paul Heckingbottom’s spells did not deliver this kind of anger. Thursday was the hottest Radrizzani must have felt in his seat at Elland Road since buying the club.
Nobody will ever know if Bielsa could have kept this team up with 12 matches to go, but if the club does down under Marsch, Radrizzani will struggle to find any supporters forgiving him for dismissing their finest head coach in more than 25 years.
Marsch faces the music
The American was forthright and open in his post-match press conference. There was no hiding and he says he expected it to be this tough when he took the job.
If the performance at Leicester had been a pleasant surprise for him, the wafer-thin confidence in the group which soon shattered was a penny-dropping moment.
It’s a tough spot for Marsch to be in. He has walked into a dressing room full of players low on confidence and drilled to the nth degree for three-and-a-half years in a system he does not want to play.
Time is not on his side. He has days, not months to instil this new tactical plan. He, at least publicly, is up for the right, crucially.
There was no hint of defeatism in his voice on Thursday night as he spoke about finding the truth and not allowing fear to be this team’s failure.
There may have been some bemusement as he looked down to find a Leeds scarf thrown into his technical area in protest at 3-0, but he’s now had his first taste of Elland Road and he knows the size of the task before him.
Another injury
Firpo was the latest Leeds casualty and, pending an official diagnosis from the club, has to be a candidate for ending his season early alongside Tyler Roberts.
The former Barcelona man required a stretcher and oxygen in order to leave the field on Thursday night, which does not bode well for his recovery time.
The injury will force the first reshuffle of Marsch’s era, which may have been coming anyway given the dire state of the performance.
Given the onus on width and speed from the team’s full-backs, Stuart Dallas looks a smarter bet for left-back than central defender Pascal Struijk.
With Spain international Diego Llorente waiting in the wings, Luke Ayling looks a safe bet for right-back, but could there be the temptation to shuffle Robin Koch back into defence from a position he has looked extremely limited in?
Bamford returns
If you were looking for one silver lining, it would be the return to action of star striker Patrick Bamford, even if his half an hour looked particularly forlorn as Villa swiftly ended United’s positive restart.
The England international ran hard, showed optimism and brought confidence to the field, but it is wildly unfair to expect the number nine to be the answer to all problems.
The temptation will be there to start Bamford on Sunday, but if the medical advice only gave him 10 minutes of play eight days earlier, it seems a major risk to contemplate a minimum of an hour from the start.
The last thing this lurching run-in needs is another injury write-off for the one player who looks capable of scoring goals.
This team has to stand up to be counted and not simply expect Bamford to ride in on his horse to save the day.
