Burnley 2-0 Leeds United: No different

Even the best seasons have days when you want to throw everything in the bin. Nothing works, Leeds United miss chances they should put away and the defence concedes sloppy goals that cost us points. In 2024/25, Daniel Farke’s Leeds won more games and more points than any other campaign in the club’s history, scoring more goals than they have in a single season for almost a century. But there was still Portsmouth, and Swansea and, yes, Burnley.

Everyone knew we should expect more of those days in the Premier League, yet Leeds’ defeat at Turf Moor stung that bit more because it felt so self-inflicted and oh so predictable. Once again, we learned nothing new. Instead, we were only reminded that the concerns that have crept from the summer into the opening eight games of the campaign are, on this evidence, very much legitimate.

I could quite happily never hear the phrase ‘difference maker’ again after a transfer window in which it became embedded in the Leeds United lexicon. But the fact of the matter is that Leeds didn’t sign enough of them in the summer, and shorn of the one they did sign, Noah Okafor, alongside the injured Wilf Gnonto and half-fit Dan James, Farke was reduced to Jack Harrison and Brenden Aaronson as his wingers at Burnley. In his last 53 Premier League appearances, Harrison has scored one goal. In the 42 Premier League appearances across Aaronson’s career, he has scored one goal (when he tackled a goalkeeper a yard from the line). Since the start of last season, they have played a combined 91 league appearances and registered two assists, both coming from Aaronson in the most dominant team in the Championship.

Unsurprisingly, the outcome of their performances at Turf Moor was no different. Aaronson squandered Leeds’ best chance of the game with a painfully meek scuff of a one-on-one and amid a dearth of creativity or invention United resorted to throwing in more crosses than they have attempted in a game for five years, only to be left chasing their tail by conceding from the one good delivery Burnley put in all afternoon as Leeds’ defence left Lesley Ugochukwu to a free header. Get in the bin, indeed.

That, alongside Loum Tchaouna’s spectacular 25-yard hit into the top corner as Leeds’ defence once again stood and watched, was the difference. And it meant Burnley could afford to keep kicking the ball out of play or straight back to Leeds because the visitors were so intent on wasting anything given to them. Lukas Nmecha and Jayden Bogle also missed chances that looked easier to score. Harrison swiped at two volleys nobody expected to go in. Burnley weren’t very good. Leeds could have no complaints.

In the case of the attack, Farke deserves sympathy. Aaronson and Harrison are starting on the wings for Leeds because no other clubs want them and the recruitment team failed to sign the second forward the manager was begging for since they were ghosted by Igor Paixao. For the second game in a row, when Farke made changes he had to do away with a winger on one side of the pitch as there were no other options. After leaving Bogle all alone on the right against Spurs, this time it was Gabi Gudmundsson’s turn on the left. Leeds are having to hope for some magic from their full-backs because their wingers produce the attacking output of defenders. Even the chance that Aaronson passed back to Burnley’s goalkeeper was created by Jaidon Anthony giving Harrison the ball on the edge of the penalty area with their defence out of shape.

But Farke can’t absolve himself of responsibility for the rest of the team. While launching crosses at the head of Dominic Calvert-Lewin (four goals in his last thirty Premier League appearances) is a useful tactic, the complete lack of alternative ideas was depressingly indicative of a team that is all graft and no craft. Leeds were so workmanlike they should have been wearing hi-vis jackets. It concerned me in the summer that the suits’ extensive data research heading into the transfer window was distilled into ‘sign big lads’, but the last time I checked Ao Tanaka still plays for Leeds United, and with Anton Stach wilting under the intensity of the Premier League, the midfield could do with the spark of grace and imagination from a player who enchanted Elland Road last season.

Waiting for things to click in attack has only eroded the defensive stability of the opening weeks of the season. Saturday’s result made it five games without a clean sheet, and Burnley’s goals were as slack as any conceded all season. Jaka Bijol’s opening-day suspension has kept him out of the team until now even though Leeds spent £18m on his signature for him to play. I have no idea if Bijol is the saviour, but I do know he has a good reputation: impressive at Euro 2024, a captain of Udinese, decent form over the most recent international break in which he helped Slovenia keep back-to-back clean sheets. Pascal Struijk’s sluggish display against Spurs gave Farke the excuse he needed to get Bijol in his team and find out whether he can make a difference or not after all. Instead he waited for Struijk to play even worse against Burnley and (presumably, I hope) play himself out of the team for West Ham at the expense of a dismal defeat.

Which in itself is something to hold onto for Friday night. Even if Leeds are lumbered with Harrison and Aaronson on the wings, there are still other changes to be made that might just, in theory, improve other parts of the team. Alternatively, if Leeds lose against West Ham then they will fall behind their target of a point a game for the first time this season and arses will start to twitch. What would come next is anyone’s guess. Paraag Marathe’s struggles to find a manager at Rangers hardly inspires confidence. But if Leeds are suffering from a lack of imagination in the boardroom and on the pitch, then it’s over to the guy in the dugout to come up with some good ideas. ⬢