Norwich-Leeds play-off is the worst advert for the *real* best league in the world

Leeds have the edge after a truly terrible advert for what Norwich fans will probably soon insist is *actually* the best league in the world anyway…

The claim that the Premier League is the best league in the world is never shorter than when it is in the presence of fans of the Championship teams. In particular, supporters of yo-yoers like Leeds and Norwich, who are devoted to the glass-half-full notion that relegation from the top tier – or failure to get promoted from the second tier – is *actually* a good thing because the Championship is *actually* top division. These protests strangely become especially fervent after being relegated or failing to get promoted.

We are not saying they are wrong. The title race, play-off battle and relegation battle normally provide intrigue and entertainment deep into the season, and often a ridiculous number of teams can be separated by a few points.

The drop in quality compared to the Premier League doesn’t mean the Championship is a worse competition, but you can’t help but feel the irony that one of the most watched games of the season – the first of a five-match run. in the best league in the world – it was essentially unwatchable, such was the lack of any of the tropes that usually lead that amazing phrase to be uttered by those extolling the virtues of the division that both Leeds and Norwich follow.

Daniel Farke’s decision to cast Archie Gray as Number 10 was an odd one. Leeds’ player of the season – tipped in March by England boss Gareth Southgate as a future Three Lions star following his mature displays for the Championship side – had just 16 first-half touches, the fewest of anyone on land except Josh Sargent. Usually when operating at the base of Leeds’ midfield, everything goes through the 19-year-old; they really struggled to assert his authority in the game, his more advanced role, which also meant Georginio Rutter played out of position.

The French has thrived this season when he dropped deep to tie the game, but perhaps in an attempt to keep things tight in the first leg given their rotten defensive record recently, Farke opted to push Rutter into the no. 9. He looked lost and the changes also seemed to have a negative effect on both Crysencio Summerville and Willy Gnonto who ran into blind alleys, hit offside passes and grew in frustration, with Gnonto’s yellow card for sarcastically applauding the referee. indication of his and Leeds’ exasperation as any.

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The prize on offer, Leeds conceding 11 in their last four away games and Norwich winning just two of ten against their top six, all contributed to what the commentator described as “a curious affair”: a popular euphemism for a rubbish horn .

Even the backs didn’t beat the forwards – they were pretty awful too – just the flair players we expected something from kept giving away possession or swelling their lines.

Starved of anything to talk about at half-time – which was particularly funny as Sky Sports employed four pundits to think it all through – Troy Deeney and Billy Sharpe spent a good few minutes discussing Sargent’s ‘threat’, a totally reasonable. point behind the USMNT international’s ten goals in his last 11 home games, but not based on a few moments in the first half where he got in behind the Leeds defense but was nowhere near receiving two dreadful passes from his team-mates . .

Sargent had a good chance but fumbled at the crucial moment despite having the advantage on his opponent from a Jack Stacey cross, meaning he failed to make the telling contact with his header. It didn’t faze Illan Meslier, dropping harmlessly for a goal kick, and yet it was the most remarkable chance of the entire game.

Farke will be perfectly happy with the result, of course, and in the second half his side controlled things better than they managed in the first. Having lost just twice at Elland Road this season, winning 16 of their 23 games, he will be confident of their progress to the final. But if David Wagner is happy, he shouldn’t be.

The Norwich fans, full of energy and energy at the start of the game, were bored into near silence by the end, seeing their team seemingly do very little to try and win a game that most believe they needed to get to wembley and fight. for their place in the Premier League.

But maybe the fans don’t want promotion? And even if they do, they might be wise to practice their “*actually* the Championship is better” rhetoric, as Leeds – despite being average in the first leg themselves – are very much on the bench driving to return to The Promised (but Inferior) Lands on the first time it asks.

READ MORE: Final Championship team of the season: Leeds, Leicester quartet included but Szmodics miss out