Tactical Hokey Cokey in Leeds United's win over Barnsley, an ugly game with a beautiful result - Graham Smyth

When the full-time whistle sounded at Elland Road, Leeds United head coach Marcelo Bielsa approached Gerhard Struber with body language that was part empathetic, part apologetic and told the Barnsley boss that they deserved more than the 1-0 defeat.
CHANGES - Marcelo Bielsa made a number of tactical switches in the game as Leeds United struggled to get control against Barnsley. Pic: Jonathan GawthorpeCHANGES - Marcelo Bielsa made a number of tactical switches in the game as Leeds United struggled to get control against Barnsley. Pic: Jonathan Gawthorpe
CHANGES - Marcelo Bielsa made a number of tactical switches in the game as Leeds United struggled to get control against Barnsley. Pic: Jonathan Gawthorpe

Other managers, having earned a win that took their side to within one result of promotion to the Premier League – dropped points for either West Brom or Brentford or a draw at Derby on Sunday will do it – would have raced onto the pitch embracing their players, joining in with the joyous, relieved celebrations.

Whites director of football Victor Orta was roaring in the directors’ box, owner Andrea Radrizzani raced down to the tunnel to greet the players with gleeful bear hugs, an acknowledgement of just how close they have come to glory.

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Bielsa is different. This game was different. It was weird. It wasn’t particularly good but if the history books record a promotion for Leeds United in the next three days, the performance and Bielsa’s tactical Hokey Cokey as he tried to gain control of the game, will be an inconsequential footnote.

This wasn’t vintage Leeds, there wasn’t a lot of free-flowing football to enjoy and it was decided by a scruffy own-goal.

What this was, however, was guts and determination. It wasn’t going to plan, it wasn’t clicking and yet Leeds, led by veteran Liam Cooper and rookie Pascal Struijk did the dirty side of the game, blocking shots, winning headers and making tackles in and around the area as Barnsley took on the role of the attacking team. With Brentford maintaining their winning streak and ramping up the pressure game after game, a side with a weaker mentality might have crumpled under the weight of the must-win nature of this one.

The afternoon began with a minute of silence for club legend Jack Charlton and in the pin-drop quiet of a near-empty Elland Road, it had to cross the minds of Bielsa’s players that before them stood an opportunity to take a giant step toward replicating one of his Leeds United achievements – a second-tier title and the capture of top-flight status.

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What was on their minds as the first half developed into a hotchpotch of formation changes is anyone’s guess.

JOB DONE - Leeds United got the result against Barnsley, despite some difficulties, and moved a giant step towards promotion. Pic: Jonathan GawthorpeJOB DONE - Leeds United got the result against Barnsley, despite some difficulties, and moved a giant step towards promotion. Pic: Jonathan Gawthorpe
JOB DONE - Leeds United got the result against Barnsley, despite some difficulties, and moved a giant step towards promotion. Pic: Jonathan Gawthorpe

Barnsley, in a 4-1-3-2, had not come to sit deep. They came to press and to attack. Leeds began in a 3-3-2-2 of sorts. It was a somewhat lopsided shape for the Whites. Luke Ayling centred a back three with Liam Cooper and Gaetano Berardi either side of him and Ben White took Kalvin Phillips’ defensive midfield position, with Jack Harrison occupying the left flank on his own and Stuart Dallas playing on the right behind a very advanced Helder Costa. Tyler Roberts and Mateusz Klich floated around the middle, behind Patrick Bamford.

As the half progressed it only got more and more confusing. Bielsa began to tinker, pushing Berardi to left-back in what looked suspiciously like a 4-4-2. Then he brought him back into a three. Out to the left went the Swiss hardman again.

And just as another switch looked imminent, Barnsley took possession and Berardi appeared caught in two minds and between the two positions, Bielsa seemingly cancelling his initial order, much to the chagrin of Ayling, who left the field at half-time shrugging his shoulders and shaking his head.

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The saving grace was that, by then, Leeds were a goal up and Barnsley, while willing and enthusiastic, were toothless in attack. They could fashion chances but they couldn’t take them.

Jack Brown, found by livewire Conor Chaplin, fizzed a ball across Illan Meslier, Cooper narrowly avoiding a touch that would have put through his own goal. A few nice moments of Harrison wing play aside, Leeds were struggling to put much together themselves in the final third. And they could count themselves lucky not to be behind when a corner was drilled into the area and Mads Andersen beat Cooper to the header but glanced it wide.

Moments later the ball was in the Barnsley net.

Klich played a lovely pass down the right, Bamford was onto it and although he was denied a goal himself, cut the ball back brilliantly into the path of the unfortunate Michael Sollbauer.

It speaks of the sheer number of crosses and cut- backs Leeds have generated this season and to their own struggles with chance conversion, that ‘own goal’ is their third most prolific source of goals after Bamford and Pablo Hernandez.

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The half-time break allowed Bielsa to make the players more keenly aware of the formation they were now playing and their individual roles, it brought Hernandez onto the field for the ineffective Roberts, but it did little to change the nature of the game. A side who have controlled games against far better opposition all season just couldn’t get to grips with the football or the Tykes, who were kept out by Meslier early in the second period.

The tension only grew with Barnsley’s rising shot count.

Chaplin whacked one past the near post after getting in on the right, Callum Styles took advantage of an Ayling error to shoot past the far post.

Bielsa’s response was, at the time, a head-scratcher but it proved vital.

With an hour gone, centre-half Struijk came off the bench to take the place of wide man Harrison.

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The 20-year-old had played just seven minutes all season and his last appearance on the Elland Road turf came four minutes before Cardiff’s late leveller in the nightmarish 3-3 draw.

As if the pressure of the occasion wasn’t enough, Bielsa put him into the central defensive midfield role and tasked him with protecting the back four.

Struijk got off to a rocky start with a poor giveaway in a dangerous area and then grew into the game magnificently.

It was his through ball that released fellow replacement Gjanni Alioski, whose perfect cross for Bamford should have brought a second, Jack Walton making a fine save.

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Cooper also came to the fore, single-handedly blocking Barnsley’s route to goal with a number of crucial interventions.

Meslier did his bit too, tipping Cauley Woodrow’s shot over the bar.

Hanging on for their lives is an unfamiliar position in which to find themselves but even if Leeds couldn’t play their football, they could run and they could tackle.

With Orta living and dying during each Barnsley attack and Bielsa and his staff a whirl of frantic touchline activity, the minutes felt like hours before Jarred Gillett blew his whistle to put Leeds fans out of their misery and heap more of it onto Barnsley.

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Bielsa put an arm around his opposite number and told him Barnsley deserved more. Kalvin Phillips, kept out by a knee injury, put his arms around each team-mate as they celebrated.

It wasn’t a pretty game but the result was beautiful. The masterpiece is a brushstroke away from completion.