Leeds United and their fair share of drama and excitement

Football is generally about success and entertainment, with the two working in tandem for us to decide what is worthwhile.

For a supporter, success and entertainment is the ideal. From there, it is a sliding scale. A lack of entertainment will be tolerated for a certain amount of success. And a lack of success will be tolerated to a degree with a certain amount of entertainment.

For the neutral observer, entertainment takes precedent. If you support Leyton Orient or Municipal Vinto in the Bolivian top tier, you generally care more about seeing a decent match than who wins between Wolves and Southampton.

Entertainment is, undoubtedly, something that Marcelo Bielsa and Leeds United can proudly say they have brought to England’s top tier.

How entertaining something is in sport can be based off a number of different factors. As much as careering rollercoaster games are great fun, they can be matched for excitement value by tense and gruelling affairs.

Take the Super League Grand Final between Wigan and St Helens for example. A low scoring 8-4 victory for Saints, but also a tense and gripping final with moments of heroism and calamity, capped off by last second drama.

This, however, is not the kind of entertainment that Bielsa’s men specialise in. They specialise in the more careering rollercoaster affairs. And we should be grateful to have this kind of team in the Premier League.

The Whites are virtually always bringing some form of excitement. Whether it’s them blitzing a team off the pitch with their energetic man marking system and incisive quick passing, or blowing a load of chances before falling to bizarre defensive collapses, Leeds are good value.

Their opening day fixture against Liverpool featured a bit of both. There were times when Leeds’s defence was scythed apart by the Reds’ scintillating attack force, but also moments when Leeds hounded forwards and punished Liverpool in a 4-3 thriller.

Next up was Fulham and another 4-3, this time with the result in Leeds’s favour. At Elland Road, the Whites sliced Fulham apart to go 4-1 into the lead, before leaking two goals in quick succession to make what was a comfortable scoreline a more narrow one.

But not all of Leeds’s excitement comes from high scoring matches. A tense last minute 1-0 win over Sheffield United included the Blades doing some role reversal and missing a host of chances themselves before being punished. Then Leeds’s enthralling footballing bonanza with Man City which ended 1-1.

And let’s not forget their more recent games such as missing a variety of chances against the ten men of Arsenal to draw 0-0, and claiming a 1-0 win over Everton with more missed chances. Jamie Carragher quite rightly tweeted that the game should probably have been about 6-2 to Leeds.

Then there have been the collapses, when the players haven’t been at their best and the opposing team have found a way past Bielsa’s intense system. This was best exemplified by consecutive 4-1 defeats to Leicester and Crystal Palace.

It doesn’t always go right for Leeds. They’re not like Liverpool and Man City of recent seasons, playing highly attractive football and carving through most teams in their path.

But Leeds’s vulnerabilities makes them arguably more exciting to watch than the steamrollering dominance of City and Liverpool (Leeds fans might not agree and may just want their team to steamroller everybody, which is understandable).

Even while mopping the floor with the rest of the Championship over the past two seasons, there have been many hiccups and a few major capitulations along the way.

Whether they’re winning or losing, outscoring their xG or missing chances, dominating opponents or getting carved open, this Leeds team are almost constantly providing a base level of enjoyment.

Bielsa and his side have brought an engaging brand of football to the top tier and, ultimately, have improved the amount of excitement and entertainment for the shiny product that is the Premier League.

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