The Class of ‘22
The Class of ‘22
Season 2021/22 was even more memorable than the electrifying season that preceded it, yet few will remember it fondly. We were put through the wringer, went to hell and back, and sacked the most beautiful human being ever to walk our green and pleasant land, but it all led to a final day like none of us have experienced before. The Football Gods finally pulled through for us, offering some redemption for the behind-closed-doors era that stole the best period of our Leeds-supporting lives.
After finishing ninth in 2020/21, a 17th placed finish was a huge disappointment, and even worse was seeing Marcelo Bielsa’s blueprint torn up. At least his work was not in vain. Leeds are starting from scratch, probably without their two best players, but at least they do so as a Premier League club. So where did it all go wrong this season? The answers lie within the men that formed The Class of ’22…
The end of the 21/22 season at Elland Road. Another late goal taking our tally of injury time points earned to 15.
Illan Meslier
Last season – 7.43
This season – 6.92
(Average ratings taken from my own records)
At the end of last season I spoke of Meslier in the same bracket as Buffon, Casillas and Donnarumma, in a debate with myself about the greatest young goalkeeper I’d ever seen. A year on and you’d struggle to find many sane people speaking about Illan in the same breath as those legends of the game. Like his teammates he has struggled to hit the same high standards this time around, even so, my confidence in Meslier remains unshaken. Spiderboy has everything in his locker to rise to the very top, and we will be very lucky if he is still a Leeds player when he eventually develops into Spiderman.
Luke Ayling
Last season – 7.42
This season – 6.88
Coming off the back of a fantastic debut Premier League campaign, during which he forced himself onto the brink of the England squad, this has been a tough season for old Bill. ‘You don’t need 11 world-class players to win things, a handful will do if the rest are players like Ayling.’ My glowing words to finish his end-of-term report from last season perhaps point to the crux of his struggles this season. Without Phillips to pass to, Cooper alongside him or Bamford running the channels, Bill couldn’t carry the team on his own, although he did manage to on that crazy night at Molineaux when his heroics dragged us to a victory that was even more important than the three vital points it yielded. For me there should be no rush to replace Luke Ayling, he just needs better help.
Junior Firpo
Alioski – 6.97
Firpo – 6.50
Replacing Alioski in the dressing room was always going to be impossible but replacing him on the pitch should have been easy enough. The madcap Macedonian’s perpetual overlaps and underlaps were a huge help to Jack Harrison, who was constantly put in two vs one situations with the full-back, but defensively he could be suspect, and his final ball was always poor. A return of two goals and three assists in a thriving Bielsa team was under par, so a top-class left-back was a sure-fire way to take Leeds to the next level. Clearly Firpo has fallen well short of expectations. Signing players on their way down the football ladder should never be encouraged and Bielsa and Victor ought to have known better, or at least known that Firpo was a risk, yet he was the only left-back in the squad all season. He has looked unassured and lacking quality, and even if he deserves a second season another first team left-back has to be a top priority.
Liam Cooper
Last season – 7.28
This season – 7.00
This was the year everybody finally realised how good, and how important, Liam Cooper is to Leeds United. And all it took was three months sat on the sidelines! It’s a funny old game. He may not be Lucas Radebe, but he is the best centre-back at the club and a rock of a captain. Like everybody at the club (spoiler alert) his average rating dropped from last season, but Cooper is in the camp who’ve been dragged down by the environment around them. Competent Premier League defenders are hard to come by and Cooper is statistically proven as one of the better defenders at this level, an automatic pick in next season’s eleven.
Pascal Struijk
Last season – 7.19
This season – 6.74
‘Only the weight of an armband tips the scales in Cooper’s favour’ was my analysis at the end of last season when comparing our two left-sided centre-backs, though their performances this season highlight the difference experience can make. A young centre-back in a team falling apart, it would take a very special talent to overcome such circumstances, so it is no failing of Struijk that his form was dragged down. He hasn’t been forced to play in midfield too often this season, though he has been forced to play left-back and coped admirably out there, displaying his versatility and fortitude under extreme pressure. Pascal still has a big future ahead of him, he can be part of the journey at Elland Road however high we climb.
Robin Koch
Last season – 7.35
This season – 6.68
Poor Robin has been forced to play in midfield more regularly than anyone at Elland Road would have wanted, and even when he finally moved back into defence he found himself at right-back. I just want to see Koch at centre-back, and having failed to play more than half the games in each of his seasons in England, the biggest obstacle he needs to overcome is staying fit. At 25 years old (26 in July), Koch is a good age and has the attributes to become an excellent centre-back. He also has international pedigree and a strong mentality, and I would be quite content if he is given the chance to start the 2022/23 season as first choice alongside Cooper.
Deigo Llorente
Last season – 7.60
This season – 6.72
Last season Llorente’s return coincided with Leeds becoming one of the best teams in the country (over the last dozen games of the season), but was it really Llorente that made the difference? He certainly played well but looking back I’m just not sure. His set-piece marking is worse than schoolboy at times, and he will never be a commanding centre-back. These are two weaknesses in his game which, for me, are terminal for his future in the Premier League. Llorente will be 29 by the time next season kicks-off, and we can’t afford to carry another centre-back who may not be good enough for where we want to be. I think this is the right time to thank Diego for his commitment and effort, and wave him a fond adios.
Kalvin Phillips
Last season – 7.82
This season – 7.10
Not many players could be more disappointed with how this season has panned out than The Yorkshire Pirlo. Off the back of almost winning the Euros with England, then winning their player of the year award, Phillips must have been licking his lips over what he could go on to achieve with Leeds. From dreaming of achieving his goals with his hometown club, Phillips now seems destined to leave, with love being the only reason to stay at a club that has no realistic chance of competing in Europe before the 2024/25 season. If his head does finally rules his heart, Kalvin Phillips will leave as a Leeds United legend.
Stuart Dallas
Last season – 7.29
This season – 6.85
‘Tough’ doesn’t come close to describing Dallas’s season, it’s been hellish beyond his worst nightmares. An opening day 5-1 defeat at Old Trafford paled into insignificance compared to the bereavement he soon suffered, yet Dallas battled on and eventually regained the form that had deserted him in the darkest of times. The man has the heart of a lion but the body of a man, which is not indestructible like we were beginning to believe, and a horrific leg break during the run-in was the last thing Stuart Dallas deserved. Leeds United may have survived everything the 2021/22 season threw at them, but Dallas’s 2022/23 season is probably ruined too, and those are some big boots to fill.
Mateusz Klich
Last season – 6.74
This season – 6.32
Klich’s Premier League career started so well, then Bielsa heaped the highest praise on him – declaring him worthy of playing in any team in the world – and The Football Gods immediately stripped him of his finest qualities. By the end of last season the Pole was showing signs of rediscovering the form that made him a mainstay in Bielsa’s team, but this season Klich has struggled again, battling alone in midfield without the luxury of a Kalvin Phillips behind him or a Pablo in front of him. Every man and his dog knows Leeds need a new midfielder but I would be more than happy for Klich to remain in the squad, and in a good team he may thrive again. If it is goodbye this summer, it will be one of the fondest. Mateusz Klich has been an incredible servant to the club, and what a top bloke too!
Jack Harrison
Last season – 7.11
This season – 6.54
The lack of support from left-back, the loss of form of his teammates, no striker to aim any crosses at, and a new role as an inverted winger in a long-ball team; these are not the conditions under which Jackie could thrive. Yet Harrison has still popped up with plenty of vital goals, not to mention his hattrick against West Ham in what turned out to be our best performance of the season, and his effort and energy alone will always be an asset. Harrison is such a lovely lad that I can’t see Jesse Marsch ever succeeding in turning him into a son of a bitch, but it will be interesting to see if he can turn him into an effective inverted winger. Preferably he’ll knock both projects on the head.
Raphinha
Last season – 7.30
This season – 6.77
When you look back on the 2021/22 campaign it is impossible to come to any other conclusion: Raphinha dragged this team over the dotted relegation line and into 17th place. The boy from Brazil has lit up Elland Road for two seasons, and although he hasn’t dazzled quite as much in front of fans as he did behind closed doors (Leeds, that), he scored all our goals, showed a ferocious desire combined with balls of steel, and entered Leeds United folklore with his post-Brentford celebrations. Raphinha will become a mega-star at Barcelona, and I sincerely hope to one day see him lift the World Cup. He will deserve everything that comes his way.
Dan James
Costa – 6.59
James – 6.38
Ok, so James has been deployed as a striker almost all season, which is a justified excuse for not looking like a £25m player. However, as much as I love seeing James tearing after defenders (and clattering into them), I have seen little to suggest he is a very good footballer. He can’t seem to dribble, cross or shoot, and even his passing is frustratingly misjudged a lot of the time. Once on the wing (if he is allowed out there), perhaps he will show that he can dribble, cross, shoot and pass, but I will be concerned if Dan James is the ready-made replacement for Raphinha.
Joe Gelhardt
Pablo – 6.81
Joffy – 7.00
Joffy is a striker and Pablo a midfielder, but the little Scouser took the little Spaniard’s place in our 18-man squad and I am happy to present him as Hernandez’s replacement. The boy has magic in his feet, and he has already delivered us with moments of genius like we became accustomed to seeing from El Mago, and is already the player we look to when we need digging out of the mire (especially if Raphinha has delivered his final death-stare in a Leeds shirt). His miraculous skill against Brighton will forever live in my memory and I cannot wait to see what he has in store for us next season and beyond. The King is Dead, Long Live The King!
Tyler Roberts
Last season – 6.63
This season – 6.43
The first indication that Jesse Marsch was ‘a lucky manager’ came in his first match at Leicester, where a brave Tyler Roberts played on through injury and ruled himself out for the season. That is a very mean take, so apologies to TyRo, but regardless of whether Roberts is good enough at this level, it immediately removed the lighting rod which helped finish off Bielsa; one less stick to poke Jesse with. At 23 years old, Tyler Roberts could still come good, and now that we can play with two strikers and two inverted wingers, his versatility to fill all those roles could be valuable. They are different positions to what he played under Bielsa, perhaps they will suit his game? I’d be happy to give TyRo one more season, especially if we need a deeper squad, which I suppose we do.
Rodrigo Moreno
Last season – 7.08
This season – 6.58
Tipped by Angus Kinnear to be our player of the season, Rodrigo wasn’t dicking around with any of that. It has been another mystifying season of ups and mainly downs, and perhaps most mystifying of all was his very own ‘new manager bounce’ when Jesse Marsch arrived and massaged his ego. This fine young man lit up Vicarage Road, but that was the first and last time I’ve chanted his name and I think it’s probably time to draw a line under his Leeds career, if we can offload him at a semi-decent price. If not, give him away for nowt? Rodrigo is undoubtedly talented but, with 13 goals and 4 assists over two seasons, we just can’t afford to carry a player so inconsistent.
Patrick Bamford
Last season – 6.95
This season – 6.67
I don’t know how Bamford scored a sub-seven average last season (nor Raphinha this season), but it’s all relative and Bamford’s performance dropped off just like the rest of the squad. That is not the story of his injury-cursed season of course, and on his two brief returns he bagged a vital equaliser against Brentford and put in a superb performance in the first half against Norwich. Probably a victim of his own eagerness, and possibly too nice to tell Jesse to stop being a maniac by making him return a month ahead of schedule, Bamford’s season never got going and without him Leeds were a shadow of their former selves. Next season is a big one for Bamford, he said himself that his reputation was elevated by not playing and it will be interesting to see how he fares when partnered with a striker. ‘Marschball’ seemed to suit him in the few minutes we saw, so hopefully Bamford remains fit enough to show how badly we missed him in 2021/22.
Marcelo Bielsa
Oh Marcelo. I don’t want to criticise The Great Man, but he has probably spent hundreds of hours analysing where he went wrong so I suppose I can too. Firstly he gave the green light to some very poor signings. Was he a bad judge of player or a bad judge of sporting director? His words often gave Victor Orta too much respect, and his actions suggested he had too much trust in him too. Perhaps he was just too polite to ask Andrea Radrizzani for more expensive options than the dross Orta served up? Another criticism is his insistence on keeping a small squad, and considering the fixture congestion of the modern game (and pandemic pile-up) his 18-man philosophy may be outdated. Ultimately, I think Bielsa’s downfall was his failure to find a solution without Kalvin Phillips. ‘It would be better if Phillips can play every match’ said Bielsa in the early months of his reign, acknowledging the difficulty in replacing a player with such key attributes. Even still, we’ll never know whether the failing is on Bielsa for thinking the options in the squad were adequate (or for failing to make them adequate), or on Orta for not providing a new signing that could competently cover KP. What I refuse to criticise Bielsa for is his tactics, and it infuriates me to think that so many at the club eventually succumbed to the media narrative. I’ll admit that his tactics don’t work against the best teams in the world when he doesn’t have his best players, but so what? Whose do? I still believe in Bielsaball, I still believe it would have prevailed and Leeds would have prospered with an influx of good signings, but ultimately the man with new ideas was considered a madman, even after his ideas had prevailed. Thank you Marcelo, you deserved so much better.
Jesse Marsch
Did we survive because of him or in spite of him? Marsch ended the season with a PPG of 1.25, significantly better than Bielsa’s 0.88, however, if games finished on 90 minutes Marsch’s PPG would have been 0.58. I’m not trying to prove Bielsa is better than Marsch, I’m just concerned because the spate of injury time goals wouldn’t continue throughout a season (Bielsa’s PPG up to 90mins also dropped, to 0.80). Regardless, Jesse deserves great credit for pulling everyone together when they were at their lowest ebb. The players were visibly demoralised, they’d seen their guru sacked, they were in the bottom three with two games to go, they had been trounced three games in a row, they couldn’t pass, they couldn’t defend, they couldn’t score, they couldn’t even keep eleven men on the pitch and they were dropping like flies. But they had the fortitude to keep fighting right until the death, and ultimately they kept us up (you do wonder how much of that was down to the virtues his predecessor instilled in the squad, I do anyway). For me, the biggest feather in Jesse’s cap was the final day performance at Brentford. He found a system that got the best out of our players and the selection of Greenwood in midfield was a bit of a masterstroke. His 4-2-3-1 formation gives me much more faith than the awful 4-2-2-2, though Marsch’s success at Elland Road may depend more on which players leave, and who is brought in to replace them…
Victor Orta
Victor Orta’s job is to identify players who are better than the ones already in the squad, and he failed Bielsa in every window. Just as alarming as the players he delivered that were no better than what we had – Baker, Brown, Blackman, Douglas, Casilla, Costa, Augustin, Llorente and Koch (who haven’t proved better than White, nor even Pontus I’d argue), Rodrigo, Firpo and James – were the ones he offered to Marcelo in times of crisis. Needing a striker, Orta offered Billy Sharp or Glen Murray to Bielsa. WTF? A five-year-old could have suggested those names! Orta is supposed to have a world class database of players, with three or four options in every position, and he comes up with two players that clearly would never ever suit Bielsaball. Then in January he offered up Donny Van Beek and Harry Winks. Not as bad, but just as uninventive. He has proved himself incompetent and asleep at his post, and is the greatest danger to our Premier League survival.
Andrea Radrizzani
I heaped praise on Radrizzani in my well-selling book, ‘Marcelo Bielsa vs The Damned United’ (rated better on Amazon than all its peers!), and that praise still stands. He professionalised the club and brought genuine ambition for the first time in two decades, but his decision making was highly questionable until he recruited Marcelo Bielsa. Is he a one decision wonder? He defends himself by talking of the millions he invested to bring us success, and while that is appreciated, that was not done out of the goodness of his heart. It was a business move, a calculated gamble for his own benefit, with our benefit being a by-product. A friend of mine works in the same industry as Radz, and in 2018 a mutual acquaintance told him that everything Radrizzani touches turns to gold. In light of how this season ended, perhaps that is reason enough to hold him tight and wish the 49ers away.
Rocco Dean - Author of Marcelo Bielsa vs The Damned United and The O’leary Years (order on Amazon)