Moments of champions: Sam Byram’s big tackle

Watch out for your fingers ‘cos they’re about to get burned by a searing hot take: Sam Byram is good at football and I’d like him to stay at Leeds United for a little while longer. Outrageous, I know.

There’s an awful lot to like about Byram. He can control and pass a football. He knows where to stand when he’s defending. He heads corners clear. He understands where Leeds has been as a club and what it means to its supporters.

These might sound like simple, obvious things that should be taken as a given, but I’ve seen enough players at Elland Road struggle to grasp such basics to know they shouldn’t be undervalued. (And I’m not just talking about random League One loanees. Did Rasmus Kristensen know how to do any of the above? No, he did not. He didn’t even know how to take a throw-in.)

Oh, and in November, Sam Byram opened the scoring against Luton after ten minutes with a motherfucking scissor kick and in a season of brilliant Leeds United goals we all just pretended it was completely normal and cracked on.

As we start this mini-series on some underrated, overlooked moments from Leeds’ title-winning season, I was going to write about the audacity of Byram’s goal against Luton, about how in a split second he transformed back into the precocious teenager who scored his first ever goal for the club by skinning two defenders and chipping the goalkeeper against Oxford in a League Cup tie thirteen years ago.

But that was the old (or rather, young) Byram, not the new (or rather, older) Byram who Daniel Farke so quickly got through the door of Thorp Arch as soon as he took over as manager. Not that you could tell by looking at a man who has seemingly discovered the elixir of youth, but Byram is all grown up now, painfully aware of the lows of professional football after his ascent to the Premier League was ruined by a horrendous run of injuries that left him pushing himself up and down the corridor of his apartment block in a wheelchair trying to escape “a sense of worthlessness”.

Since being given a second chance at Leeds, Byram has played with a maturity and a determination to make the most of every second on the pitch, knowing all too well those opportunities shouldn’t be taken for granted. “It’s not a case that people criticise your ability,” he told The Athletic in 2020. “It’s more [that they think] you’re not actually competent to play and train, that you are always injured. For me, that’s the worst one. Like anything, you can let it bother you or use it to fuel your hunger.”

That hunger was never more evident than against Middlesbrough in December, when Byram was returning from injury after a single training session and his muscles were screaming with cramp. Sixty seconds after Dan James had fluffed a one-on-one to put Leeds ahead with fifteen minutes remaining by meekly passing the ball into the ‘keeper, Byram raced into Boro’s half of the pitch and snapped into a perfect tackle that ultimately gave James the chance to make up for his miss with what was — at that point — the most emphatic and important goal of the season. And the celebrations didn’t disappoint.

If you need me, I’ll be watching the Sam Byram tackle on halfway on repeat. pic.twitter.com/yBUUDEftFu

— Tom Carnduff (@TomCarnduff) December 10, 2024

We’re used to seeing Junior Firpo pop up in that position in attack, but Byram was just as bold in getting there to win the ball. In its poise and timing, the tackle was perfect. In its sheer bloody-mindedness, it was everything Elland Road loves. While Dan James’ finish was reminiscent of Gordon Strachan sticking one in the stanchion against Oldham, if you squint your eyes and picture Sam Byram wearing the number 4, it could have been the very best of David Batty. ⬢

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