It was the proverbial ‘hard fought’ draw away to Newcastle United, but getting a point at St James Park was a result we would all have settled for before kick off. And the defensive work was excellent throughout the game, which hasn’t always been the case this season.
Jesse Marsch said after the game that he’d used the mid-season pause to work on the well-documented defensive frailties that had cost us so much in the first part of the season, and had led many to question whether he should have kept his job as Leeds United head coach.
"We felt going into the World Cup break and coming out of the pause that we had that we gave goals away too cheaply and we really wanted to try to do better with that. We talked about both the tactics of what that would mean and then also the mentality to do whatever it takes to defend your goal.”
Marsch made three changes to his starting line-up. One was expected, with Tyler Adams returning after his one game ban, but the others might have been down to a bit of squad rotation, with Adams and Harrison coming in. Forshaw continued in central midfield while Roca dropped to the bench, while Kristensen was also left out.
Despite the pre-match defensive work we actually made quite a positive contribution to the game during the first half, getting forward as often as we could. Gnonto was excellent once again, with his willingness to run at defenders and take men on. He sent one early shot over the bar, but our best chance of the half fell to Aaronson, whose shot was blocked.
At the other end Meslier made the first of several excellent saves from Joelinton, while we benefitted from a couple of pieces of woeful finishing from our ex-striker Chris Wood. But we didn’t seem to be in too much danger as we got to half time in conditions that didn’t encourage free-flowing football, and we deserved to in with the scores level.
By now Forshaw had run out of puff after his long spell out of the side, and Roca was on to take his place. Early in the second half Meslier was quickly off his line to save from Wood, while the Newcastle man sent his next effort well over the bar. And on the hour mark we had our first shot on target, as Rodrigo cut inside and forced Pope into a fine save at full stretch.
But that seemed to wake Newcastle up, as from then on they managed to put our defence under some sustained pressure. They tested us with some long balls into our box, but Meslier’s handling in the air was excellent, while Longstaff took his turn to send a decent chance well over the bar. We needed a bit more ballast in midfield, so Klich was sent on for Harrison, with the latter looking a little bit disappointed to have been taken off.
As time ran out Kristensen, Gelhardt and Summerville all came on to give us some fresh legs, and Newcastle got a little bit frustrated with our ‘game management’ as we went into injury time. Calum Wilson pushed Meslier in the chest and then Guimaraes objected to the amount of time our keeper took to get to his feet, all of which used up valuable time.
An additional four minutes injury time had been announced, but nothing extra was added for this disturbance, and it played it’s part in helping us hold out for the draw. So we finished 2022 in 14th place in the table, after a few days where none of the teams around us picked up any significant number of points.
Marsch was quick to praise his defensive unit for getting us this valuable point. "I think the point is valuable but even more valuable is the clean sheet for us,” the American said. "They’ve been, since I’ve been here, not so easy to come by. First half for me, I think we played very, very well. We were in the game we were managing to find a few chances.”
"Then second half, they (Newcastle) decided to play very direct to then try to pick up some set pieces and put balls in our box. It becomes about momentum and energy and then bending but not breaking. And, in general, I thought we did that really well.” And he singled out Ilian Meslier for a special mention.
"With Illan I'm always challenging him to mature with his presence in goal, with his belief in himself with himself, with his assuredness in decision making and with saves and with crosses. By being the last defender at the right time, the choices he made with the ball, the saves he made, the crosses that he caught, this is probably his best performance since I've been here, even with Liverpool. So I think we're seeing a goalkeeper that's growing right before our eyes and that's going to be really important for us.”
But on Match of the Day Alan Shearer picked out another defensive player. "It was a combination today of really good goalkeeping, some really good defending but also some poor finishing from Newcastle. It was one-way traffic in that second half but Leeds were hanging on. You have to give them credit for that. Cooper defends really well there not just once but finds himself in the right place again in the 18-yard box”.
It makes a pleasant change to see Liam Cooper being praised, with many fans blaming him for being an absolute liability in recent weeks. He will need to be on his toes for the rest of the season, as the reported signing of Maximilian Wöber will give Marsch the option of playing the new man at left back and moving Struijk inside as the left footed central defender.
But however we set up, we need to maintain the defensive improvement as we move forward into 2023. We’ve got through a very difficult couple of fixtures without too much damage, but Wednesday night's game at home to West ham is starting to look crucial to our hopes of keeping ourselves clear of the dreaded bottom three.