Glory or meltdown? Leeds United on the verge of greatness and only level heads will do

Marcelo Bielsa’s second season in charge at Elland Road has featured the same relentless pursuit of perfection that took them so close to promotion to the Premier League last season.

The way it all ended in the Argentine’s inaugural campaign can be summed up in a single word – heartache.

Yet, armed with the wisdom of that experience and the knowledge that theirs is the club to whom disaster can so easily visit, Leeds fans still believe. They believe more than ever.

Whether or not they sit right at the top of the Championship, Leeds have been the best team in so many quantifiable ways before they were stopped in their tracks along with the rest of football by the coronavirus pandemic.

There are many reasons why opposition managers have queued up to extol the virtues of Bielsaball.

There is a book to be written on the various ways in which Bielsa’s peers have attempted to voice what it is that makes Leeds so good, why it was so difficult to play against them and why a defeat to United is no disgrace.

Their energy, their movement, their intensity, the unique man-to-man marking, the fitness levels, the high press, the suffocation.

Danny Cowley fell just short of comparing Leeds to a summer’s day in his gushing post-match tribute, after Huddersfield Town were beaten 2-0 –the last time, as it turned out, either team took to the field.

Before the enforced break, Leeds were good. Very good. Some of the football on display deserved more than words, in recognition.

The flowing team goal they scored at Hull City was perhaps only bettered by Luke Ayling’s volley, which was a slice of footballing perfection, but just as pleasing on the eye have been raking long balls from the boots of Ben White and Kalvin Phillips and the first touch of touchline hugging Jack Harrison, or the quick-thinking of Mateusz Klich, the magic of Pablo Hernandez or the sheer bloody-mindedness of Ayling.

Gaetano Berardi, on a yellow card, staying on his feet to challenge for the ball in the Yorkshire derby with the Terriers on March 7 was a sight for sore eyes in itself.

On size and stature, Leeds United rightfully belong in the Premier League and thanks to Bielsa they finally merit a return in footballing terms.

But greatness and a place in the history books, as Bielsa has noted previously, is only linked with those who win promotions and titles and they are not there yet. Nothing has been won.

What is required to get this club over the line and back to the top flight between now and the end of what is effectively a mini-season, is consistency.

Leeds fans set an example by selling out allocations in grounds all over the country and creating atmospheres that must have sent shivers down the backs of the players gracing those matches, no matter the colour of the shirt on their back.

The Whites, like Player of the Season candidate and play-me-anywhere utility man Stuart Dallas, have been excellent everywhere they’ve appeared since the season began at Bristol City back in August.

Tragically, they will now be absent from Elland Road and away stadiums and unable to roar their men on.

But they will still have a part to play in their social media activity, their interactions with players via screens and devices, and by withstanding any temptation to gather in numbers if the dream looks like it’s going to come true.

This is a time for level headedness.

Dallas, who could give university lectures on keeping a level head, has done his very best to keep a lid on things, to rein in excitement and expectation levels with his public utterances this season and he’s right to do so.

Leeds are approaching potentially uncharted territory. Getting a promotion bid over the line is not something this squad can point to on their collective CV. The path ahead remains fraught with danger, as everyone connected with the club well knows.

That’s why, when the team suffered a rash of poor results in December, January and February, the fans also had a blip and there was a feeling around Elland Road that a meltdown was on the cards.

If they should stumble again at any point over the next few weeks, there can be no meltdown.

The question for Leeds might not be how hard can they hit in the final fight scene, but how hard can they get hit and keep moving?

Before the enforced break the energy levels of Bielsa’s men were incredibly high, the football was pretty and, at times, they smothered teams.

Bielsa never stopped believing, even when he sensed a loss of faith from the supporters and the media. He never wavered from Plan A and here we are – in mid-June instead of mid-March as it should have been – with the Whites on course, marching towards glory.

They won’t change their ways now, they won’t need to. The football and the methods that got them to this stage last season and got them here again this time around should still be good enough.

All it might take is for them to hold their nerve and for everyone around them to do the same.

The run-in is here, the finishing line is coming into view. This is it, don’t get scared now.