Captain, My Captain - Time to Stand on the Table

As I sat watching Leeds thrash Palace on Tuesday night and, in particular, Neil Kilkenny in the centre of midfield, the transformation of the side from the stale performances against Oldham and Yeovil to a free-flowing, attacking and tenacious turn-out was incredible.

I have bleated on about Kilkenny through numerous previous posts on this blog and, for fear of sounding like I’m his dad, I really do think that he could be the future of our club, in the short term at the very least. Having plied his trade on the flanks last season where he continually came inside to exert greater influence, it was easy to see on Tuesday why he belongs at the heart of midfield.

The key to a good footballer in my opinion is not just what he does when he is on the ball, but also what he does when he is off it (but his team are in possession). One of the many, many distinctions between League One football and the higher divisions is that whilst the majority of players attain a certain level of ability with the ball at their feet, many have to be rigorously programmed on the training ground to know where to be and what to do without it.

Beckford is a prime example of this. With the ball at his feet, going forward, he is a very exciting prospect. Without the ball he lacks the natural intelligence to automatically drag defenders wide to create openings for others. The result of this is that he has too often found himself receiving the ball to feet with his back to goal and defenders too close to turn. I concede that this happens now less frequently, but actually serves to make my point; under Wise it was all too common, under McAllister his game has developed through continued training and hard graft.

By contrast Kilkenny has natural talent and an active footballing brain. Off the ball, with Leeds in possession, he is looking for space and always finding it. He is shouting, directing, pointing and encouraging team-mates in their use of the ball, always busy, always thinking. With the ball at his feet he is hard to dispossess, has superb spatial awareness along with awareness of the positioning of his team-mates. With great self-confidence, natural passing ability and a high level of accuracy this provides a creative product above practically all of the rest of the squad.

For me, this is a breath of fresh air, having waited so long for a genuinely creative player to wear the white shirt in the centre of the park. I would even look beyond the Batty and Dacourt days to the Batty/McAllister days. Together I think these two were the most creative central-midfield pairing at Leeds during my lifetime. Kilkenny has a little of both; Batty’s ability to hold the ball well, to pass and move well, along with McAllister’s vision and distance passing.

Which leads me nicely to where all this hero worship is going. For me, from a purely footballing perspective, Kilkenny is ideal captain material and should be a player around whom the team is built. What better player to communicate McAllister’s ideas onto the field that a player who (at a much lower level) seems to have similar creative attributes. Someone who can direct the play, who works box to box, who can lead by example as well as with voice.

Kilkenny has his detractors. He is too lightweight, they say, but with a more heavyweight central midfielder alongside him in maybe Bradley Johnson (who is, lest we forget, a central midfielder), David Prutton or even Jonathan Douglas (at least until a suitable replacement can be found!) should this be a problem? And why should this be a bar to being a good captain? The only argument I have read which holds water is his questionable attitude. Those at the Carlisle home league game last season will remember his first-half tantrum resulting in a booking and almost a sending off. For this reason he may therefore have some difficulty commanding the respect of all his team mates at this time. But respect can be built over time, especially if he is proving more and more effective with the responsibility.

Another argument/question has been, put in its simplest terms, “if he is that good, what is he doing at a League One club?” Well the first response is that this must be viewed in the context of where we are, hence my cautious use of words earlier referring to the “short-term” future of the club. But there is no doubt that, at this level at least, he is that good. The second response is that, actually, he was a Premiership player out on loan when Dennis Wise signed him last year. In an interview with him last year he openly stated his unhappiness at being a fringe player at Birmingham under Steve Bruce, that this affected confidence and he subsequently shone in a brief spell at Oldham before joining us. He is also an international player which gives him a much more rounded approach to the game than the average run of the mill clogger in this division.

Whatever your view of my suggestion that Kilkenny be made captain, one thing is for certain. The current captain is not a good choice. In fact he is a terrible choice, considerably lacking in all the skill-sets I would normally attribute to a good footballer. Frazer’s commitment cannot be doubted but there are many, many other facets to his game which can, most importantly in a playing context his concentration. If a captain can either lead by example or lead by words (encouragement, praise, a bollocking) the first is a non-starter for Richardson. I imagine that everyone assumed that it would be the latter reason but he seems to be very quiet and though it was only one game he really went missing against Oldham when the chips were down.

Personally I struggle with the concept of “11 captains” on the field. There needs to be a single focal point able to convey the management’s instructions effectively, for the players to turn to when in need of rousing (rather than all looking at each other aimlessly). Putting to one side the horrific injury to the Arsenal midfielder Eduardo at Birmingham last season, the absence of any sanity of mind of William Gallas, the captain, which manifested itself at the end of the game at St Andrews, spurred a run of results which put them out of the title race. Gallas was not solely responsible for Arsenal’s demise last year, nor is Richardson by any stretch of the imagination solely responsible when Leeds lose, but as captains they play a part and a significant one at that.

One suspects that the appointment of Richardson is a mixture of a genuine struggle on the part of the management to find an actual leader, a reaction to the mutterings resulting from the clear (but unofficial) pre-season demotion of Douglas, an unwillingness to be bold and dare I say controversial, and all tied together with an appeal to our weakest point; sentiment. Frazer is our longest serving player and apparently well-respected by the players which gives the angle to sell it. But this masks the reality; a transfer of the armband from a player who is not very good footballer but who was nevertheless influential, so the statistics would indicate (though I favour coincidence), to a player who is not very good and who appears to have no real influence, but nevertheless has a guaranteed place week in week out simply as a reward for length of service.

Well this is the new Leeds United. The one that has to move onwards and upwards. If we are to mount a serious challenge we must lose any sentimentality that stunts brave progress and keep that which serves to reassure the traditions, the “Leeds-ness” that we can take with us on the journey.

Missing the game tomorrow (boooo) but my starting eleven would be…

Ankegren

Richardson
Marques
Telfer
White/Sheehan

Robinson
Kilkenny
Johnson
Snodgrass

Beckford
Becchio

Prediction: Leeds to win 2-1

Marching on Together