Read Louise Taylor's match report
Time for me to bow out. Thanks for your company, correspondence and various views on VAR, and sorry not to have been able to get through the mailbag. The match was a bit mad, until it suddenly became calm and clinical.
Meanwhile Man City, after being rudely demoted to third in the table, are about to play Aston Villa. Do click here to see Rob Smyth trying to make sense of Pep’s selection.
A blight on both their houses.
Statement from #lufc and #mufc: 'Both clubs strongly condemn chanting from both sets of fans regarding historic tragedies at today’s game. Such behaviour is completely unacceptable and we will continue to work together with our respective fan groups...'
— Samuel Luckhurst (@samuelluckhurst) February 12, 2023
“It’s a good one for the fans,” says Harry Maguire. “We know, coming to Elland Road, it’s going to be a tough one. Credit to the lads that we stuck with it, showed spirit, got a clean sheet… We knew today was about revenge and we got it.”
Next to him is David de Gea, who says: “400 games, clean sheet, perfect day.”
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On expected goals, it should have been a Leeds win. They were given 1.83 to Man U’s 1.13. Not sure that’s a fair reflection of the game, but Leeds did have more touches in the opposing box (25-17), more shots (16-11) and more shots on target (6-5). Man U won because they found the net – twice legitimately, not to mention twice via offsides.
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Right, now the game is out of the way, we can all get back to arguing about VAR. “The thing with VAR,” says Tom McPeterson, “is that people have very short memories – before its introduction there would interminable complaints and grousing after almost every single game about things the ref had missed, offside calls, handballs, off the ball incidents etc.
“The trouble was that, while you could make the case that referees are only human and that some of it would slip through the net, TV replays and post-game analysis would provide enough material for the Monday morning officeplace pundits to feel aggrieved for the rest of the week.
“It was incredibly boring, and the general consensus was that bringing in in-game video replays for the ref to look at would stop some of the more outrageous calls (and subsequent whinging). Well, careful what you wish for...”
Leeds played like a team who have forgotten how to win (except in the Cup). United, just in time, started playing like a team who simply had to win to get their season back on track. They have finally shown they can get a result without Casemiro and Eriksen.
Line of the day
“The last couple of minutes,” says Peter Oh, “have been a scintillating display of Total Woutball.”
Later, he emails again: “Cheers Tim! Credit to Rob Smyth for coining the term. Today we saw a different version of it. Not pumping long balls Weghorst’s way or feeding him crafty free kicks, but him being all over the place, creating up front and snuffing out in the back.” Very true.
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Full time! Leeds 0-2 Man United
And that’s it, so Marcus Rashford’s header sends Man United up to second. Leeds, who were the better team for a chunk of each half, fell apart at the end, which means they still haven’t won a league game since Firework Night.
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No goal? Weghorst!
A United corner, a header from Maguire, a hook from Weghorst, but he looks well offside and the flag goes up…
90+3 min Alan Smith’s player of the match is … Fred!
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90+1 min As we embark on four extra minutes, Rashford is taken off and Anthony Elanga sent on to do some chasing.
No goal! Rashford again
It’s wide open now. Fernandes, who fed Garnacho just then, sends Rashford through down the right and he clipped the ball into the far corner with his new-found precision, but the flag goes up and the VAR agrees with the linesman.
89 min United counter, Garnacho has to score another – and for once he hesitates, turning into traffic when he should have just hit it first time.
88 min A Leeds free kick, a right old melee, and it’s Weghorst who hoofs the ball out. From the corner, a shot comes in and it’s Weghorst who deflects it wide. The man is everywhere.
84 min So credit to Ten Hag for keeping Weghorst on. He had been doing a good job as the first line of defence, but that was a nice bit of creativity.
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GOAL!! Leeds 0-2 Man United (Garnacho 85)
One brings two! Weghorst slips a neat ball down the inside-left channel and Garnacho, who should have scored at least one on Wednesday, hits the shot crisply enough to beat Meslier at his near post.
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81 min That is Rashford’s 21st club goal of the season, one short of his personal best. And he even managed it with Weghorst on the field.
GOAL! Leeds 0-1 Man United (Rashford 80)
There it is! A gorgeous crossfield pass from Sabitzer finds Shaw, whose cross is headed home by the new Ronaldo. VAR is drawing the lines, but he’s just onside.
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79 min Save! By De Gea’s legs, from Summerville. Should have scored: we are back where we began.
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77 min The game is still frantic when Leeds have the ball, then suddenly sedate when Man U win it back. Their experiment with Bielsa-ball appears to have been short-lived.
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75 min Who’s got a late winner, then? Leeds have been the better team, but Rashford hasn’t got his goal yet. Or even had a shot, that I can remember.
73 min More subs: Brendan Aaronson replaces Jack Harrison, and Aaron Wan-Bissaka takes over from Diogo Dalot.
72 min Maguire has one of his shockers, passing straight to a white shirt, but Martinez bails him out.
Collector's item!
70 min An overhead kick from … Luke Ayling. Following a corner, in the melee, well struck but again straight at De Gea.
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68 min Rashford is playing half on the right, half up front, with Weghorst slipping back into midfield. Latching onto a long ball, Rashford can’t quite find Garnacho with a back heel.
66 min Leeds need to do something and they do the best thing possible – give it to Gnonto. His shot from the D is straight at De Gea.
65 min Another Man U attempt, from Fred, but it’s. well over the bar.
Here’s Kári Tulinius. “The Sabitzer-Fred partnership will probably not last much longer than Casemiro’s suspension, which is a shame because I’d like to know if their portmanteau nickname will end up being Frebitzer or Sad.”
Dalot hits the bar!
63 min Man U already look more dangerous and a neat move ends with Dalot having a go from the edge of the box. He gets some elevation, as so often – a touch too much.
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60 min Subs for Man U: Martinez on for Malacia, so Shaw will go to left-back; Garnacho for Sancho, so maybe that means Rashford on the right.
60 min A United counter is calmly defused by Leeds. The ball was with Sancho, who has had some classy touches but hasn’t been sharp enough, understandably.
58 min The first sub. It is a centre-forward being replaced, but it’s not Weghorst. Off goes Patrick Bamford, still feeling his way back from injury, and on comes Georginio Rutter.
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57 min Leeds’ turn to counter, as a determined run by Harrison wins a corner.
55 min Man U break with Fred releasing Rashford down the left. Leeds get enough bodies back to crowd him out.
50 min Ten Hag may need to do something, which probably means taking Weghorst off. A caption shows that in the last four games, Man U have scored once with him on the pitch (in 226 mins) and five times without him (in 89).
49 min A fourth chance in quick succession as Ayling hits a drive from the edge of the box, deflected for a corner.
48 min And a third! Harrison’s flick goes into the side netting. Leeds are well on top now.
48 min And another as the corner comes in and McKennie’s header is half-blocked by Maguire. Leeds making another of those fast starts of theirs.
47 min Chance! Summerville shoots from near the D and De Gea gets down well to palm the ball out.
46 min Play resumes with United playing across the back again.
VAR hasn’t reared its unloved head so far here, but it has been on Gary Naylor’s mind. “I know this is counterintuitive,” he says, “but, re VAR, is there any reason why it can’t be fully automated for offsides? The players are in different kits, the pitch markings don’t move and the law is the law. Checks would only be for ‘interfering with play’ or whatever it’s called this week.”
“There’s even a case for using machine-learning for handballs too. Feed in 1000 handballs given and 1000 handballs ruled out (correctly) and then let AI decide. It would definitely have given the West Ham one yesterday and it would only get better as data built up. Refs could still go to monitors to check if they wanted to.
“Anyway, things can’t really go on as they are now - it’s a laughing stock.”
Half-time! Leeds 0-0 Man United
How have we not had a goal? It’s been breathless stuff, Bielsa-ball from both sides. They’ve each had two shots on target and one clear-cut chance. Time for a cup of tea.
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45+2 min Save! Fernandes is clean through and really should score, but Meslier gets down and shins the ball away. From the corner, the ball squeezes past the far post as Rashford races in.
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45+1 min Yet another foul, from Maguire this time, on Bamford. The crowd bay for a card, in vain.
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44 min Another near-miss for Leeds! Mayhem in the United six-yard box, Summerville should score, but De Gea does well and somehow the ball is scrambled away.
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“Maguire cleaned up his own mess,” says Mary Waltz, “but it appears that you can press him into a major error. His confidence has disappeared.” It’s certainly coming and going.
40 min Now Fernandes has a shot, an attempted dink that doesn’t clear Meslier. He is up for it. Meanwhile Rashford is fouled by McKennie, who becomes the third name in the book.
38 min Fernandes goes wiggling down the right and carves out a cross, but Weghorst can’t reach it with his head.
“Flaky and Rusty,” says Joe Pearson. “Sounds like a competitor to Itchy and Scratchy. I love it!” Ha. To be fair to Fred and Sabitzer, they’re showing signs of turning into Feisty and Silky.
35 min Maguire almost embarrasses himself as Harrison robs him, but he recovers well and nicks it back.
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34 min Rashford gets into the box, only to find Ayling shepherding him out again.
33 min Some argy-bargy on the Leeds right involving Ayling and Malacia. It all ends in a hug.
32 min Better from Rashford, who is back on the left. He gets on his bike and sprays a pass to the right that was almost majestic.
31 min The free kick eludes Maguire but is headed clear by Weghorst.
30 min Sabitzer, in a tussle with Gnonto, emerges with the ball and is aggrieved to hear the whistle.
28 min Sancho and Rashford have swapped wings. On the evidence of a game and a bit so far, they might get more joy with Rashford down the middle in place of Weghorst.
26 min Ten Hag calls Sancho over for a briefing and Luke Ayling eavesdrops on it.
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25 min A Leeds free kick finds only the massive forehead of a Mr Maguire.
23 min Rashford, a caption shows, has had only six touches. And two of them were blunders. But he usually has a goal in him, and Man U are beginning to settle after the frenzied first act.
21 min Another slip by Rashford, after the free kick, is almost costly, but his team-mates rescue him.
21 min The second yellow of the day goes to … Fred! For hacking down someone after a misplaced lay-off from Rashford.
20 min Chance for Man United! Fernandes scoops a through ball down the right for Sancho, gets it back on the edge of the box, but screws it well wide.
18 min Several people could have a yellow card by now, but only one does: Junior Firpo, for going in late on Sancho.
16 min United spend a couple of minutes passing sideways at the back. You don’t get that from Lisandro Martinez.
Weghorst has started really poorly. Leeds very open if/when #mufc advance into the final third but a lot of the moves are breaking down with Weghorst. Ten Hag has rarely looked so irked at the start of a game.
— Samuel Luckhurst (@samuelluckhurst) February 12, 2023
13 min Fred Again! Getting a block in as the free kick is taken short.
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13 min A free kick to Leeds in the business area as Fred’s enthusiasm tips over into a foul.
12 min Leeds go upfield once more. Man U get a glimmer of a counter, with Fred again fighting the good fight, but Weghorst plays a through ball without spotting that Rashford is offside.
More on the Roses. “I would like the Premier League to institute a rule,” says Eric Peterson, “that, when there are to be Wars of the Roses fixtures on the docket, one of them is always guaranteed to be played the week of Valentine’s Day.”
10 min “It’s been chaotic,” says Alan Smith on Sky, “and that suits Leeds.”
Manchester United players to reach 400 Premier League appearances:
— Statman Dave (@StatmanDave) February 12, 2023
🏴 - Ryan Giggs (632)
🏴 - Paul Scholes (499)
🏴 - Gary Neville (400)
🇪🇸 - David de Gea (400)
United’s number 1 joins an exclusive list. 1️⃣ pic.twitter.com/zP7pfF22sS
8 min Man U reach the Leeds box thanks to some good scrapping by Fred and linking from Weghorst. The attack peters out as Sancho’s low cross from the right is blocked.
6 min Malacia gets a bang on the head after a heavy challenge from Tyler Adams. The atmosphere is every bit as raucous as expected.
4 min Close! Summerville blasts over the bar from close range. Malacia did well to hassle him.
2 min Man U look shaky at the back, but they’ve made a better start than they did on Wednesday.
1 min: The teams take the knee and Bruno Fernandes gets the ball rolling. Leeds already pressing like men possessed.
A Leeds fan writes. “Hi Tim,” says Jeremy Boyce. “It’s your friendly life-long Leeds supporter here (now aged 65), and I can tell you that part of the reason I am Leeds is that I hated Man U when I was a kid, partly because EVERYONE supported Man U when I was a kid and I hated that. Partly because my family roots are in Leeds, my first ‘BIG’ match (we lived in Shrewsbury, Div III was not the same) was when my dad took me to Elland Road for a Boxing Day match v Noocassel. Someone nicked my Leeds scarf Christmas present from round my neck on the way in, but I didn’t care, we won 3-1 and I was hooked.
“The thing is with Man U, it goes much, much deeper than simple events within the white lines over 90 minutes. It’s not just the fact that they have all the money, and they always bought all our best players (Giles and more recently the ‘short’-lived Dan James experiment are rare examples of traffic going the other way). It goes back centuries, all the way to the Wars of the Roses, brought forward to the 20th/21st century. If only Lancaster and York could make their way up the football ladder we could have it for real.
“As it goes, Leeds and Manchester are the modern day symbols of that trans-Pennine rivalry. It’s in the genes. I am obviously hoping for a positive result today, never mind who the oppos, but putting one over on the Scummers would certainly add some spice to our season. 0-3 Scummers then. The thing is, we’ll still be marching on together afterwards whatever happens, unlike the toxic Man U ‘supporters’ who never stop carping, criticising and back-stabbing. ’Appen.”
I couldn’t possibly comment.
Man United have won one game today – the WSL match at Spurs. More here from Rob Smyth.
Erik ten Hag has been talking about his selection. Partly rotation, yes – the next game is at Camp Nou – but he also feels Maguire and Shaw will bring leadership. A year ago, the two of them combined for Man United’s first goal in a 4-2 win at Elland Road. Jadon Sancho had a good game too, though it was so long ago that several forgotten figures took part. Pogba, Lingard, Ronaldo, Raphinha …
Leeds, paradoxically, have the more settled side today. Their caretaker manager, Michael Skubala, has made only two changes and both are enforced. Pascal Struijk and Luis Sinisterra, both injured at Old Trafford, are replaced (as they were then) by Junior Firpo and Crysencio Summerville.
The teams: Man U
Ten Hag keeps the faith with Fred and Sabitzer. Harry Maguire returns, with Martinez and Varane both on the bench. Jadon Sancho starts for the first time since his spell in the Netherlands, presumably on the right after the decision to stick Rashford there backfired on Wednesday.
Manchester United (4-2-3-1) De Gea; Dalot, Maguire (capt), Shaw, Malacia; Sabitzer, Fred; Sancho, Fernandes, Rashford; Weghorst.
Subs: Heaton, Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Varane, Martinez, Iqbal, Pellistri, Elanga, Garnacho.
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The teams: Leeds
📋 Your #LUFC Starting XI... pic.twitter.com/3qMRzo7hZ6
— Leeds United (@LUFC) February 12, 2023
Preamble
Hello and welcome to the grudge match of the day. You wait 11 months for a Man U-Leeds meeting, then two come along in a week.
On Wednesday at Old Trafford Leeds bossed the first few minutes of each half and stormed into a 2-0 lead, but were pegged back when Jadon Sancho came on and Marcus Rashford moved into the middle. The atmosphere was predictably poisonous, with the Leeds fans telling Rashford and Sancho “you let your country down”, only to find each of them answering back with a goal.
For Leeds, with no manager and no league wins since the World Cup, the draw was a minor triumph. For Manchester United it was a setback, though it showed spirit. They sorely missed Casemiro’s ability to snuff out danger and will have to do without him again today. With Scott McTominay and Christian Eriksen still injured, Erik ten Hag has to stick with the flaky Fred and the rusty Marcel Sabitzer or twist by pushing a defender into midfield. He has given Victor Lindelof a few minutes there and pointed out that Lindelof is used to it from his days at Benfica. A better bet would surely be Lisandro Martinez, with his bite and creativity, but he is rumoured to be unavailable today.
Ten Hag’s other problem is that his regulars may well be knackered. This is Man United’s 15th game in all competitions since the World Cup, two more than the next Premier League club (Southampton). As Ten Hag is a reluctant rotator, the likes of Rashford, Bruno Fernandes, Raphael Varane and Luke Shaw have a lot of miles on the clock.
Leeds, for a team with no boss, are in quite a good place. They’ve got Patrick Bamford back and Wilfried Gnonto flying. They haven’t won in the league since 5 November, when they beat Bournemouth 4-3, but the four wins they collected before that included upsets against Chelsea and Liverpool. With Elland Road baying for blood, they’ll fancy their chances of another big scalp.
