The Sunday Times.
Had Meslier down as Leeds best player with 8 out of 10. I thought his distribution was shaky for much of the game.
Marcelo Bielsa’s plan pays off for Leeds as Ederson flaps
Leeds United 1 Manchester City 1
Jonathan Northcroft, Football Correspondent
Sunday October 04 2020, 12.00am, The Sunday Times
The last ten minutes alone could have filled a match report. Raheem Sterling sprinted clear only to be foiled by Illan Meslier when he tried to chop back on to his left foot. Meslier made a terrific clutch to avert what would have been an own goal of the season, a diving header towards his own net, from Patrick Bamford.
Bamford raced down the left then veered inside to zero in on Ederson, only for Ederson to stand tall and block, one on one. Ederson rehabilitated thanks to a flurry of saves after making a howler for Leeds’s equaliser.
So many storylines, so much action, such white-knuckle stuff from first to final whistle. “It was good, huh?” Pep Guardiola said. That Leeds leveller was a goal forged by penalty-box chaos, quite in character with the harum-scarum attacking — and defending — that packed this superbly entertaining game. It came via Rodrigo who had previously scored just once in the Premier League — at Wigan Athletic for Bolton Wanderers, ten seasons ago.
Since then, the forward has starred for Valencia, played in the World Cup for Spain and become Leeds’s record signing, and here he put a couple of unconvincing prior appearances for his new club behind him to prove a game-changer, a substitute who introduced more aggression and goal threat to a Leeds team who had the greater possession — yes, greater possession — against Guardiola’s pass-addicted side.
Rodrigo won a corner when he flummoxed Rúben Dias with a stepover and forced Ederson to tip over. When Kalvin Philips delivered the set piece, Ederson made an awful hash of dealing with it, rabbit-punching the ball against Benjamin Mendy and when it dropped loose Rodrigo rammed it in.
The draw was what Leeds deserved. This was T20 football, a basketball-style contest of you-attack-we-attack in which neither Marcelo Bielsa nor Guardiola compromised a single positive principle. Guardiola, however, did have a right to feel aggrieved when during that fevered finale Liam Cooper went to ground and kicked Sterling’s toe, when challenging in the box. It really should have been a penalty.
Guardiola will face further scrutiny. He is already eight points off the top of the table and five points off Liverpool, and when City last won the Premier League they took 16 games to drop five points, whereas that has happened in just three matches this time. City won’t regain the title defending the way they are but to make this another City inquest would be to ignore the credit due to Leeds.
While traditionalists may yearn for the good old corned beef days of Neil Warnock v Sam Allardyce, the head to head of Guardiola and Bielsa represented how the talent in the dugout is now as exotic as the talent on the pitch in the Premier League. With their shared ideas and mutual appreciation, their common yen for possession and to be the protagonist, Bielsa and Guardiola were like two saints from the same religion being thrown in the ring.
Yorkshire rain soaked the pitch, making it slick and perfect for the football both want to play. At first, Bielsa’s refusal to change against Guardiola’s side seemed kamikaze but in the end success arrived playing his way.
Inside the first 20 minutes Leeds were lucky to concede only once. Kevin De Bruyne hit the post, deceiving Meslier with a gorgeous, whipped free kick, and Aymeric Laporte and Dias misdirected headers after finding space at corners. City’s high pressing terrorised the Leeds back four and midfield initially and Riyad Mahrez, Guardiola’s surprise false nine, caused Bielsa’s centre backs positioning dilemmas. Mahrez’s deployment freed Sterling, who converted his first league strike of the season expertly.
Meslier kicked straight to Mendy, who tried finding Mahrez. Cooper stepped in but knocked the ball straight to De Bruyne with a clumsy touch. De Bruyne shifted it left to Sterling who came back inside, jinking past two defenders, one being Cooper, again inattentive. Sterling curled a lovely shot through the gap he had worked, beating Meslier.
Sterling put Leeds ahead, beating Meslier from the edge of the 18-yard box
Sterling had set up Ferran Torres after tricking his way past Luke Ayling but Stuart Dallas blocked well. You feared for them yet Leeds kept trying to play out, kept stretching the pitch, kept up that trademark Bielsa trick of flooding the opposition box with a sudden rush of bodies. Keep asking questions of this fretful City defence and it will doubt itself. Sure enough errors came. The first was after Laporte coughed up possession thanks to Leeds pressing and from Ayling’s cross, with Kyle Walker slow, Ezgjan Alioski headed over.
In a breathless passage before half-time, Bamford fed Tyler Roberts, who slipped Dallas clear, with Walker badly positioned, but Dallas required a touch and Ederson smothered.
The super-coaches played their cards and Bielsa’s substitutions proved best. Shortly before scoring, Rodrigo looped a header that Ederson touched against the bar. After the equaliser came the adrenaline rush of the finale. A pity there were just three minutes of stoppage time: you wanted this game to go on and on.
Bielsa makes Guardiola fight hard to stay unbeaten It was hard work, but Pep Guardiola remains unbeaten in his duels with Leeds United’s Marcelo Bielsa. The pair have met four times after last night’s 1-1 draw, with Guardiola winning two when he was coach at Barcelona and Bielsa was at Athletic Bilbao. Their one other meeting in Spain finished in a draw.
• The last time these sides met in the league was at Elland Road in March 2004 when Leeds won 2-1. Mark Viduka scored the winner with a penalty after Daniel van Buyten had been sent off.
• Rodrigo Moreno is the first Spanish player to score for Leeds United in the Premier League. The £26 million signing from Valencia, who spent the 2010-11 season on loan at Bolton Wanderers from Real Madrid, scored three minutes and six seconds after coming on as a substitute.