Jon Howe: Art in the onion bag

Jon Howe: Art in the onion bag

Weekly column.

In his latest column for leedsunited.com, lifelong supporter Jon Howe looks at what survival in the Premier League will mean.

Howe is the author of two books on the club, 2015 hit ‘The Only Place For Us: An A-Z History of Elland Road’ and ‘All White: Leeds United’s 100 Greatest Players’ in 2012.

Jon Howe

The slings and arrows of punditry have come Leeds United’s way in many forms this season, and one of the few that is beyond argument is that we have suffered from an inconsistency in results. This doesn’t necessarily come from an inconsistency in performance, because Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds United will set-up and approach every game the same, we just need to iron out those occasions when it doesn’t work. But an undeniable by-product of Bielsa’s fabled rigidity in tactics and philosophy, is that pretty much every goal Leeds United score is a masterpiece. The quality of our goals is astonishingly consistent.

Look back at the show reel of goals we have plundered over the first half of the season and it is hard to pick out any you could legitimately describe as ‘ordinary’. I’ll give you some help. We’ve scored three penalties and Liam Cooper’s goal at Old Trafford was a header from a corner, albeit you could describe that as quite out-of-the-ordinary for Leeds United, but that’s another story.

There’s also been goals with an element of fortune. Bamford capitalised on Virgil Van Dijk’s mistake for his strike at Anfield, Rodrigo pounced on a loose ball at home to Manchester City, we had the floated cross from Stuart Dallas at home to Leicester which evaded everyone, and there was the own goal at West Brom, plus Rodrigo’s deflected effort in the same game. Although that came at the end of a brilliant flowing move, didn’t it? Sorry.

Indeed, even Patrick Bamford’s tap-ins versus Aston Villa and home to Newcastle were the result of the expansive and dynamic football we play, and after that, every other goal Leeds have scored has had an aesthetic beauty to it. The tragedy, of course, is that these goals will only ever be remembered as a televisual product, and not something we have witnessed with our own eyes.

Looking back through the years we see often-repeated images of classic goals; Strachan versus Leicester, Yeboah versus Liverpool and Beckford versus Bristol Rovers, for example, and as fans we have our own very personal memories of where we were sat and the unique angle only we had of such a historic moment. It’s hard to imagine what the crowd reaction would have been to some of the goals we have scored this season, but alas, they will only ever be recalled as something we watched on TV.

But then intently examining Leeds United goals post-match and salaciously poring over them from every possible TV angle, is a practice that hasn’t altered during the pandemic. It is still an element of the matchday routine that brings deep reflective joy, although in the 6-2 defeat at Old Trafford it brought little solace that Stuart Dallas scored the best goal of the game.

Several times this season it has been a challenge, and the source of much debate, to decide on which was your favourite goal of the day. Leeds have scored three or more goals on six occasions and each one routinely involves a pass, a movement, a routine, a finish, or a combination of all of these elements, which makes it stand out. Even Bamford’s winner at Bramall Lane avoided the ‘ordinary’ category, not because it was so late in the game in a tight Yorkshire Derby, but because it was a ‘classic’ goal from a pinpoint cross and a timeless, hanging header, which took an age to drop in. You can only imagine the scenes in the away end.

How we arrive at Leeds United’s goal of the season come May will be something to bamboozle even the most wisened and learned scholars of the game, and we’re only halfway through it. In attempting to categorise our goals so far, in itself a clumsy and brutal exercise given their freeform artistic prowess, you can compartmentalise them as either ‘team goals’ or ‘individual goals’, with either description holding equal merit in terms of its brilliance.

Individual goals are largely those with an exquisite finish, so we have Helder Costa’s first versus Fulham, Bamford’s second at Villa, Raphinha at Everton, Jack Harrison’s at home to Newcastle and Gjanni Alioski’s at West Brom. Sometimes a great finish is preceded by a brilliant pass, but is not necessarily what you could describe as a ‘team goal’. So here we could add Harrison’s equaliser at Anfield, Bamford’s opener at Chelsea and the neat one-two which set-up Harrison’s strike in the 5-0 win at the Hawthorns.

The team goal category is overflowing like a treasure chest of shiny nuggets. And it perhaps embodies Bielsa’s approach in terms of counter-attacking pace and fluidity and allowing his players the right to perform with freedom and expression, with no concerns for jeopardy and with the laws of probability on their side. Mateusz Klich versus Liverpool, Costa’s second at home to Fulham, Bamford’s hat-trick goal at Villa and his crisp control and finish at Palace. Then you can add Rodrigo’s header versus Newcastle, and Dallas’s header and the Alioski finish in the same game. You have Raphinha’s opener in the reverse fixture, Dallas’s equaliser at Leicester and Jack Harrison’s walk-in third goal too. All examples of how to open up a defence with instinctive, incisive virtuosity.

All of these are the fruits of a symbiotic understanding that is practiced to a point just before it becomes madness, and instead becomes natural. Some people might argue about which category each goal should be in, and maybe that underlines the fact that so many of these goals are just amazing in an indescribable way.

There are two goals which could certainly fit into either category; Jack Harrison’s winner at St James’s Park and Patrick Bamford’s goal to put us 2-1 up at Leicester last weekend. Both involved a great team build-up, but also were executed via a fine individual finish. Perhaps that makes them contenders for the Goal of the Season so far? But maybe we call that off this time around because it is so damn difficult to choose, and frankly, we are already into double figures in the goals that don’t deserve to miss out.

We should remember that there are many media figures who love Leeds United for what they are and what they bring. Those that are confused by Bielsa, perhaps criticise from a position of envy and denial, or not appreciating the audacity with which Bielsa’s team have arrived in the division not to meekly make up the numbers as humble promoted clubs are supposed to do, but to play teams at their own game, and to do it in their own way.

Leeds have gate-crashed the division and have brought style, panache and carefree splendour, when people expect anxiety-ridden second tier clubs to grind out their 15 minutes of fame with textbook timidity, attritional Soviet cold-heartedness and an indifference to anything remotely adventurous. Whatever happens between now and the end of the season at Elland Road, there will be no goalmouth scrambles, aimless pot-shots or fortuitous opportunism, at least that’s not the plan. Leeds United are all about perfection through practice, and if that is upsetting the natural order of things in the Premier League, then we are guilty as charged your honour.

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