Leeds United must try to get the blinkers on

By Chris Dunlavy – A fresh take on football

Are Leeds falling apart again? Elland Road certainly has the jitters – moans and groans, nervy silences – last weekend’s dramatic 2-2 draw with Swansea City sounded like a greatest hits compilation of run-in anxiety.

Zan Vipotnik’s 96th-minute equaliser for the Swans made it one win in five matches for the Whites, who have watched an eight-point cushion to third-placed Burnley evaporate in the space of a month.

Sheffield United, five points adrift when Leeds won 3-1 at Bramall Lane in February, finished last weekend clear at the top.

“I am 100 per cent sure we will win promotion,” insisted defiant manager Daniel Farke, but his optimism is not shared on the terraces.

Collaspe

These supporters know a collapse when they see one.

They were there when lowly Wigan Athletic overcame an early red card and a one-goal deficit to snatch an implausible 2-1 victory in April 2019, setting in motion a capitulation that consigned Marcelo Bielsa’s side to the play-offs.

Where, of course, they lost.

They were there last season, too, when dismal performances against Sunderland and Blackburn Rovers slammed the brakes on what had appeared to be an unstoppable surge to the Championship title.

Defeat to Southampton at Wembley was Leeds’ fourth play-off final defeat in as many attempts, and they’ve flunked a couple of semis along the way.

No wonder there is a rising sense of dread at seeing yet another lead disappear.

When the clocks go forward, Leeds go backwards, and when they get to the play-offs, it’s game over.

Or that’s the perception, anyway.

The problem for Farke and his players is that they aren’t just battling two relentlessly consistent opponents in Burnley and Sheffield United.

They are up against their own illustrious history.

Leeds are three-times champions of England, and when you’ve been the best, that’s the benchmark.

Narrative

Every season outside the top flight is considered an underachievement.

Each year of exile increases the frustration.

Each failure embellishes the narrative that Leeds are a bunch of bottlers, forever doomed to crumble under pressure.

One obvious parallel is the England national team.

A combination of lofty expectation and repeated failure has led to a chronic sense of fatalistic pessimism that magnifies the significance of every mistake, poor performance and bad result.

Let’s call it here-we-go-again-itis.

Gareth Southgate spent eight years trying to dispel the aura of negativity around the England team and achieved a level of tournament performance beyond any of his predecessors.

Yet he was only ever one dodgy game away from an attack of here-we-go-again-itis, as the increasingly vitriolic attacks on his tactics demonstrated during last summer’s European Championships.

This stuff might sound like wishy-washy psychobabble, but it matters.

Countless England players, from Gary Neville to Rio Ferdinand, have said they didn’t enjoy playing for England, and felt inhibited on the pitch.

PAIN GAME: Zan Vipotnik fires home Swansea’s last-gasp leveller last weekend and, below, Leeds’ Willy Gnonto can’t hide his frustration
PICTURE: Alamy

Weight of the shirt

Farke himself spoke openly about his players struggling to bear the “weight of the shirt” during last season’s collapse.

Its crushing effect was once again apparent in the subconscious conservatism of Leeds’ play against Swansea, the fear of making errors overriding any concerted attempt to put their opponents to the sword.

Rust, said Farke, but who is buying that?

There are those who would argue that Leeds and their supporters are deluded, and burdening their team with unnecessary expectations.

Others that experienced international players should show more resilience and character.

Ultimately, though, any big club with a record of success is exactly the same.

Somehow, Farke and his players must get the blinkers on and find a way to focus on the opponents they can fight – not the ones they can’t.