Having started the year with nine straight wins Leeds looked all set to overpower the Championship even in this extreme year at the top, but they’ve dropped points in five of their last ten to put the whole thing back in the balance. Nico Franks and Gruev Armada (@timmsy_ks) gave us the latest.

How's the season been overall for Leeds?

NF: Our form in the first three months of 2024 was record-breaking, the best in our history. So, you can’t have a period like that and complain, particularly in the Championship, when super long unbeaten runs don’t come around too often. We outperformed Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the FA Cup but still lost, so a really memorable win like that to look back on would have been nice. Promotion is everything, however. So, if we fail to go up after breaking all our records, this season will just be remembered as being extremely Leeds-y. If we do go up, it’ll feel extremely cathartic and almost a double celebration, given we went up behind closed doors during the disrupted Covid-19 season of 2019/20.

GA: Overall, you can't really argue with 90 points with two games to go. It has been a frustrating few weeks after a blistering start to the year but when you consider Bielsa's team won the title fairly easily with only three more points, it puts the season into perspective. We've been pushed hard by Leicester, Ipswich and Southampton and that has coloured the opinion of the season a bit unfairly.

Leeds in the league so far…
Leeds 2-2 Cardiff Cooper 49, Sommerville 90 – Bowler 23, Ugbo 39
Birmingham 1-0 Leeds Jutkiewicz pen 90
Leeds 1-1 West Brom Ayling 72 – Thomas-Asante 52
Ipswich 3-4 Leeds Rodon og 7, Broadhead 45, Chaplin 90 – Rutter 10, Gnonto 14, Piroe 19, Sinisterra 75
Leeds 0-0 Sheff Wed
Millwall 0-3 Leeds Piroe 15, 77, Rutter 81
Hull 0-0 Leeds
Leeds 3-0 Watford Piroe 67, Byram 70, Anthony 89
Southampton 3-1 Leeds Armstrong 2, 35, Smallbone 31 – Struijk 58
Leeds 1-0 QPR Summerville 9
Leeds 2-1 Bristol City James 37, Piroe 53 – Naismith 45
Norwich 2-3 Leeds Duffy 4, Sara 43 – Duffy og 63, Summerville 77, 83
Stoke 1-0 Leeds Struijk og 80
Leeds 4-1 Huddersfield James 20, 34, Summerville 31, 45 – Helik 70
Leicester 0-1 Leeds Rutter 58
Leeds 2-1 Plymouth James 21, Piroe 28 – Waine 84
Rotherham 1-1 Leeds Odofin 45 – Summerville 6
Leeds 3-1 Swansea Piroe 4, Rutter 45, James 61 – Paterson 1
Leeds 3-2 Boro James 5, Summerville 7, Piroe pen 38 – Lath 3, 45
Blackburn 0-2 Leeds James 27, Summerville 75
Sunderland 1-0 Leeds Bellingham 78
Leeds 1-1 Coventry Summerville 58 – Thomas 66
Leeds 4-0 Ipswich Struijk 8, Davis og 25, Summerville pen 45, Piroe 52
Preston 2-1 Leeds Browne 57, Millar 89 – Struijk pen 83
West Brom 1-0 Leeds Diangana 37
Leeds 3-0 Birmingham Bamford 34, James 45, Summerville 67
Cardiff 0-3 Leeds Bamford 13, James 31, Rutter 88
Leeds 2-1 Preston James 6, Piroe pen 90 – Keane 2
Leeds 1-0 Norwich Bamford 16
Bristol City 0-1 Leeds Gnonto 47
Leeds 3-0 Rotherham Bamford 10, Summerville 52, pen 60
Swansea 0-4 Leeds Summerville 8, Piroe 10, Gnonto 35, 72
Plymouth 0-2 Leeds Gnonto 10, Rutter 72
Leeds 3-1 Leicester Roberts 80, Faes og 83, Bamford 90 – Faes 15
Huddersfield 1-1 Leeds Helik 45 – Bamford 67
Leeds 1-0 Stoke James 33
Sheff wed 0-2 Leeds Bamford 45, Gnonto 58
Leeds 2-0 Millwall Gnonto 33, James 79
Watford 2-2 Leeds Bayo 31, Dennis 44 – Summerville 37, Joseph 85
Leeds 3-1 Hull Byram 9, Summerville pen 88, James 90 – Carvalho 34
Coventry 2-1 Leeds Simms 9, Wright 49 – Piroe 76
Leeds 0-0 Sunderland
Leeds 0-1 Blackburn Szmodics 82
Boro 3-4 Leeds Jones 7, Lath 30, 87 – Summerville pen 14, 6, Bamford 18, Gnonto 39

At one point you looked like you were just going to steamroller your way to the title, but some proper wobbles of late - what's caused that?

NF: Excuse me but this question must be leftover from your Leicester Q&A! (Thank you very much for beating them in March by the way, that was a great help!) While our wobble pales in comparison to that of the Foxes, we have been off the boil since returning from the international break towards the end of March. A few key players picked up knocks while on international duty and all that time to think during the break appeared to disrupt our momentum. It probably didn’t help that so many of our players are Welsh and they missed out on Euros qualification by the finest margins. Meanwhile, nerves among the crowd at Elland Road have seeped into the players, particularly during the awful Blackburn loss, so a run of away games has proved welcome.

GA: It's hard to give a single explanation, but I think a mixture of nerves, expectation and the unwillingness of other teams around us to drop points. We've also had a number of key players out injured or carrying injuries in the last month that hasn't helped.

Assessment of Daniel Farke's first year in charge? Or does that depend on whether you get promoted or not?

NF: He’s been excellent and the stats back this up, though a vocal (and deluded) section of the fanbase seem to think he shouldn’t be getting so much credit. Granted, his substitutions when we’re trying to break teams down often come too late and with little obvious tactical nous. But we’ve surpassed the points and goals tally that you’d normally need to go up automatically, so he’s golden in my eyes. If we don’t go up this season I trust him to do the business in 2024/25, when hopefully the competition won’t be as fierce…

GA: It's hard to argue that he's not done a great job. Although he has an exceptional squad at this level, the situation he walked into this summer was a mess and he did very well to steady the ship and turn it around. Personally, I think he's been superb, and his calmness is just what we needed after a hectic few seasons in the Premier League.

I have to say I expected Leeds to go down the Bournemouth route in January - another eight or nine players just to make doubly sure. You only did Conor Roberts in the end, was that a mistake? Should more have been done?

NF:Quality over quantity seems to have been the strategy and the late signing of Conor Roberts has been ideal – he’s already proved hugely important and has a great ‘tache. If we don’t go up then I don’t think the January window will be seen as the issue, particularly given our form in Feb/March. Maybe one or two more older heads wouldn’t have gone amiss - the early retirement of Stuart Dallas is a huge loss and having him on the pitch might have brought some much needed calmness and experience to what is quite a young and giddy team.

GA: In an ideal world yes, we would have signed more players but I think the financial reality of relegation meant that to buy we'd have to sell and the decision was made to go with what we have. I think the performances of players we would have been happy to see go in the summer, like Junior Firpo, made it difficult to find replacements who would do better.

Summer Ins >>> Joel Piroe, 24, CF, Swansea, £12m >>> Ethan Ampadu, 22, DM, Chelsea, £6.9m >>> Ilia Gruev, 24, CM, Werder Bremen, £5m >>> Glen Kamara, 27, CM, Rangers, £5m >>> Karl Darlow, 32, GK, Newcastle, £300k >>> Sam Byram, 29, LB, Norwich, Free >>> Djed Spence, 23, RB, Spurs, Loan >>> Jaidon Anthony, 23, LW, Bournemouth, Loan >>> Joe Rodon, 25, CB, Spurs, Loan

Winter Outs >>> Leo Hjelde, 20, LB, Sunderland, £1.3m >>> Darko Gyabi, 19, CM, Plymouth, Loan >>> Luke Ayling, 32, RB, Boro, Loan >>> Ian Poveda, 23, RW, Sheff Wed, Loan >>> Helder Costa, 29, RW, Released

Player of the season candidates?

NF: Summerville is unplayable at this level and frequently gets namechecked by other Championship players as the best they’ve come up against. But Joe Rodon has been the foundation for a lot of what has made this team so strong. He’s barely put a foot wrong all season and is the new Ben White in terms of being a “can-we-please-keep-him-please” loanee.

GA: While Crysencio Summerville and Georginio Rutter have grabbed deserved headlines and Joe Rodon and young Archie Gray have been excellent, I think our player of the season is Ethan Ampadu. He has been unbelievably consistent in two positions all season and is arguably better than the "Premier League" players he replaced.

Weak links in the side?

NF: I would have said Junior Firpo, but he was fantastic against Boro and gives me hope that we’ve had our bumpy bit and will just do the job over the next two games. Maybe we won’t lose our shit in the play-offs like we usually do.

GA: At the moment nerves, and changes are causing defensive issues. While Firpo is great going forward he can be a bit iffy defensively. Illan Meslier still makes rookie mistakes in goal.

Do you think you'll see promotion through? If you miss out on the two do you fear the play-offs?

NF: I predicted fourth and a play-off semi-final loss before the season began and second when we spoke in October. But, of course I fear for the play-offs, I am a Leeds fan. I do have faith in my prediction of second though, I can see Ipswich dropping points against either Hull or Cov, which means we just need to win our final two games to go up. After our record-breaking season, that doesn’t feel like too much of a stretch. Though say Ipswich do continue their knack of winning games in the 97th minute with spawny deflected goals, I think maybe, just maybe, we have the firepower up front to short circuit the nerves and get past anyone in this league, particularly if they come at us, even at Wembley…

GA: I don't like making those predictions, but I feel we've got the quality to win our final two games and go up. As it stands it really depends on nerves and how the other teams around us fare in their remaining games. I do fear the playoffs, as all Leeds fans do. We've never been good in them. Pressure would be all on our players.

If you don't go up, declining parachute payment, lots of big earners out on loan, what comes next for Leeds? Just go up next year or more complicated than that?

NF: We seem to have been a bit more conscientious of the purse strings than at other times in our past, so that should spare us the world of pain coming the way of, say, Leicester. But the clock will be ticking and the longer you’re in the Championship, the harder it is to get out. Nevertheless, there’s no way next season can be as freakish as this one with so many points needed get automatic promotion and I would trust Farke to do the job in his second season.

GA: I don't think there's a looming crisis but it's realistic to expect if we didn't go up that players would have to leave. There are a few like Summerville and Rutter who will attract big money offers from top clubs, and others we will want to get off the wage bill even if on loan. That said we've proven able to sign players astutely like Ampadu for £7m and Gruev for £4m who have been really effective, so if we are in the Championship next season I'd still expect us to hold onto a few star players and be challenging again.

Links >>> Leeds United official website >>> Yorkshire Evening Post — Local Paper >>> Yorkshire Post — Local Paper >>> The Square Ball — Fanzine >>> WACCOE — Forum >>> Marching on Together — Forum >>> Not 606 — Forum >>> SB Nation — Blog

The Twitter @loftforwords, @NicoFranks, @Timmsy_ks

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TacticalR added 18:49 - Apr 26 Thanks to Nico and Gruev. It sounds like there is not obvious explanation for Leeds' 'wobble'. It's interesting that neither Leeds or Leicester have been able to get completely clear of Ipswich (currently in third place).
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