Referee claims the headlines
If the sign of a strong refereeing performance is anonymity, Stuart Attwell posted one of the worst Elland Road has seen in months. The man in the middle began promisingly and quickly fell off a cliff as common sense abandoned him.
What had started to look like a tight leash on the game, with some early ground rules, descended into a bitty, pathetic, stop-start clash which saw the whistle in Attwell’s mouth more often than boots on the ball. The match degenerated into 90-second bursts of football interspersed with opportunities for Attwell to tick players off.
From the moment Leon Bailey avoided punishment in the opening few minutes for kicking the ball 40 yards away, the dye was cast. Luis Sinisterra’s bizarre yellow card for a first offence on John McGinn would be compounded with what was a correct second yellow.
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Aston Villa were not interested in attacking the game until Sinisterra was sent off either. Much like Everton in the last match here, Emiliano Martinez, Tyrone Mings et al were looking to waste time within the opening 20 minutes of the game.
Combine that approach with Attwell’s officiating and the watching crowd were left with a horrible game to watch which found no flow.
Still no 90 for Sinisterra
For all of Sinisterra’s promising play and fantastic goals, Leeds fans are still yet to see the Colombian on the pitch for a full 90 minutes. If the team are to maximise their chances of winning matches, they need to see arguably their best attacker on the pitch as much as possible.
Once again, Sinisterra would flit in and out of this match with by far the most potent attacking threat, but he was not taking proceedings by the scruff of the neck and dragging the team with him. Ultimately, his early bath would be self-inflicted on this occasion.
If his first yellow felt a little over the top from Attwell, his second was all on him. It was petulant and daft to throw a leg out on a Villa free-kick from close range when he’s already on a yellow card.
As Jesse Marsch would say after the game, it’s a learning curve for Sinisterra, who is still young, inexperienced and requires patience to iron out behaviour like that. Now, he misses a trip to Crystal Palace which looks even more important with Arsenal in the weekend to follow.
Bamford limps on for another week
The first shock of the day came on the teamsheet with Rodrigo starting ahead of a benched Patrick Bamford. There was little doubt the latter had trained more than the former since the Brentford loss and, of course, notched a hat-trick with the under-21s during the pause too.
However, Marsch would ultimately admit he had held back some injury information in Friday’s press conference. It transpires the number nine had carried yet another knock this week and had been unable to train fully with the squad, even putting his availability yesterday in question.
Encouragingly, Bamford was able to recover to the point he could be included and then come into the match with some half-promising play in the final third too. It is concerning, though, to hear the injury-prone striker continues to suffer with issues which stop this campaign from getting started.
Just as it felt like his season may get the reset it needs on Sunday, we find he has been dealing with more setbacks. Leeds really need their number nine fit and firing as soon as possible.
Gelhardt left out
United’s injury crisis has been so deep and consistent for the past 18 months it’s become the norm to include a then 19 and now 20-year-old Joe Gelhardt in the squad. The youngster’s match-turning capabilities have ensured he is always fully deserving of that status, that rise from the under-21 ranks to the first team.
There has been little debate he is behind Bamford and Rodrigo in the pecking order, but he’s always been there as that break-glass-in-case-of-emergency choice from the dugout. Then he was left out yesterday and amid the strange fitness work on the pitch pre-match, we all assumed it was injury-related.
However, no. Marsch would go on to reveal Gelhardt was fit and ready to play, there were simply not enough spaces on the bench to fit him in. Within a month of arriving at Thorp Arch, which included at least 10 days away with Italy, Wilfried Gnonto has jumped above the former Wigan Athletic youth.
That says an immense amount about the 18-year-old who has, in Gelhardt’s defence, started for Italy in recent weeks. Marsch even revised his not-Premier-League-ready statement on the teenager last week.
The head coach was at pains to stress this should not reflect badly on Gelhardt, who he continues to value very highly and wants to keep pushing in the coming weeks. The American could only say Gelhardt is one of a number of players performing well and he does not have the space for all of them.
It will be intriguing to see how that dynamic plays out over the next few weeks and months. If anything, it’s another example of United’s growing strength in depth and questions about quality players being left out are something clubs should crave.
Four in a row
One look at the league table shows you if Leeds had their game in hand this week and won it, they’d be up to seventh. That is perhaps the best way to keep a lid on any anxiety about this mini-slump the team is in.
If you had been told in the immediate aftermath of the Chelsea demolition Leeds would not win any of their next four matches you would have scoffed. And yet, here we are, with Arsenal, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur still to come before the World Cup break.
Last season showed how quickly bad runs of form can get away from you in the top flight. Fail to win at Crystal Palace next weekend, which is by no means guaranteed, it’s then the league leaders at Elland Road and you could be looking at six without a win.
There hasn’t been anything like the alarm bells of last season in these previous four matches, but the fact is it’s two points from an available 12. The losses to Brighton & Hove Albion and Brentford were thoroughly deserved, but the points from Everton and Aston Villa feel like they should have been so much more.
You would take a draw at Selhurst Park now, but a win really would just settle any bubbling anxieties down. Or, you can look at that table again and remember Leeds are closer to seventh than 17th.
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