Greenwood’s emergence continues
Sam Greenwood has always felt like the immensely talented England youth international on Leeds United’s books, who has gone without the column inches he deserves because of the impression made by his good friend Joe Gelhardt. The Gelhardt hype has been easy to get carried away with for good reason, but it’s taken the limelight away from the successes Greenwood has had with the under-23s as well as the national team.
Marcelo Bielsa was not afraid of using the 20-year-old and even gave him his full debut in that FA Cup loss at West Ham United when injuries were cutting deepest in that department. However, the ramp-up in Greenwood’s exposure has been noticeable through the language Jesse Marsch has been using about the former Arsenal youth.
In a few of his press conferences, as well as the substitutions at Molineux and Vicarage Road, Marsch has looked to mention Greenwood without any kind of prompting. While Greenwood did not catch the eye with the first team under Bielsa, an overlooked performance in Wolverhampton was made to stand out with that glorious first touch before Rodrigo’s goal.
READ MORE: Mateusz Klich's rollicking, Raphinha's dugout celebration and Leeds United moments missed
At Watford on Saturday he took another step forward, though. He had a little over 25 minutes on the field, but in a match beset by dreadful passing and dire decision-making, Greenwood made it his own and had a big hand in the second and third goals.
His weight of pass was excellent and it prompted more praise from Marsch, who has repeatedly mentioned Greenwood without any prompting over the past few weeks. He said: “First of all, Sam's been really good since we've been here and I said to him two days ago, if I look at the entire player pool, he's the one that's adapting the best and understanding what we want the game to be like.
“He showed that today and he also has quality. He has the ability to make some final plays, he's very technical, so we've got to find ways to include him more.”
Nobody will be crowning Greenwood as the answer to all of the club's attacking problems based on one decent cameo in a terrible game, but this was Marsch's faith repaid and a platform for the young forward's confidence to blossom in the weeks ahead.
Cooper drags Leeds through
Two matches into Liam Cooper’s return from a four-month absence have quickly highlighted just how much he really is missed in this Leeds side. In an abysmal spectacle on Saturday, two teams tried to outdo each other in mistakes, misplaced passes and bad decisions.
If Cooper had not been in there to mop up the worst of the Watford danger, which did exist, you wonder whether Leeds would have taken the three points they did. While everyone around him seemed to be losing their heads with every passing call, Cooper seemed to take the right route every time.
He anticipated balls in behind, made the right passes at the right time and went to ground when he needed to. It was not a vintage team performance, but the record will show that’s the first clean sheet Leeds have kept since November 30 against Crystal Palace and, ironically, the penultimate game before Cooper’s long-term injury.
Getting the job done
For what feels like the 14th time in this piece, it’s worth stressing Saturday at Vicarage Road was not the place to be if you were looking for an entertaining football match. Passion, energy and relief, yes, there were bundles of that for Leeds fans seeing their side take three points home, but it was a wretched game.
And at the end of the day, who cares? At this stage of the season, with Everton and Burnley daring to pick up wins in the days leading up to this match, a win is all that mattered.
Nobody, especially in the early days of Marsch’s tenure, should be realistically critiquing this team on the quality of the football they are playing. The time for real, and harsh, judgement will come after a close season of training and recruitment under Marsch’s guidance.
Play like this consistently next October and there will be stern questions, but some Raphinha magic, a defensive catastrophe in front of Ben Foster and a killer Jack Harrison finish proved all they needed in Hertfordshire.
Leeds battled, scrapped and ultimately won the fight to make the fewest errors in a match littered with them. Cooper, as mentioned above, was essential in bailing out many of those mistakes around him and Watford did not have that caretaker figure in their ranks.
It’s dog eat dog at the foot of the Premier League table and Leeds is the canine feasting this weekend.
Meslier’s miracle
Marsch has proven a blessing in press conferences since he arrived with these proactive injury updates he provides before anyone has even asked a question, but there was a gaping hole in this week’s briefing. The head coach did not feel it was worth mentioning his first-choice goalkeeper was, as of Thursday, unlikely to play at Watford.
“Even if you would've asked me [on] Thursday, I would've thought Kristoffer Klaesson would have been the goalkeeper today,” he said. “In the last 24 hours, he felt much better and what a performance, by the way, he was fantastic.”
Meslier, it transpires, is still struggling with the effects of Raul Jimenez’s collision at Molineux last month. Perhaps we need to be a little more thorough with our lines of questioning on injuries moving forward.
Thankfully, the French stopper made it and was good between the sticks. The offside flag may have made a few home attacks redundant, but Meslier acted when he had to and stood up to everything.
He looked assertive at set-pieces and commanding when it came to one vs one situations inside the box. Watford were anaemic, but Meslier played his part in the first clean sheet since late November.
The table and a wait
After weeks of remaining a step ahead in the schedule, the next time Leeds take to the field they will have one game in hand on each of Burnley, Watford and Norwich City. It’s a yawning, 16-day wait for the Whites now as Marsch begins to prepare for Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park.
The Premier League and United’s fate will look a lot clearer when they take to the field in Croydon on April 25. Between now and then, if Everton win their two matches and Burnley win their four, Leeds will be in the bottom three.
In reality, the Toffees are at home to Leicester City and away at title-chasing Liverpool. Only two wins takes them past the Whites.
The Clarets have won four matches all season, so expecting them to win their next four on the bounce feels fanciful. After an eminently winnable match at basement boys Norwich, it’s West Ham away, Southampton at home and Wolverhampton Wanderers at Turf Moor too.
The Hammers retain top-four aspirations, but it’s fair to say the other two are rapidly heading for the metaphorical beach in competitive terms. Still, a minimum of three wins from four are needed to overthrow the Whites.
On the flip side, if those two completely flunk those games in hand on the Whites they might find themselves right out of it by the time Leeds play Patrick Vieira’s side. Saturday’s win puts Watford 11 points back and virtually in the second tier with Norwich.
It does feel more and more like one from three if you still think Leeds need more to stay up. If you do, history suggests two more draws or one win from the final six matches will be enough.
