Wasting chances, sweating on Pontus Jansson, nervy two-horse race for place in Premier - Leeds United Talking Points

AFTER seeing Leeds United fall out of the Championship's automatic promotion places with a 1-0 loss at home to Sheffield United, Lee Sobot looks at a few key talking points from Saturday's loss at Elland Road.
UNLIKELY SIGHT: Leeds United centre-back Pontus Jansson pulls on Kiko Casilla's goalkeeping jersey to take his place in net after the Spaniard's sending off.UNLIKELY SIGHT: Leeds United centre-back Pontus Jansson pulls on Kiko Casilla's goalkeeping jersey to take his place in net after the Spaniard's sending off.
UNLIKELY SIGHT: Leeds United centre-back Pontus Jansson pulls on Kiko Casilla's goalkeeping jersey to take his place in net after the Spaniard's sending off.

Dominance counts for nothing

Striker Patrick Bamford felt Leeds should have been 3-0 up at the interval and it's impossible not to agree.

Even Blades boss Chris Wilder admitted he was relieved to get into the break goalless.

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Marcelo Bielsa's men were by and large running rings around the visitors who appeared to be having great difficulty dealing with a heavy pitch with Wilder admitting his side looked rather leggy.

At least three good goalscoring chances stood out in the first half with Jack Harrison volleying over from close range after Bamford had seen an effort from inside the area blocked.

Tyler Roberts also put a decent header over and Leeds should have scored when Luke Ayling's cutback missed Mateusz Klich and instead found Gjanni Alioski who blazed over.

In total, United had 17 shots at goal yet crucially not one on target with Roberts most unlucky to thump an effort against the post in the second half.

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But Leeds cannot afford to be so wasteful in front of goal with their impressive football and dominance going to waste against the Blades.

United's finishing had improved in recent weeks but this was a step backwards at the worst possible time and taking chances over the next eight games could be the difference between automatic promotion and play-offs.

Top scorer Kemar Roofe seemed to confirm speaking to Quest on Saturday that he was around two weeks off from a return and having Roofe back for the final half dozen or so games would be a massive and potentially crucial boost.

The cost of Pontus Jansson's eventful day

An in-form Pontus Jansson again produced a very strong display at centre-back and it should be stressed that his partner in crime and captain Liam Cooper was also having a decent game until blotting his copyboook with two crucial mistakes that led to first Chris Basham's winning goal and then Kiko Casilla's sending off.

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Jansson stoked the fire ahead of Saturday's derby on social media by asking fans to turn up one hour before kick-off to further crank up the atmosphere ahead of a contest the Swede admitted was for many "the biggest game of our lives".

No nonense Jansson knew the importance of establishing a five-point advantage in the automatic promotion spots through a victory against the Blades yet the defender ended up on the losing side, nursing a knee injury and wearing Casilla's goalkeeping gloves in between the sticks.Not quite what he had in mind.

With all three substitutes used, Jansson took over Casilla's shirt in net following the Spaniard's sending off after a stint upfront in which the defender should have scored when sidefooting a cross from Jack Clarke wide.

But Jansson was only sent upfront with the defender struggling with his knee after going down injured in the 80th minute.

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It appeared that Jansson was either calling for further treatment or to come off in exchanges with Bielsa and his team who opted to send the big Swede upfront, a move that very nearly worked the oracle.

Saturday's game is now gone but of more concern now is the condition of Jansson as Leeds clearly need the talisman defender for their final eight games.

Speaking in his post-match press conference, Bielsa said he did not know what was wrong with Jansson who is now due on international duty with Sweden over the international break.

Leeds were assessing the defender following the Blades clash with the club hopeful that the injury is not serious and and it is only to be hoped that there is no lasting damage as United need an injury to Jansson like a hole in the head, even with Gaetano Berardi now back.

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Either way, unless Leeds chose to appeal Casilla's sending off and are successful with that appeal then there will be a change at the back for the hosting of Millwall after the international break with Casilla serving a one-match ban meaning Bailey Peacock-Farrell will get another chance in goal.

Destiny out of United's hands

To the point that matters most, and the fact that Leeds United's automatic promotion destiny is now out of their own hands.

Even a draw would have been okay from that perspective.

But Leeds are now staring at the fact that they will finish behind Sheffield United if the Blades win their final eight games.

In the unpredictable waters of the Championship, that is clearly a tall order and an open and honest Bamford said himself afterwards that if Sheffield United were to win their final games then Leeds would merely have to applaud the Blades on such an achievement and take hats off to Chris Wilder's side.

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It would be a surprise and a monumental achievement if the Sheffield outfit took 24 points from a remaining 24 but the Blades have now taken 24 out of a last possible 30 over what on paper were harder games than their final eight.

Staggering also to think that the Bramall Lane outfit have now gone ten and half hours without a conceding a goal.

Wilder's men now finish with home clashes against Bristol City, Millwall, Nottingham Forest and Ipswich Town with away days at Preston North End, Birmingham City, Hull City and Stoke City on the agenda.

It's not that much of a dissimilar run in to Leeds' who also have to visit Birmingham and Preston plus travelling to Ipswich and Brentford in addition to home clashes with Millwall, Sheffield Wednesday, Wigan Athletic and a very much in form Aston Villa.

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On paper, Leeds' run in is arguably slightly harder than the Blades' but United now need to record a one or two point better haul than Wilder's side over the final eight games and one point better would only suffice if overturning a minus six worse goal difference.

With Bristol City's good run having subsided, Preston away looks Sheffield United's hardest remaining game though Stoke away on the final day is an interesting one on a day when Leeds are away at League One-bound Ipswich. Heaven knows what the situation will be by then but it's not hard to see it going down to the final day.

There is obviously also leaders Norwich City to consider but the Canaries are now five five clear of the Whites and it would be a big surprise now if Norwich did not kick clear to win the league.

With West Brom six points behind Leeds in fourth, it looks a two-horse race for second to be decided in an eight-game shoot-out which will be incredibly tense.

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Taking everything into account, it is not difficult to imagine Sheffield United taking something around the 20 point mark from their final eight games unless the pressure gets to them, a point to which Bamford also eluded to.

There's always the play-offs but it would be devastating to see United's stellar football under Bielsa not rewarded with an automatic promotion place.

Eight games left and it might just be that only eight-straight wins or something very close to that are now enough to make that happen.