Who will be the real villains?

The international break is an odd time for football fans, isn’t it? If your country is involved in qualifying for a major tournament, then you still have something to invest time and energy into. If not, it’s like the wasteland that time forgot.

There’s the added complication of whether or not your club players appeared for their countries, and if so, quite apart from exhaustion due to the travel times involved in flying to the far corners of the globe, did they play many minutes? More importantly, did they not get selected because of injury while away on international duty, or get injured if they did?

Ao Tanaka played the first of Japan’s friendlies, but not the second. Is this somehow ‘good’ or is there something we don’t yet know? Brendan Aaronson played most of the USA’s first match, but only the last 15 minutes of the second. No doubt he’ll still be racing through Arrivals, dribbling his case between bemused onlookers, before passing it to a complete stranger.

Jaka Bijol captained Slovenia in Graham Potter’s latest false start in Sweden, while Gabriel Gudmundsson came on for the Swedes in the second half. Hopefully Bijol rediscovered some kind of passing technique, while Gudmondsson will hope not to be passed over for, or by, a winger.

Leeds United’s top scorer Joe Rodon will be feeling good after Wales’ recent victory, while we all wait and see whether Dan James has damaged his hamstring in scoring such a good goal in Cardiff.

To name but a few.

So, who will be the real villains as we welcome Aston Villa to Elland Road on Sunday? Will one player stand out, or will the teams cancel each other out?

Unai Emery has shown tactical nous both here and across Europe, and Villa were playing really well before the break. I think it’s fair to say that we’re not quite so convinced by Daniel Farke’s ‘survival path’ reassurance, after two dismal LUFC away appearances.

Then, of course, there are the bean counters who always focus on costs rather than benefits, or blame ‘the system’ for their own shortcomings.

We’re at home again (at last!), but in football history since the first time we met – a 3.0 FA Cup defeat at Villa Park in February 1924 – we’ve lost more against them than we’ve won. There is also little consistency in our head-to-heads. Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose, sometimes we draw. Although there are no certainties in football, this is a game where the uncertainty is genuine.

I remember being excited about the new football season starting in August 1975, but also anxious to try to deal with the pain of Paris, yet. As now, I wasn’t entirely sure of what to expect. In the event we beat Aston Villa away at Villa Park 2.1 in our opening match. Leighton Phillips had put the home side ahead after just seven minutes, but two goals from my all-time favourite player Peter Lorimer sealed the victory for us.

So, if we go behind again on Sunday, we have to keep the faith, keep fighting.

Even the great Leeds team lost to them home and away in Villa’s relegation season of 1966-67, including a 2.0 reverse at Elland Road on my birthday, 25 February 1967.

Many will remember a bonkers game from April 2019 when our promotion push, already imploding after that Bad Friday defeat to Wigan, came to a juddering halt.

Liam Cooper had introduced Villa striker Jonathan Kodjia to the Elland Road turf before Tyler Roberts, instead of putting the ball out, passed it to Mateusz Klich, who was allowed to run through an outraged Villa defence and curl a low right-foot shot just inside the post. There was a bit of a discussion after this, during which Ahmed El Ghazi attempted to air kiss Patrick Bamford, who slumped to the floor holding his face. Marcelo then ordered the Leeds players to allow Albert Adomah to run through to score, almost unchallenged (only Pontus Jansson was unable to read the script in time), into an unguarded net. The 1.1 draw ensured Sheffield United (remember them) were promoted automatically.

18 months later, after our own promotion, Bamford’s hat-trick showed Villa how to score in their own backyard, in a 3.0 win. How we cheered!

So, after a two-week break for some of our players and long journeys for others, I really do not know what to expect on Sunday, other than passion and noise. But then you can always be certain of that from Leeds United supporters, at home or from a long way away.

Read more in my books: The Leeds United Story, and The Aston Villa Story, available on Amazon in print and digital formats, also Kindle Unlimited.​

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