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Leeds-Live rekapitulerer:
Cooper's sweary Poveda order, Bielsa coaching Meslier and other Leeds United moments missed
The bits you missed from the Whites' 3-0 win over Fuham behind closed doorsLeeds United returned to the summit of the Championship on Saturday with a 3-0 win over Fulham at Elland Road.
The goals came from Patrick Bamford, Ezgjan Alioski and Jack Harrison. You will almost certainly have seen, by now, Aleksandar Mitrovic’s elbow on Ben White too.
However, there are some of the moments you may have missed from the first match of the restart at LS11.
Empty and strange Elland Road
A new experience for the vast majority of us inside Elland Road on Saturday. There were three separate security checks before the media could even get inside the stadium.
The, now normal, temperature check came at the doorway and then we were up the stairs and into the press box at the back of the West Stand.
There were the typically muted entrances from each team, who you wouldn’t have known were on the pitch for their warm-ups or the start of the game unless you looked up from your keyboard.
United will use the home and away dressing rooms during the run-in, while the visitors have been given a makeshift changing room in Howard’s bar further along the West Stand corridor.
The Crowdies, fans’ cardboard cutouts, have already been discussed at length, but what was more jarring was the PA announcements made by Leigh Nicholson.
Helpful and informative as they were, they echoed around the ground and without an audience, seemed to fall on deaf ears.
The artificial crowd noise came at the start, middle and end of the game, plus for the goals, but there was no backing soundtrack for the duration as had been thought at one point.
Bielsa man-managing Meslier
For the opening 20 minutes at least, Marcelo Bielsa could be heard coaching goalkeeper Illan Meslier through his distribution choices.
With the Whites under the cosh and a high Fulham press, Meslier’s options at goal kicks were limited, but Bielsa would scream at him where to put the passes.
“Illan! Helder!†or “Illan! Patrick!†The nuggets we do not normally get to hear with more than 30,000 inside Elland Road.
Orta’s directors’ box exploits
“Vamos Leeds carajo†at kick-off was an early warning for what we were going to get from the director of football throughout Saturday afternoon.
We have always heard about Victor Orta’s emotional outbursts during United games, but here we had no fans and no noise to mask everything he did.
What we learned
When Bamford seemed to help the pressure lift off Elland Road with the opener, Orta was on his bike along the front of the box, embracing head of communications James Mooney among others.
The Spaniard lost the plot twice more with the next goals too before sharing a clap and a fist pump with Stuart Dallas as the players came off the pitch at full-time.
Mitrovic’s drinks-break message
After the elbow and before the collapse, when Fulham were firing on all cylinders in the first half, there was an audible message from their talisman.
After their anguished calls for a handball by Tyler Roberts, the Cottagers retired to the sideline for their drinks.
Mitrovic could be heard bellowing: “Keep f****** moving the ball, it’s simple.â€
Move the ball, they did, but beat Meslier, they did not.
Cooper’s sweary introduction for Poveda
Ian Poveda made his home debut in the 83rd minute as a substitute for Harrison. When he trotted on, with the score already at 3-0, he was left in no doubt by his captain what was expected.
It is clear standards will not be allowed to slip inside this group, regardless of how comfortable the Whites look for wins and promotion.
“Ian, two-touch, f****** run!†Slacking is not allowed on Liam Cooper’s watch.
