OPINION
A clean sheet, all three points and back at the top of the Championship.
That can go down as a good weekend’s work for Leeds but it wasn’t all plain sailing against Barnsley on Sunday.
Here are the three things we learned from the hard-earned three points:
- Jack Harrison must be axed
The 22-year-old looked sharp when he returned from Man City in the summer, and he hit two 7.5+ ratings on WhoScored in the games against Wigan and Stoke. But the old Harrison has emerged against Swansea – when he dropped below a six for the first time this season – and Barnsley, when he was hooked off for Helder Costa at half-time. He pulled one ball back for Pablo Hernandez in the first half, but aside from that he delivered nothing and missed an absolutely glorious chance to score when he hit the outside of the post instead. Costa looked much more dangerous when he came on and deserves his first start of the campaign against Derby. Harrison has scored just one goal this season now and provided no assists. It’s not good enough and his latest horror show means a spell on the sidelines is needed.
- Different Leeds?
This was shaping up to be a classic Leeds game – lots of chances and no goals. Leeds had 21 shots in total and seven on target, yet it took a late goal from substitute Eddie Nketiah to get the three points. However, the attack momentum graph below [SofaScore] shows how professionally Leeds finished off the game. They didn’t pull back and defend when they were 1-0 up but went and found the second goal – a penalty won by Nketiah and dispatched clinically by Mateusz Klich. Marcelo Bielsa would have been proud of that.
- Kiko settled in goal
Kiko Casilla came in for a lot of criticism last season, and especially after the huge mistake he made in the play-off semi-final against derby. Credit where credit’s due, though, he’s been a lot better this season and was excellent on Sunday. He got an 8.3 rating from WhoScored, second only to Kalvin Phillips with an 8.4, and he made some big saves without any of his scary detours outside of the box.