Graham Smyth’s Swansea Verdict: Leeds United trio holds the key to unlocking the final promotion doubt.
It has been evident for several weeks now that Leeds has players who are capable of making an impact in the Championship this year. Their attacking group, praised for having Premier League caliber by Swansea City manager Michael Duff and other members of the managerial community, is racking up goals and assists in abundance—41 from the regular starting four so far.
They have the third meanest defense in the division. Leeds appear to be a strong candidate for promotion both on paper and on the field when you factor in a £12 million central midfield duo that has been providing very good support to both of those units, the options Farke has on the bench in every position, and the significant as-yet-untapped resource of the returning Djed Spence.
After a 3-1 victory over the Swans at Elland Road, in which Leeds’ supporters experienced the full gamut of human emotions even before the game had lasted 60 minutes, the manager was licking his wounds. However, aside from a few minor, urgent issues that they managed to rectify by halftime, he could only pinpoint one shortcoming.
“With the amount of chances we created the only thing I could criticise was perhaps efficiency, because I just looked at the expected goals, we had seven or eight times the amount of chances that Swansea had,” he stated. “Yes, we can definitely use our opportunity more effectively in terms of finishing. Thus, efficiency is the subject we discuss frequently.”
This is where Leeds’ one remaining question mark is found: can they consistently display the necessary killer instinct? While there’s no arguing with their inventiveness—no team in the division has created more big opportunities, and no player has created more than Georginio Rutter—they have definitely lost points due to wastefulness.
They deserved to defeat Sheffield Wednesday and West Brom, they could have and should have triumphed at Stoke, and they most certainly should have defeated Rotherham United last Friday. Instead of taking three draws and one loss, they produced enough opportunities on all four occasions to take three points.
Nonetheless, Leeds has been wasteful enough to irritate their fans even in wins. At halftime, Huddersfield was trailing 4-0 at Elland Road and facing an extremely humiliating defeat, but Leeds saved them. Plymouth could have been dealt a more severe blow as well.
Leeds, therefore, had an opportunity to demonstrate to their opponents that they are capable of winning games by a well-earned margin and mercilessly dispatching them with this victory over Swansea. It was a positive step because, in the end, they succeeded in doing so, prompting Duff to characterize their attacking ability as “devastating” difference makers. Simply put, taking that step wasn’t easy.
Daniel James scored against his old team in under 40 seconds after a wild start to the game when he finished off a cross from Sam Byram, but the flag was raised to rule it out. The Swans then broke, played a ball over the top that Pascal Struijk simply nodded further into danger, and Jamie Paterson ran through to lob Illan Meslier as Elland Road filled up with spectators once more.
There was a three-minute lead. After dodging a challenge, Crysencio Summerville and Glen Kamara played a one-two, and Joel Piroe received the ball and scored against his old team. It was the sub-zero finish that Farke has been demanding from his number 10 on the coldest night of the year.