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Given that Leeds United have won just two of their last 12 games and only have a wafer-thin gap between them and third place, it’s perhaps a strange time to be positive.

Four defeats from the last six, a crisis in front of goal, no clean sheets since before Christmas and the sheer anguish on Luke Ayling’s face following the City Ground defeat don’t exactly point to a side where everything’s all rosy.

Yet the team evidently still believe in their ability to get the job done and go up to the Premier League.

“We come out every week and try and play well,” said Phillips after the 1-1 draw at Brentford.

“You can look at it tonight and we're never a team that doubts ourselves, we're never a team that's short of confidence and the way we've played tonight we should have come away with a win and hopefully we can go on a good run from that.”

How can he still be so confident? There are still reasons to be cheerful at Elland Road.

A timely reminder of Leeds United’s quality

Brentford boss Thomas Frank evidently looked at Leeds United’s recent results and smelled blood, bullishly claiming that they’d fear their trip to Griffin Park.

Given Leeds’ recent woes contrasted with Brentford’s form, in particular their front three of Said Benrahma, and Bryan Mbuemo and Ollie Watkins, there was a logic in the Dane’s big pre-match words. But he didn’t quite get what he bargained for.

Their nickname of ‘BMW’ brought to mind one of the great footballing analogies of recent seasons, from then Swansea manager Carlos Carvalhal, back in January 2018.

"I said to my players that Liverpool were a top team, they are really strong, but they are a Formula 1 car,” he said after his relegation-battling side pulled off one of the great rearguard displays of recent times, beating Jurgen Klopp’s all-conquering Reds, a feat only Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City have managed in the two years since.

“If you put a Formula 1 car in London in traffic, the Formula 1 car will not run very fast.”

Brentford’s ‘BMW’ might not quite be the Formula 1 car of Liverpool, but they’re a formidable test at this level. Watkins is the league’s joint top-scorer with 20 goals, while the three of them have 40 combined in the league.

While Carvalhal’s Swansea denied Liverpool space, playing compact and getting bodies deep behind the ball, Marcelo Bielsa’s Leeds went with a polar opposite but equally effective strategy, starving Brentford of the ball, pressing bravely and aggressively in midfield. Their midfielders were robbed of time and space to create opportunities for their forwards.

If Liverpool were stuck in traffic, Brentford were robbed of their car keys. If Swansea were Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan, Leeds are like Pep Guardiola's Barcelona.

Admittedly, Benrahma did breach United’s defence, a gift of a goal after Kiko Casilla’s inconceivable error. But otherwise the trio were totally nullified as Brentford themselves created next to nothing.

The simple finish was their only shot on target from the front three, and one of only two efforts on goal from the Bees all game, the other a tame and speculative early effort from Josh Dasilva that was ably gathered by Casilla.

Only Leeds register more shots per game than Brentford, and only Leeds and Fulham average more possession, but Bielsa’s side went to their patch and utterly dominated, registering two-thirds of possession, nearly twice as many shots and three times as many on target. The visitors set the tempo, with the ball in Brentford’s half for the majority of the game - Leeds completed 97 final third passes, more than double what the hosts managed (42).

The return of Kalvin Phillips

Leeds managed to perform like this against Brentford thanks to the influence of the returning Phillips in midfield.

The 24-year-old academy graduate underlined why he’s being talked up for England’s 2020 squad and £40m moves to the Premier League with a supreme individual display; he had the highest passing accuracy, played the most successful passes and made the most ball recoveries of any player on the pitch.

Kalvin Phillips v Brentford:



94 touches

86.8% pass acc. (highest on pitch)

66/76 successful passes (most on pitch)

14 ball recoveries (most on pitch)

14/18 final third passes

13/15 successful long balls

2 tackles won

1 chance created

1 successful take-on



Excellent return. pic.twitter.com/Wn4iRtbOFX — LUFCDATA (@LUFCDATA) February 11, 2020

At his best, he offers protection to the defence out of possession and can distribute the ball brilliantly, allowing Leeds to get forward and go on the front foot. Undoubtedly one of the best players in the league, he can be one of the true difference-makers at this level.

Not only was he individually exceptional, but his presence allows the others around him to play at their very best, too, with Ben White, Liam Cooper, Luke Ayling and Mateusz Klich all looking good around him in their natural positions, with none having to step up or drop deeper.

If Leeds can play like this away to one of the league’s best and most in-form teams, there’s really very little to worry about against the lesser sides. It was a performance that reminded us that this is the same group of players that raced 11 points clear in December with seven straight wins, and there’s no good reason why they shouldn’t be able to do that again.

Solutions at hand

Admittedly, Leeds still didn’t get the win and could only draw 1-1 against Brentford, and sceptics will worry about the same major issues that stopped Leeds getting all three points yet again: a goalkeeper error from Kiko Casilla at one end and profligacy with converting chances at the other. Those two deficiencies don’t have to be terminal, and they can be fixed in one of two ways.

One way is that Casilla and Patrick Bamford regain confidence and rediscover the kind of form that fired Leeds to the top spot before Christmas, the former statistically the best goalkeeper in the league during the first half of the season and the latter scoring six goals in eight games during, a personal run of form

Alternatively, they’re eminently fixable personnel problems. Casilla may have already made one mistake too many at Brentford, with Bielsa repeating the same action he decided on when Bailey Peacock-Farrell went through a similar wobble, while Bamford now has Jean-Kevin Augustin breathing down his neck.

Kiko Pre-Cardiff:



47 saves

57 shots on-target faced

10 conceded

82.5% save %

4.7 saves per goal conceded

Errors leading to goals: 0



Kiko Post-Cardiff:



18 saves

38 shots on-target faced

20 conceded

47.4% save %

0.9 saves per goal conceded

Errors leading to goals: 5 pic.twitter.com/tcHfYNy7TK — LUFCDATA (@LUFCDATA) February 12, 2020

In goal, Illan Meslier has put in a series of impressive performances for the Under-23s and certainly didn’t look like he felt any pressure in his senior debut away to Arsenal, spreading the ball out to the flanks like a seasoned pro.

Up front, Bielsa has stressed it will take time for Augustin to get up to speed to his demanding methods. But having been introduced off the bench twice as Leeds chased a goal over the past week, that point may not be so far away. And the coach himself reminded us this is a £30m player with top-level European pedigree.

Favourable fixtures

The fixture list is another reason to be hopeful. While the rest of the promotion-chasers still have to slug it out with one another, Leeds have now been away to every side in the top seven.

Fulham, at home next month, are the only current top six side that Leeds have to play again. There’s also nine of the 12 bottom-half sides to come again.

Some might look to the 1-0 defeat to Wigan as proof that such games on paper mean little, but that’s the exception that proves the rule. Of teams in the top seven, Leeds have the best record against the bottom-half sides, averaging 2.27 points per game so far.

A squad in good shape

Adam Forshaw looked a brilliant and vitally important player in the early weeks of the season, and it’s a blow to lose him for the remainder of the campaign.

But Leeds have coped without him for the past five months, winning seven games on the bounce between November and December without him featuring for a minute.

Elsewhere, Tyler Roberts and Barry Douglas have suffered with recurring injuries and knocks, but there’s no suggestion that either will be unavailable beyond the short-term.

But that’s it in terms of injuries, with pretty much every first-team regular currently fit and available. That’s a far cry from this time last year, with a busy treatment room and Bielsa left scratching his head with regards to options. It’s a thin squad, but there’s currently depth in almost every position.

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The Championship is what it is

Finally, a look at bigger picture also brings about optimism.

The Championship is one of the most competitive leagues in the world - and this has helped Leeds' cause no end in recent weeks. Under any normal logic, the bleak six-week run that Bielsa's side have been on would have been enough to more or less kill off any automatic promotion hopes, but the English second tier is a strange beast.

Time and time again, Leeds' promotion rivals have spurned chances to take advantage of recent slip-ups from the Whites, with Nottingham Forest and Fulham the perfect example this week.

Had Forest followed their victory over Leeds with a home win over struggling Charlton, they would now be sitting above Bielsa's side in the table, as would Fulham if they had not let an early lead slip at Millwall.

At various time this year Fulham, Brentford, Forest, Preston and Bristol City have all been the form teams that have got Whites fans worried, but they have continually shot themselves in the foot. That, quite simply, is how the Championship appears to function this season.