Leeds United v Liverpool, Monday 17 April 2023, 8pm
Referee: Robert Jones.
Assistants: Ian Hussin, Wade Smith.
Fourth official: Michael Salisbury.
VAR: Stuart Attwell.
Assistant VAR: Richard West.
Incoming disciplinary action: Constantine Hatzidakis.
Well, this season has turned out to be a bit of a damp squib, hasn’t it? We all know how things are going with the team right now, so this time I thought it would be fun to look at some of the non-Anfield Leeds games of times past to illustrate why this is a classic match up.
Liverpool 2 Leeds 1: FA Cup Final, 1 May 1965<![CDATA[<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/u59t5QpcoMk" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/u59t5QpcoMk</a>]]>A lot of people hate Don Revie’s Leeds but, much like Duran Duran or Limp Bizkit, it’s a good deal easier to appreciate their good points if you weren’t around at the time. A team packed with ex-youth players and padded out with grizzled vets and journeymen, Leeds had won promotion the previous year and ramraided their way into the First Division, only losing out to Manchester United in the league on goal difference on the last day of the season after a 3-3 draw at Birmingham – the first of many times this team would bottle it when it counted.
They had a pretty good run in the cup too, scraping past the Mancs in the semis after a replay marred by crowd trouble as hundreds of fans ran onto the pitch, one actually knocking the referee out. And people act like there are crowd problems today! As reigning champs, we’d played Leeds twice in the first four games of the season, winning one and losing one, but had a torrid end to the season, losing five of our last eight – four by margins of three or more – finishing seventh, but it almost didn’t matter. This was a cup season, with a chance of winning our first FA Cup and Inter Milan due at Anfield for the first leg of the European Cup semis three days afterwards.
It seems strange today to think it took over 70 years for the team to win an FA Cup but it had become a millstone that needed to be lifted. Fortunately, experience told against a still green Leeds team, who at least had the honour of having the first black player to play in the cup final, Albert Johanneson. By all accounts we had far greater numbers in the stadium too. Leeds huffed and puffed they couldn’t create anything of note, and in the second half Shanks’ first great team began to impose control, dominating a second half where they were somehow unable to score.
The game finished 0-0 at 90 minutes, the first cup final to do so. It presaged a decade of tight games between these teams amidst contemporary claims we were making the game dull and stolid. But Roger Hunt drew first blood with a dipping header shortly after the restart, and shortly afterwards Jack Charlton beat out three Liverpool defenders to nod the ball to an unmarked Billy Bremner, who smashed a volley into the net. The match was decided three minutes from time, when Ian Callaghan drilled a cross from the right, right on to Ian St John’s head. It rocketed into the net and captain Ron Yeats was soon collecting the trophy. He paraded it in front of the travelling fans booming out: When the Reds Go Marching In and the albatross flew away.
Liverpool 1 Leeds 1: FA Charity Shield, 10 August 1974<![CDATA[<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/Zcl0wWR3QSc" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/Zcl0wWR3QSc</a>]]>Fast forward nearly a decade and the teams were going into their first seasons in years without their talismans, Shankly and Revie, and we were handling it better than they were. There were two league titles each along the way with the odd European trophy to boot, but the summer of ’74 saw Revie leave to take the England job after overseeing a convincing title win and Shanks step aside for assistant Bob Paisley following a second FA Cup win where we finessed our way past Newcastle playing possibly our finest football ever up to that point, the rare example of managers going out at the top of their game.
The Charity Shield was meant to symbolise a new beginning, though in retrospect Paisley inviting Shanks to lead the team out pointed to a continuity that boded well for the future. Brian Clough on the other hand was less than two weeks into managing Leeds and was already giving into his worst instincts, labelling the squad a bunch of cheats in their first team meeting, signing players from his old club the rest of the squad thought were shit and generally alienating everyone around him.
There were other omens this would be a bad-tempered affair. Kevin Keegan was sent off in a pre-season friendly in Germany a few days earlier and referees had been instructed to be tougher on bad behaviour. It was unfortunate that the FA had chosen 1974 for the first Charity Shield to be held at Wembley and televised, because the match was fierce from the off, with Norman Hunter and Tommy Smith both going in hard in the opening minutes. Johnny Giles then turned around and decked Keegan, who he thought was being a bit eager in the tackle, and incredibly got away with only a booking.
So, you can hardly blame Keegan for taking it badly and getting into a fistfight with Bremner, who’d apparently been kicking him around the park all game. The referee sent both men off and the media went into a frenzy that seems hilarious in retrospect, accusing the players of bringing the game into disrepute and banning them until the end of September. Leeds’ manager felt Bremner was wholly responsible, though he may have been a touch biased in this case. The match finished 1-1, by the way, going to penalties. At 5-5, Leeds keeper David Harvey stepped up and blasted his shot high and wide, at which point Ian Callaghan stepped up to stroke the ball in and chalk up a win.
Leeds United 4 Liverpool 5: Division One, 13 April 1991<![CDATA[<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/RnWF7MsZX7w" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/RnWF7MsZX7w</a>]]>The '75 Charity Shield was the point where the clubs’ futures diverged, one to countless league titles and European glory, the other towards Division Two. But Leeds clawed their way back under Howard Wilkinson, who once again built a team that combined youth in David Batty and Gary Speed with journeymen like Lee Chapman, David Fairclough and Mel Sterland, players that for some reason had never made it at a top club.
They won the Second Division at a canter in 1990 and finished fourth in their first season back at the top level despite losing almost a third of their games. That was a sign perhaps of a flakiness that would manifest more fully in time, but we were at the start of our own decline. Two months earlier, King Kenny had suddenly announced he was quitting despite the team shooting into the season like a rocket, and Alan Hansen joined him soon afterwards.
There was still time for some highlights however. We put seven past Derby and whipped both third-placed Palace and an up-and-coming Norwich team 3-0 before the end of the season, but the neutral’s pick would probably be our second match against Leeds where, inspired by a peak John Barnes, we outfought them to a 5-4 win. Some mesmerising footwork by Barnes on the edge of the box led to a chip for Ray Houghton to open the scoring at the far post, a Steve McMahon penalty made it two and David Speedie slid in a far post finish shortly afterwards. Then Barnes took a one-two from Rush in midfield, broke away and drilled the ball into the far corner to make it 4-0 inside half an hour.
But Wilkinson’s Leeds team were battlers. Chapman pulled one back in the second half after second choice keeper Mike Hooper spilled a Gary Mac shot, and Carl Shutt made it two, completely unmarked in the box from a Leeds throw in. The game looked sealed when Digger scored another wonderful goal, collecting a Rush back heel to run into the box and place the ball at the far post. But it almost wasn’t enough, with Chapman scoring two headers from close range and indicating defence would be a priority for us in the coming summer. A disappointing result for Leeds.
Leeds 4 Liverpool 3: FA Charity Shield, 8 August 1992<![CDATA[<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/trE0zIt4Y10" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/trE0zIt4Y10</a>]]>That disappointment didn’t last long though, and they won the title the following season after Man United collapsed in the final strait. It feels unbelievable to say these teams have won the same number of league titles in the past 32 years but there it is. Sometimes, football is unfair.
That title would come before a steep fall the following season, which began with the game that first made childhood me hate Eric Cantona. Leeds were riding high while we, it’s fair to say, were not. In 1990 we’d started the Charity Shield with a team containing Beardsley, McMahon, Houghton, Venison and Barnes, with Steve Staunton on the bench. Two years on, five of them had left (four would go on to top three finishes with other clubs) while Digger was out with a long-term injury, to be replaced by the likes of Mike Marsh, Paul Stewart, Istvan Kozma and Nick Tanner.
Still, if 1974 was the worst Charity Shield, this has claim to be the best. We had most of the early running, before a David Batty ball set Rod Wallace free down the left. Grobbelaar thought better of coming out, leaving Wallace the time to centre the ball to an unmarked Cantona as red shirts chased shadows. 1-0. Rushie nodded in a Ronnie Rosenthal cross to equalise, before a Tony Dorigo free kick was deflected in just before half time.
Mark Walters was running the Leeds defence ragged and it was his shot that was blocked before Dean Saunders knocked the ball in to make it 2-2. Cantona drilled the ball into the far corner to give Leeds the lead again and then headed in to make it 4-2 with three minutes to go. A Mark Wright shot was blocked and then accidentally backheeled into the Leeds net by Gordon Strachan a minute later, but it wasn’t enough.
Both teams were heading downwards, though. We languished in the bottom half for much of the season before a Barnes-inspired flurry lifted us to sixth. Leeds meanwhile were in the relegation zone when they sold Cantona in November, ultimately finishing 17th without a single away win all season. And you thought our away form right now was bad.
Leeds 0 Liverpool 4: Premier League, 3 February 2002<![CDATA[<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/sSBH9zeW6hk" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/sSBH9zeW6hk</a>]]>The 2000-01 treble season made it clear: we were backThe Houllier vintage didn’t have the flair of some earlier teams but it knew how to fight and how to win. We came into this match having just beat the Mancs at the start of a run of 13 wins from the last 15 games. Hyypia and Henchoz at the back, Owen and Heskey up front and Gerrard and Carragher fully claiming their spots as first choice picks.
Leeds had meanwhile become contenders again under David O’Leary, who blended experienced players like Nigel Martyn, a returning David Batty and an incoming Robbie Fowler with youngsters like Woodgate, Bowyer, Kewell, Smith and Viduka to create a team that was vibrant but often inconsistent. They’d led the table a month earlier but were in the process of flaming out by the time we visited Elland Road, conceding the first when captain Rio Ferdinand deflected an incoming free kick into his own goal after a quarter of an hour.
A beautiful Gerrard through ball split the Leeds defence, allowing Heskey to slide the ball into the far corner from a tight angle to make it 2-0. Heskey got the next one too, blasting the ball in when it broke free from a goalmouth scramble. A stunning Jerzy Dudek save kept out a Viduka header, and he somehow managed to block a bullet shot from Fowler from the resulting corner. The fourth came when Owen headed in the rebound after hitting the bar.
We put six past Ipswich less than a week later and started the next season like a rocket, winning nine and drawing three of our first 12, but the summer transfers of Cheyrou, Diouf and Diao were all mistakes and a nightmare winter where we went winless in 11 put paid to our title hopes. It would be time for another change.
Leeds 0 Liverpool 3: Premier League, 12 September 2021<![CDATA[<a href="https://www.youtube.com/v/ubwysqZMVow" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" class="bbc_link bbc_flash_disabled new_win">https://www.youtube.com/v/ubwysqZMVow</a>]]>Leeds had a far worse time of it though, with financial collapse and a two-year clearout that led to them losing all their best players, some for a pittance, before they slid down the divisions to League One. They inched their way back slowly and came back into the Premier League in style under Marco Bielsa, showing a great account of themselves on the first day of the following season when they lost by the odd goal in a seven-goal thriller at Anfield. That season ended up collapsing under the weight of a defensive injury crisis, and no one was tipping us for the title when the following season rolled around. But we won our first two, drew with Chelsea and showed in this game we were serious contenders.
Trent drilled in a cross for Salah to convert for the first, getting his 100th Premier League goal in the process. Mane managed to balloon an open goal over the bar before Fabinho bundled the ball in to make it two. Patrick Bamford had a decent go at lobbing Alisson from the centre circle before Mane made the game safe in injury time, but the game had already been marred when Harvey Elliott, making his third successive start, went down under a horror tackle. He’d miss the next four months and only get back to playing regularly this season.
So, what now? We’ve had an astonishingly inconsistent season marred by constant injuries and a seeming inability to win away (though that didn't stop us losing to Leeds at home in October). We’re currently five games without a win. Leeds on the other hand are languishing just above the relegation zone and were just spanked 5-1 at home by Roy Hodgson’s Crystal Palace. We actually have quite a straightforward run-in, with all four remaining away games to relegation candidates. Hopefully, the team can put together a run and end the season on an up, even if Champions League qualification is now long gone.
