A monumental result
Some results feel like they affect an entire season rather than that weekend’s movers and shakers in the league table. Leeds United’s narrow victory over Southampton seems to fall into that category.
This was a frighteningly abysmal Saints outfit, rightly propping up the top flight, which simply had to be beaten. The connotations of going 11 matches without a league win, after playing the division’s worst team, at home, with a new head coach, were too much to bear.
A loss could have been the kind of psychological blow a team does not recover from. It had been such a long wait, the team had virtually forgotten how to win and failing to even get one over James Ward-Prowse’s Southampton, would have surely had some wondering if relegation would then be inevitable.
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It was far from a vintage performance. Like last weekend’s six-pointer at Goodison Park, this was an attritional affair, lacking in quality, but dripping in nerves.
Every player on the field knew one error could seal their team’s fate and nobody wanted to be that guy. The Whites had shown far more enterprise and endeavour than their cautious visitors, who seemed to get a nosebleed when they ventured into the final third.
For all of the willingness to commit bodies to attacks, Leeds played their part in the low-quality stakes. There was still a tendency to look for Wilfried Gnonto in space on the left and expect him to pull the rabbit out of the hat.
What was the game plan? How did Javi Gracia want to hurt Southampton? These are questions we have to hope we get answers to in the coming weeks as the Spaniard gets to grips with the team on the training pitches at Thorp Arch.
As with Michael Skubala across his three-game stint, there were never going to be too many definitive conclusions on Gracia drawn from yesterday’s match. It’s too early in the day for that, especially after barely 24 hours of official work with the players before kick-off.
It all felt like it was heading towards a frustrating 0-0 that was useless to both teams. It was going to be another few days of painfully analysing where the team was going wrong and where wins were coming from if not at home to the division’s worst side.
Then Junior Firpo happened. It was a goal which underlined why 21-year-old Gavin Bazunu is catching so much heat for a terrible season in Hampshire, but nobody inside Elland Road could have cared less.
The pressure release valve on top of the stadium was opened up a touch and everyone could breathe again, for the first time in 112 days. It’s a result which allows hope back into United and across the terraces.
It’s a foundation, a building block for Gracia to start from. It slingshots them back into cup mode on Tuesday before the trip to Chelsea, who have won just two of their last 14 league matches.
Firpo picks his moment
Of the moments Firpo could have chosen to score his first Premier League goal, through all of those low periods he has had with the Whites, this could have been the most timely. For all of the above reasons, Leeds needed a goal from somewhere and the odds on the left-back popping up with it must have been vast before kick-off.
It has not been an easy time for Firpo in England. When he arrived from the glitz of Barcelona in the summer before last season for a little over £13m there was huge anticipation.
Leeds had seemingly solved the left-back issue which had dogged Elland Road for years. Firpo seemed to be the perfect acquisition, a modern-day left-back just as comfortable attacking as he was defending.
Neither form nor fitness has held steady for the Dominican. His maiden campaign is best remembered for picking up more yellow cards than all but two players in the division. Firpo became synonymous with clumsy challenges which often left the side in the lurch and handicapped down his flank.
Whenever chances for a run of games came Firpo’s way he would struggle to pin the position down with conviction. So much so, centre-back Pascal Struijk was shoehorned into that corner of the pitch because he was a safer pair of hands than the number three.
Firpo is understood to be a popular figure in the dressing room and the reaction to yesterday’s goal said it all. Substitutes Marc Roca and Rasmus Kristensen flooded onto the field to share the moment with Firpo.
The bench emptied. The team swarmed around him. Last night, Luke Ayling said: “So happy for Junior Firpo, the guy always works so hard and so pleased he got that moment today.”
How pivotal could that goal be at the end of the season? Who would have had Firpo down at the start of the campaign as a key to keeping Leeds in this division?
Aaronson’s vote of confidence
Gracia had just four days to seriously think about the team he would go with for yesterday’s match and even less time to officially work on the training field with the players. And yet, despite that narrow window, the Spaniard was confident enough in what he had seen to make one bold change.
Crysencio Summerville would be dropped for Brenden Aaronson. The Dutchman was on the bench and used in the second half, so evidently, this was not a fitness-related decision. This was an outright shot in the arm for the American.
The 22-year-old has largely been a mainstay during his first season in English football. Aaronson started all of the opening 19 matches of the season, up to Brentford’s draw at Elland Road last month.
It was a campaign which began with such promise for the slight, but diligent, hard-working, tireless, frenetic attacker. The goals and assists never really flowed, but there was such brightness in Aaronson’s style it felt like it was only a matter of time.
Aaronson summed up how well Leeds started the season under Jesse Marsch. The new arrival was hugely promising in those sun-kissed August openers, but the season’s become more of a chore as it’s worn on.
The former Red Bull Salzburg midfielder was ultimately dropped from a league line-up for the first time this season on the trip to Nottingham Forest, Marsch’s last match. It had been coming and was arguably warranted far sooner than February 5.
Skubala chose not to restore him in any of his three matches at the helm, but Gracia has come in and quickly made a statement. It was a bold move, but it could be just what Aaronson needs to kickstart himself.
As has been mentioned more than once, this was not a stellar afternoon for football, but Aaronson was the best of an average bunch in Saturday’s first half. The frequency of his dangerous positioning caught the eye and he was just about asking enough questions of the Southampton backline.
A better pass from Weston McKennie and the number seven would have had a one-on-one opportunity against Bazunu.
Fate in their own hands
Leeds are not going to win the next 14 matches, but their fate is back in their own hands after a one-week flirtation with the relegation zone. Nobody inside the club will tell you one win changes an entire season or means the job is done, but it’s the psychological boost everyone can now ride.
Gracia would admit, after the match, he could sense how much every employee in all corners of the organisation needed a win, just something to cling onto and give them hope. A midweek cup trip to Fulham may just be what the team needs now.
There is optimism and something to build from with Gracia and some pleasure in having another swift opportunity to work on the match plan. A little rest from the Premier League pressure dome could be good for everyone too.
FA Cup runs are, as we know, Gracia’s forte after all.
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