Those who were looking forward to this game as a top of the table thriller overlooked Burnley’s remarkable record of having conceded only nine goals all season, and the home side’s approach made sure this game petered out as the dampest of squibs.
There was much discussion before the game about what would constitute a good result for Leeds. My head said that a draw away to a promotion rival was reasonable, but my heart thought we should go for the win, to avenge our only home defeat of the season so far, a game that hinged on a couple of key moments.
Daniel Farke said pre-match that this was a ‘must not lose’ game, and some fans have said that his only change to the starting line-up was also a sign of a negative approach. I think that is unfair, as his preference all along has been to have at least one of Ampadu and Gruev in midfield, and it just happened that this was the game when the Bulgarian had regained sufficient fitness to play the full 90 minutes.
The pattern of the game was set early on, with Burnley sitting very deep for a home side, and our slow build-up ensured that their well organised and hard working defence had time to get into position whenever we eventually approached their penalty area. And it didn’t help that a lot of moves broke down through a sloppy final ball, as well as a tendency to go sideways or backwards rather than risk losing possession.
We had a free kick that was terrible even by our standards, with Aaronson sending it straight into the wall while Tanaka was standing in an offside position anyway. Our best chance of the half fell to Dan James, but he hammered his shot into the ground, and it bounced up to give Trafford an easy chance to gather the ball.
And all Burnley could muster were a couple of tame headers from Flemming, illustrating why they are said to be searching for another striker while this transfer window is still open. And the second half was much the same, so any neutrals watching the game on Sky must have been switching off in their droves.
After 71 minutes Farke sent Joseph and Ramazani on for Piroe and Solomon, in the hope that freshening things up might finally achieve a breach in the Burnley defence. It didn’t, though Ramazani would have got to a cross at the far post if Conor Roberts hadn’t been alert enough to get in the way.
Finally in the closing stages we were finally treated to a shot on target. James hit it well enough, but it was too close to Trafford, and the highly rated keeper was able to tip the ball over the bar. Gruev was forced to hobble off as we went into stoppage time, and hopefully it wasn’t a recurrence of his previous injury.
Farke could have taken the opportunity to put Rothwell on and look for a late winner, but instead Guilavogui emerged from the bench to shore things up and protect the back four. Perhaps another indication that the highest priority was to ensure that we didn’t lose this match. Shortly afterwards the referee put us all out of our misery with the final whistle, ensuring that we maintained our three point lead over third place.
And when our manager spoke to the BBC he was pleased with the result, while admitting that it wasn’t the most entertaining game. " A good result for us, good point on the road. I can't say it was an unbelievable advertisement today. When two of the best sides in the league play against each other, no-one wants to make a mistake and looks like a chess game”.
"They are on a massive unbeaten run and if you come away with a point and a clean sheet on the road it is always a good result. Both teams were without mistakes but struggled to create enough chances. They have a special approach and you have to be ready for this and control this. You have to make sure you are rock solid and that is what we were."
The consensus on social media is that a point from this difficult fixture will do, at the end of a weekend when none of the top four sides recorded a victory. Provided of course we follow it up with a couple of wins in the next few days, before the next top of the table clashes, when we face the rest of the top four in successive games at the end of next month.