FAN FARE | Can Leeds play away every week?

Despite currently sitting top of the Championship tree with sky high rankings in the vast majority of performance-related stats, there is still a nervy and unsettled feeling among Leeds United's fanbase this season.

Leeds’ horror home form of one win in eight games has caused fans to start questioning the team again and, after last weekend's disappointing draw with Derby, now seems a good time to dive into the facts and figures behind our curious aversion to playing at Elland Road.

Home struggles

The start of the 2019/20 season has proved difficult for Leeds on their own patch, the Whites having won just one of their opening four home fixtures.

Since Marcelo Bielsa took charge, Leeds have won 15 league games at home, which is bettered by the 16 Championship victories they have recorded on the road. Winning more games away is not a common trend in football, most promoted clubs relying on strong results on home turf to get them over the line. 

A look back over recent Championship seasons confirms that the champions have always recorded more league wins at home than away. If Leeds are to succeed this season, will their home form need to improve? Or can they buck the trend and keep going as they are, picking up wins away while averaging their current 1.25 points per game at Elland Road?

Worse late than never

Leeds' home record this season in the league reads: one win (v Brentford), two draws (v Forest and Derby) and one loss (v Swansea). 

The most recent home performance summed up Leeds' problems at Elland Road. Pitted against the team who did for them in last season's play-offs, Leeds would have been desperate to secure victory - and they utterly dominated Derby for 80 minutes of the game.

©Getty / CCONLINE LTD

After Matuesz Klich missed a 70th minute penalty, however, the nerves and anxiety grew and the Elland Road crowd were stunned, but not surprised, when Chris Martin curled a finish into Kiko Casilla’s bottom corner in the 91st minute.

Being caught by a late sucker punch is something the Leeds crowd are becoming accustomed to. Although Martin's goal was only the fourth conceded by Bielsa's men in eight league games, Leeds' otherwise mean defence falters late on in games: all four goals conceded this season have come after the 75th minute of play.

Five points from a possible 12 in comparison with six straight league wins on the road - something not seen since the Don Revie era - should definitely give United's meticulous coach food for thought.

Chances are a fine thing...so, please take them

Is it Leeds not creating the chances? Away teams being clinical? As always, there are multiple factors at work, but there is no escaping the fact that Leeds are wasting too many chances and failing to capitalise when they are in the ascendancy. Not converting chances was Leeds' Achilles heel last season...and it's happening again.

So far this season, Leeds rank highest for shots-per-game, averaging 17.5 per game, with Patrick Bamford averaging four shots per game on his own.

Creating chances isn’t the issue, it is finishing them - with Bamford only scoring four of his 32 shots so far this season. Eddie Nketiah, Arsenal’s future superstar, was brought in as competition for Bamford, and he perhaps has the ruthless streak Leeds are crying out for. The young loanee has scored two league goals in only 89 minutes of play, all as a substitute - and Leeds fans are now strongly in favour of Bamford being dropped at this early stage in the season. Bamford alone, however, is not solely to blame.

One of Wolves’ stars of their promotion-winning season, Helder Costa, was brought in by director of football Victor Orta to add variety and quality to the Leeds United flanks. Eight games in, however, and he is yet to start a league match, only playing 168 minutes in that time. Why is that?

Harrison's cross to bear

Bielsa has a strong connection with winger Jack Harrison and clearly sees the potential which saw the 22-year-old move from the MLS to Manchester City in 2017/18. After contributing to 23 goals in two seasons for New York City FC in the MLS, Harrison has been inconsistent since the beginning of his time on loan at Leeds. The 22 year old has mainly played out on the left wing under Bielsa, but it remains to been seen whether he is more efficient and more of a threat playing off the right, or even centrally. Playing on the left, left -footed Harrison is unable to cut back onto his favoured foot and shoot, which was one of his trademarks during his time in the MLS.

©Getty / MI News

What makes this situation worse is that Harrison has a key issue with his crossing, which has deteriorated this season: the winger swinging over only one successful cross out of the 30 he has attempted. Whether the issue be on his part, or the team as a whole, it is clear to see changes are needed out wide.

The Visiting Team

This season, the four teams to visit Elland Road have shared the common trait of sitting back, soaking up pressure and then looking to be more expansive late on. Of this visiting quartet, three have left with points - despite all being dominated by Leeds for long periods. 

This tendency for visiting teams to sit back and defend is a clear factor behind why Leeds are struggling to score. The quality of the chances created are reduced, as Leeds struggle to break down compact, deep-lying teams, as was certainly the case with Swansea and Nottingham Forest.

A work in progress

Leeds may only have one league clean sheet from four Championship games (way down on their ratio of a clean sheet every 2.3 games last season), but they have limited visiting teams to a combined total of five shots on target this season. Nottingham Forest and Derby only had one shot on target each, but took a combined four points away from Leeds. Swansea, who beat the Whites, managed the grand total of two shots in the 90 minutes, Wayne Routledge bundling home their matchwinner in the dying moments.

Brentford were beaten after only managing one shot on target. These are fantastic defensive stats from Leeds that are not reflected in their points tally. What is striking is that the identikit gameplan being used against Leeds is bringing them success. 

All things considered, there is plenty for Leeds fans and Bielsa to mull over!

However, it is important to take the Whites' home struggles with a pinch of salt; we are only eight games into a long season, and the reality is that Leeds fans are annoyed to only be level at the top of the league - which goes to show just how far the club has come in a short period of time. 

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— Leeds United (@LUFC) September 27, 2019