In his latest column for leedsunited.com, lifelong supporter Jon Howe reflects on the impact Javi Gracia has had so far.

Howe is the author of two books on the club, ‘The Only Place For Us: An A-Z History of Elland Road’ - which has been updated as a new version for 2021 - and ‘All White: Leeds United’s 100 Greatest Players’ in 2012.



It’s the little things in life that can make a big difference; asking someone how they are when they look downhearted, popping round to see an elderly neighbour for a chat and a brew, giving someone a push when their car’s stuck in the snow. These things take very little effort for us but make a huge difference to someone else. And the more we see of Javi Gracia, the more we can understand it’s the little things that can make a big difference to Leeds United’s season; chiselling away at the things that are wrong, and which all add up to bring points, although whether you could say these things take very little effort to resolve is perhaps open to conjecture.

On the evidence of just two games, and with the benefit of maybe two actual days of training so far, new head coach Javi Gracia has made some small adjustments to make us look a more compact, structured and balanced team. It’s made a big difference. Even in defeat at Fulham in the FA Cup on Tuesday evening, Leeds played with more understanding, with more control and with more of an attacking threat. Of course, we should have scored from the many openings we created, and no one is saying every problem is solved, but the overall team shape was more organised and gave you the sense that the players were more comfortable with it, and weren’t having to decipher the enigma code just to pass to a teammate in space.  

And if we’re talking about the ‘little things’, then the finishing touch was all that was missing at Fulham, because against a side currently sitting in sixth place in the Premier League, we largely stopped them playing and restricted them to two spectacular shots on target. You could argue that the difference in quality in the final third was the major factor, and that’s not really a little thing, but then it could have been a different story had the little things gone Leeds United’s way. If Weston McKennie or Brenden Aaronson hadn’t scuffed those second half shots, if Georginio Rutter’s looping header had bounced in off the post and not out, and if the referee hadn’t fallen for the mildest of touches at the corner which led to the first disallowed goal, we wouldn’t be talking about a wide differential in quality. Goals are goals, and nobody really cares how they are scored.

Some people have said Leeds were unlucky in front of goal on Tuesday night, but that only really tells half of the story. Fulham scored two quality goals, no doubt about it, but created very little else, while Leeds looked like they could create chances until the sun rose over the Thames again in the morning, and they still wouldn’t have scored. There was definitely a lack of quality in Leeds’s finishing at times, but this can be attributed to the tell-tale signs of a team re-building confidence amidst a traumatic season and on the back of wholesale change. But then, sometimes you score ‘because’ you scuff the shot, and if you hit it too well it goes straight down the keeper’s throat, or over the bar. So maybe that is luck, after all?

Media pundits discussing the aftermath of the Fulham game were suggesting that Leeds’s misfiring antics in front of goal were a symptom of their season and why they find themselves where they are in the table, but that doesn’t necessarily hold water and it’s not just as simple as ‘Leeds don’t score goals’. With 29 Premier League goals scored so far this season, only Aston Villa and Leicester City in the entire bottom half of the table have scored more than us. So we’re outscoring the teams around us and above us too. Rodrigo was amongst the league’s top scorers before his injury at Accrington Stanley, and while we would clearly benefit from his return and the goals have dried up a little recently, we have spread the goals around the whole team throughout this campaign, so there is plenty of threat there. Clearly the issue is scoring ‘enough’ goals in individual games to secure the points, getting the balance of the team right and controlling games at key times to put ourselves in those goal-scoring positions, otherwise known as the little things. That’s what we haven’t been doing. More goals would be great, sure, but if we lose every game 4-3 it doesn’t really matter.  

It’s also been said that Leeds needed a bit of luck to finally grab a Premier League win, and prior to the Southampton game last Saturday, most Leeds fans would have taken a win in any circumstances and a winning goal of any possible description. And Junior Firpo’s winning goal has been described as the type of untidy and fortuitous pea-roller which convinces a fanbase their luck has finally changed. I personally think the goal was well crafted by a combination of Crysencio Summerville’s trickery by the corner flag, Jack Harrison’s vision and skill to find Firpo, and the resurgent left-back having the will and desire to make the run in the first place. There was no luck in that, and maybe the little thing that helped Leeds was the Saints defender opting not to block the shot, but instead acting to block his goalkeeper, and the ball running straight through both of them and into the net.      

Last Saturday, those little things made a big difference, and in Javi Gracia’s first game Leeds already looked like a team able to breathe and play some football the way they wanted to play it, even if it wasn’t always cohesive and free-flowing, but there’s time for that yet and nobody truly expected the new manager to make radical changes with just one session on the training pitch. With that in mind, and the prospect of Chelsea away on the horizon this coming weekend, I’m not sure if Javi Gracia would have preferred a free week to work with his squad and mould them into a more inter-connected unit at Thorp Arch, or to learn more about his players in real-game situations via the Fulham cup tie. There’s pros and cons to each, but the outcome will be seen at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, and Leeds should still be going there with confidence.

There was just enough in the Fulham game to keep the momentum that was started in the 1-0 win at Elland Road last Saturday rolling forward, and you sense that every passing day with Gracia in charge will be beneficial in some small way. Despite our respective league positions, it could be argued that Leeds will arrive at Chelsea in a better mental state than our opponents – a team we have scored six league goals more than this season, I should definitely add – and the opportunity is undoubtedly there to be pragmatic in the game once again, to stifle and frustrate the opponent and to be in a position to spring a surprise. 

In just over a week, Javi Gracia has found a better shape for this team, he has found more all-round organisation and he’s found a better balance between when to throw men forward and when to keep it tight. Without any doubt he now needs to find goals, or at least enough of them; those little things which can make a big difference.