Chilling Leeds United manager response gives Andrea Radrizzani and 49ers food for thought

At Leicester City it was rage and disgust emanating from the away end. At Elland Road it was verging on apathy and that should worry Andrea Radrizzani and the 49ers. The anti-board sentiment that came mostly from the South Stand was not sustained, nor did it reach the levels of animosity experienced by the club's decision makers back in March's capitulation to Aston Villa. Even the boos and questions sent the way of Jesse Marsch and his players from those left in the ground at full-time were fairly muted.

Elland Road has not tended to empty prematurely in recent years because there was always belief and there was always a chance. Crysencio Summerville's goal, which made it 3-2 in stoppage time, barely roused the crowd and that, for any club, is a problem.

CEO Angus Kinnear's pre-game plea to fans was to remain united behind the team but his post-game carpark quizzing showed the disconnect between the faith the club is putting in Marsch and how the fanbase feels.

How unfortunate, therefore, that Anfield is the next pitch for unhappy campers. This is where the Leeds who put Chelsea to the sword and battered Arsenal for 45 minutes could show up, against a Liverpool struggling to peg down consistency and defensive solidity. Or Jurgen Klopp's Reds might remember who they are, like they did in a second-half blitz of Glasgow Rangers, and further entrench the positions of the Leeds fans and Marsch's backers inside the tent. If Leicester and Fulham were able to make Leeds look dreadfully exposed and find gaping spaces in which to attack, what might Mo Salah get up to?

The job on Saturday night is not so much to win - of course that would be hugely beneficial - but to ensure that no matter the result, his side are convincing. To do what so many managers have failed to do and win back the fans once they've gone, Marsch has got to start swaying them back to a more neutral stance on his position. When you haven't won since August it will take far more than a passable performance at Anfield to buy him time, it will take beating Bournemouth and avoiding a throttling at Tottenham, yet he can only work on one game at a time.

When you zoom out further, as Marsch cannot afford to do, the bigger picture shows the World Cup looming large, a break clause of sorts for any wavering minds around the boardroom table, and it also begs a question of them all - what is the point if this isn't fun for Leeds fans?

Football has always been an escape, a form of entertainment that distracts from the stresses and strains of everyday life and now, more so than ever, it has a role to play as so many face a difficult winter. If Leeds are doing well, or at least playing well, then for 90 minutes that can be the sole focus and a way of reenergizing before walking out into the cold to tackle another week.

Against Fulham the performance sapped Elland Road of its energy and intensity and the last thing this club needs, as it teeters still in that precarious not-yet-fully-established Premier League position, is apathy. That was the pervading feeling that Marcelo Bielsa rescued Leeds United from with his football, when the Whites did their job even during a pandemic as the city's great distraction.

Playing his football is not an option now, for even had Leeds not lost their way so badly playing it in the lead up to Bielsa's sacking, this squad has been reshaped and repurposed to play in a different way, and it's hard to see how the current iteration will thrill. At its best it creates chaos, the likes of which made the Arsenal second half so entertaining. At its worst it takes on the appearance of getting the ball deep and playing for seconds.

And as Marsch tries different line-ups to find different results, never mind good football, it's hard to see the fix to any of Leeds' present problems. What the fans need on Merseyside this weekend is not just something to cheer but something to believe in, something upon which they can hang a little faith for better days and better football ahead.

Some will tell you that aesthetics don't matter when you stay up however when you let them eat cake, as they did for three years straight, the people's taste for sustenance that simply does a job quickly disappears and is even slower to return.

Right now, Leeds fans are finding the football, as well as the results, hard to swallow and this was always the danger. Picking up enough points to stave off relegation gave Marsch a grace period and yet if the entertainment factor was not there this season it would not have taken many results to put a sour taste in mouths and put him under pressure. Leeds are eight games without a win, so you can forgive anyone refusing to stomach what is being served up.

Leeds is a massive club, one with huge potential and a fanbase that, if harnessed correctly, can and will back them to big things. It's also big enough to chew up and spit out managers at an alarming rate. What it's not is too big to go down. Losing the fans to apathy and what that might mean over the course of a season should give everyone at Elland Road food for thought.