As they trudged off the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium field, Leeds United’s players were no doubt filled with what is becoming a familiar feeling. Having led three times against Antonio Conte’s Spurs, they lost 4-3 and it’s fair to say it was a defeat of their own doing.
Everything was going so well as Leeds entered the final 10 minutes of the game, they had a 3-2 lead to show for their impressive efforts and they certainly looked capable of recording yet another win against a Champions League side. However, two Rodrigo Bentancur goals in quick succession spelt defeat for the Whites as they unravelled in north London and went on to finish the game with 10 men following Tyler Adams’ sending off.
As such, as he has done on a number of occasions this season, Jesse Marsch was left lamenting individual errors as he faced the press after the game. Rather than being able to see his players off into the World Cup break on a high, the head coach was downbeat, frustrated and angry after watching his side throw away three points.
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He stopped short of digging out individuals, that would have been fairly uncharacteristic of the American, but errors have been Leeds’ undoing on a number of occasions this season and he knows improvements must be made over the next six and a half weeks. Marsch has every right to have a gripe with the first goal Leeds conceded against Spurs, but he wasn’t pointing the finger at his players.
Instead, he was bemused by the referee Michael Salisbury and VAR, who failed to spot the glaring foul on Illan Meslier in the build up to Harry Kane’s strike. The hosts’ second equalising goal won’t have sat well with the head coach, though.
Fast asleep at a throw-in, Leeds allowed dangerman Dejan Kulusevski to latch onto a ball and power into the area unopposed before skipping past the over-committed Liam Cooper and picking out the wide open Harry Kane on the edge of the six-yard box. Kane’s effort was blocked by Rasmus Kristensen, but the Dane could do little to prevent Ben Davies’ drilled effort from making its way over the line.
Spurs’ third, following Rodrigo’s effort to put Leeds in front once more, will have left a sour taste, too. After failing to apply enough pressure to prevent a Matt Doherty cross, Leeds were caught ball watching as Cooper’s header dropped to Bentancur, who was lurking on the edge of the area, and allowed to fire home.
The Whites were well and truly rocking and just a couple of minutes after equalising, Bentancur bagged the winner following what can only be described as a piece of calamitous defending from the United backline. Cooper was dragged out of position and that created the space in behind for Kane to play Kulusevski into.
Robin Koch tried to deal with the Sweden international, but his tired and lacklustre attempt allowed him to dash by and into the six-yard box and with Meslier committed, he pulled it back to the unchallenged Uruguayan to prod home. Leeds produced such errors last weekend at Bournemouth but managed to get away with them.
They weren’t as fortunate against the likes of Fulham, Brentford, Crystal Palace or Leicester City, though, and just three teams have conceded more than the Whites in the Premier League, at the time of writing, as they head into the winter break.
“I'd say we've encapsulated our 16-game season in one match,” March said after the game. “Moments that were really good and really on top of things and in control and then moments where we're vulnerable and make easy mistakes that at this level you can't make because you get punished.
“So obviously, I always try to look at the positives and I really like a lot of the things that that we're able to accomplish and certainly the men in the team. But it's just a lot of moments when we're in control of matches we can't seem to stay on top of the match. But in the second half at 2-2, we were really good, really good.
“The reason we got the lead to go to 3-2 was because we were on top of the match. Right now we give leads up so quickly, whether it's Bournemouth 1-0, whether it's Liverpool, 1-0, every time that we got the lead today we found a way to give it up so we've got to find a way to be more stable defensively and now handle moments in matches.”
Leeds are two points clear of the relegation zone with 14 games played as the World Cup takes centre stage. But, rather than watching the action in Qatar, the Whites now have a month and a half to iron the errors that are proving to be their Achilles heel.
Of course, Marsch is keen to see his side rest up and he’ll give his squad some time off before bringing them back into Thorp Arch on November 28th, with a little over four weeks to go until Premier League champions Manchester City arrive at Elland Road. Improvements must be made in that time in several areas, but keeping defensive discipline and focus will be a theme.
“Continue in training to emphasise the important elements,” Marsch said when asked how he can work on concentration and eliminate the mistakes. “We've gotten better. We've gotten better, and it's a reason why we've been able to flip the script a little bit in our season.
“For me, a lot of times we just make mistakes that we shouldn't be making. And it stems often, for me, from the fact that we're not fully committing to, tactically and behaviourally, what we want to achieve.
“Again, this is a process of trying to stay on top so that the players can, at all moments, understand how to handle everything, and we're getting closer, we're getting closer, but we still find ways to punish ourselves.”
United have shown they have the talent required to climb the table, the four-game scoring runs of Crysencio Summerville and Rodrigo go some way towards demonstrating that. However, they know must shore things up at the back and Marsch will be working tirelessly over the next few weeks to see improvements by the time the action returns.
Leeds shot themselves in the foot against Tottenham and they cannot allow themselves to make the same mistakes moving forward.
