It is the sequel few could have predicted two years ago when Liam Cooper and Stuart Dallas were clutching the Championship trophy while singing “Mind the gap, Thomas Frank”.
The last time Brentford hosted Leeds in a league match was February 2020, with Frank suggesting the travelling side would “fear” his team and the prospect of playing at Griffin Park. A 1-1 draw played out, and Leeds would go on to earn promotion as winners while Brentford finished third before losing the play-off final to Fulham.
Cue the song, to the tune of the “Give Me Oil In My Lamp” hymn if you were interested, which has resurfaced this past week with Brentford now capable of sending Leeds back down to the Championship.
In a game where even victory might not be enough, it is needle Leeds could have done without.
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“I don’t do mind games, I’m just honest,” he said, having taken some time to consider his answer. “I think they suit the Premier League, with their history… Let me put it this way, I will not use it (as motivation). I know we will focus on trying to win it as we’ve done with any other game.”
Over at Leeds, one benefit is that Jesse Marsch was miles away in Austria while this all played out, although two years on he is the man facing questions about the video amid his task of preserving the club’s Premier Leaguer status.
“We don’t need any extra motivation,” he told reporters, especially as the mission is clear – outdo Burnley’s result with Newcastle to secure survival.
Nothing else will suffice, and with the sixteen years spent in the Championship and League One following their previous departure from the Premier League preying heavily on the minds of those at Leeds, it must be difficult to acknowledge, with the “Mind the Gap” noise swirling, that the narrowest of margins – goal difference – could send them back down.
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Gone are the days of supporters listening to radios in the stands on the final day, eagerly awaiting other scores, and with smart phones now taking precedent Marsch admitted he will be relaying Burnley’s score regularly.
“We’ll have communication at half-time and the second half,” he said. “But the focus is a good start, to be positive, to find a way to get a lead and put the pressure on Burnley if they know we’re having a positive in our match.”
Marsch replied “in the end, who cares?” when asked if this was the biggest match of his career, and also conceded his Leeds players were “a mixture of being pissed off and emotional” when Thursday’s results meant they would head into Sunday 18th with their destiny out of their own hands.
“What’s important is that our team are ready for a huge challenge, and that we believe we’ll get this done,” he added.
“We went from things looking relatively secure to then having a lot of teams around us win matches and being sucked down back into the relegation zone, but all I can say is we’re excited. I never came here thinking it would be a given we would stay in the league, and that’s the way it has been.”
Relegation would, however, lead to inevitable questions around the timing of the Marcelo Bielsa sacking and Marsch’s subsequent appointment on 28 February. He arrived at a club sitting two points and places above the drop-zone, and was fighting fires from day one, shrugging off his lack of Premier League experience and the stigma surrounding American coaches in football – “I’m not sure Ted Lasso helped,” he said at the time.
Marsch was also thrown into the deep end with Leeds boasting the worst goal difference in the league, already at minus-30 after 26 games under Bielsa, and while points were a priority, he also needed to stem the flow of goals conceded.
Leeds’ 2021-22 Premier League
Under Bielsa this season
- W5 D8 L13
- Goals scored per game – 1.12
- Goals conceded per game – 2.31
- Win % – 19
Under Marsch this season
- W3 D3 L5
- Goals scored per game – 1
- Goals conceded per game – 1.64
- Win % – 27
With 12 games left to play, he stumbled initially, and though a five-game unbeaten run then garnered 11 points to move them five clear of Everton in 18th, those below them started playing catch-up to leave Leeds occupying the final, unwanted spot.
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Now their aim is “clear”, Marsch admits, while he says Leeds’ owners have already started planning for both eventualities, a future that includes the head coach, but could be without players including Raphinha or Kalvin Phillips if Sunday fails to go their way.
Doomed would be an overstatement, but there is a familiar sinking feeling at Leeds, one that would surface with all those promotion near-misses, and has now returned with the added twist that Brentford could be the ones to seal their fate and reverse said “gap”.
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