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Leeds United

2018–19 season
Chairman	Andrea Radrizzani
Head coach	Marcelo Bielsa
Stadium	Elland Road
Championship	3rd
Play-offs	Semi-finals
FA Cup	Third round
EFL Cup	Second round
Top goalscorer	League: Kemar Roofe (14) All: Kemar Roofe (15)
Highest home attendance	37,004 vs Sheffield United (17 March 2019, Championship)
Lowest home attendance	18,652 vs Preston North End (28 August 2018, EFL Cup)
Average home league attendance	33,834
Home colours Away colours Third colours
← 2017–182019–20 →

The 2018–19 season was Leeds United's ninth consecutive season in the Championship.

Season summary

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Leeds' season started with an impressive win against relegated Stoke City at Elland Road, followed by a 4–1 win against Frank Lampard's Derby County at Pride Park, moving Leeds up to 3rd in the Championship table.

Leeds' first defeat of the season was against former manager Garry Monk's Birmingham City in mid September, but by the turn of the year the side were in pole position, despite a 4–2 defeat to Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on 1 January 2019.

Before a 2–0 victory over Derby County on 11 January 2019, manager Marcelo Bielsa admitted he had sent a spy to Derby's training ground, after reports emerged in the press that a man was spotted the previous day outside the training ground. Derby manager Frank Lampard was critical of Bielsa's method. On 12 January, Leeds United released a statement in response to the incident. Tottenham Hotspur Manager Mauricio Pochettino described the incident as 'not a big deal' and commonplace in Argentina.

On 15 January, the EFL announced they would be investigating the incident. With intense media scrutiny on what was coined 'Spygate' in the media, Bielsa announced a press briefing on 16 January 2019, where he gave a detailed analysis of his research on a PowerPoint presentation to the gathered media and journalists, detailing his meticulousness, thoroughness and preparation over his opponents, with some journalists in attendance describing it as a 'coaching masterclass' and 'genius'.

The 'Spygate' saga was resolved on 18 February, when Leeds were fined a sum of £200,000 by the EFL for breach of a portion of Rule 3.4 of EFL Regulations ("In all matters and transactions relating to The League each Club shall behave towards each other Club and The League with the utmost good faith."), with the EFL also announcing a new rule as a result, that teams could not watch opposition training up to 72 hours before a game. It was subsequently revealed, by Bielsa, that he paid the £200,000 fine in full himself.

Towards the end of January Leeds missed out on signing Daniel James with the deal being pulled on the final day, but did sign Kiko Casillas from Real Madrid.

The team's form dipped in January & February, whilst some pointed towards the implications of Spygate, Bielsa refused to make excuses outside of himself.

Damaging defeats in March to Sheffield Utd & Birmingham City had left the promotion race out of their hands, and would need Norwich City & Sheffield Utd to slip up in order for Leeds to be promoted automatically. Two wins against Preston and Sheffield Wednesday briefly raised hopes before losses to 10 man Wigan at home and an away loss to Brentford would mean the side enter the playoffs.

This rendered our last two games almost meaningless, however they didn't go by quietly. The visit of Aston Villa saw tempers flare during the second half. The officials waved away calls for a foul as Klich took the lead for the Whites.

As players & staff broke out into a fracas, Marcelo Bielsa ordered his players to stand aside & Aston Villa were able to equaliser through an unopposed goal. The Leeds manager and his side later won the 2019 FIFA Fair Play award for their sportsmanship in this action.

Leeds entered the playoffs and played Derby County over two legs. In the first leg at Pride Park, Kemar Roofe handed Leeds a lead in the tie before returning to Elland Road.

Stuart Dallas gave the side a 2-0 aggregate lead, before a mix up between Kiko Casillas & Liam Cooper just before half time allowed Jack Marriott to reduce the deficit and give Frank Lampard's Derby County hope.

Negativity crept in and the home side threw the second leg away, allowing Derby to win 3-4 on aggregate. Jack Marriott's late goal sending Frank Lampard's Derby County to the playoff final.

Competitions

Championship

League table

1. Four teams play for one spot and promotion to the Premier League.

Results summary

Last updated: 5 May 2019.
Source: BBC

Results by matchday

Matches

On 21 June, the Championship fixtures were released.

Play-offs

FA Cup

EFL Cup

Statistics

No.	Pos.	Name	Championship		Play-offs		FA Cup		EFL Cup		Total		Discipline
			Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
1	GK	Bailey Peacock-Farrell	28	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	29	0	1	0
2	DF	Luke Ayling	38	2	2	0	1	0	1	0	42	2	6	1
3	DF	Barry Douglas	21(6)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	21(6)	0	8	0
4	MF	Adam Forshaw	19(11)	0	1	0	1	0	0	0	21(11)	0	3	0
6	DF	Liam Cooper	36	3	2	0	0	0	0	0	38	3	6	0
7	FW	Kemar Roofe	27(5)	14	1	1	0	0	0(1)	0	28(6)	15	6	0
9	FW	Patrick Bamford	15(7)	9	1	0	0	0	2	1	18(7)	10	3	0
10	DF	Ezgjan Alioski	44	7	0	0	1	0	0(2)	0	45(2)	7	10	0
11	FW	Tyler Roberts	20(8)	3	0	0	1	0	2	0	23(8)	3	4	0
13	GK	Will Huffer	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
14	MF	Samuel Sáiz	15(4)	0	0	0	0	0	1(1)	1	16(5)	1	4	0
15	DF	Stuart Dallas	10(16)	2	2	2	0	0	1	0	13(16)	4	2	0
18	DF	Pontus Jansson	37(2)	3	0	0	0	0	2	0	39(2)	3	8	1
19	MF	Pablo Hernández	37(2)	12	2	0	0	0	0	0	39(2)	12	6	0
20	DF	Tom Pearce	0(2)	0	0	0	0(1)	0	2	0	2(3)	0	0	0
22	MF	Jack Harrison	32(5)	4	2	0	1	0	2	0	37(5)	4	2	0
23	MF	Kalvin Phillips	42	1	2	0	0	0	2	0	46	1	8	1
27	GK	Jamal Blackman	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	2	0	0	0
28	DF	Gaetano Berardi	10(3)	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	12(3)	0	6	1
33	GK	Kiko Casilla	17	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	19	0	2	1
34	MF	Lewis Baker	2(9)	0	0	0	1	0	2	0	5(9)	0	2	0
35	DF	Conor Shaughnessy	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1	0	0	0
36	MF	Izzy Brown	0(1)	0	0(1)	0	0	0	0	0	0(2)	1	0	0
39	FW	Ryan Edmondson	0(1)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0(1)	0	0	0
40	DF	Leif Davis	1(3)	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	2(3)	0	0	0
43	MF	Mateusz Klich	46	10	2	0	0	0	0(2)	0	48(2)	10	10	0
46	MF	Jamie Shackleton	3(16)	0	1(1)	0	1	0	2	0	7(17)	0	0	0
47	FW	Jack Clarke	4(18)	2	0(2)	0	1	0	0	0	5(20)	2	1	0
48	MF	Jordan Stevens	0(1)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0(1)	0	0	0
52	DF	Aapo Halme	1(3)	0	0	0	1	1	0	0	2(3)	1	2	0
54	MF	Clarke Oduor	0	0	0	0	0(1)	0	0	0	0(1)	0	0	0
57	FW	Kun Temenuzhkov	0	0	0	0	0(1)	0	0	0	0(1)	0	0	0

Transfers

In

Date	Pos.	Name	From	Fee	Ref.
1 July 2018	DF	Joshveer Shergill	Walsall	£25,000
4 July 2018	DF	Leif Davis	Morecambe	Undisclosed
28 July 2018	DF	Barry Douglas	Wolverhampton Wanderers	£3,000,000
31 July 2018	FW	Patrick Bamford	Middlesbrough	£7,000,000
17 January 2019	GK	Kiko Casilla	Real Madrid	Free
29 January 2019	MF	Mateusz Bogusz	Ruch Chorzów	Undisclosed
29 March 2019	MF	Morten Spencer	Sunderland

Out

Date	Pos.	Name	To	Fee	Ref.
19 June 2018	GK	Felix Wiedwald	Eintracht Frankfurt	Undisclosed
1 July 2018	FW	Moses Abioye	Unattached	Released
	MF	Madger Gomes
	DF	Matthew Keogh
	FW	Moise Kroma
	MF	Romario Vieira
5 July 2018	GK	Andy Lonergan	Middlesbrough	Free
14 July 2018	FW	Marcus Antonsson	Malmö FF	Undisclosed
1 August 2018	MF	Ronaldo Vieira	Sampdoria	£6,000,000
2 August 2018	MF	Luke Murphy	Bolton Wanderers	Free
3 August 2018	FW	Ousama Siddiki	Logroñés	Undisclosed
31 January 2019	FW	Samuel Amissah	FK Liepāja

Loan in

Date from	Date to	Pos.	Name	From	Ref.
1 July 2018	9 January 2019	MF	Lewis Baker	Chelsea
16 July 2018	16 November 2018	GK	Jamal Blackman
30 July 2018	31 May 2019	MF	Jack Harrison	Manchester City
30 August 2018		MF	Izzy Brown	Chelsea

Loan out

Date from	Date to	Pos.	Name	To	Ref.
1 July 2018	31 May 2019	DF	Lewie Coyle	Fleetowood Town
3 July 2018	31 December 2018	FW	Paweł Cibicki	Molde
5 July 2018	31 May 2019	FW	Jay-Roy Grot	VVV-Venlo
6 July 2018		DF	Tyler Denton	Peterborough United
	8 January 2019	DF	Paudie O'Connor	Blackpool
11 July 2018	31 May 2019	FW	Malik Wilks	Doncaster Rovers
19 July 2018		FW	Alex Machuca	Burgos
20 July 2018	2 January 2019	DF	Liam Kitching	Harrogate Town
31 July 2018	26 January 2019	FW	Hadi Sacko	Las Palmas
21 August 2018	31 May 2019	DF	Laurens De Bock	Oostende
		MF	Yosuke Ideguchi	Greuther Fürth
24 August 2018		FW	Adrián Balboa	Terrassa
		MF	Ouasim Bouy	PEC Zwolle
29 August 2018		FW	Caleb Ekuban	Trabzonspor
31 August 2018		MF	Vurnon Anita	Willem II
	10 January 2019	MF	Eunan O'Kane	Luton Town
1 September 2018	31 May 2019	FW	Oliver Šarkić	Barakaldo CF
1 January 2019		MF	Samuel Sáiz	Getafe
7 January 2019		MF	Conor Shaughnessy	Heart of Midlothian
8 January 2019		DF	Paudie O'Connor	Bradford City
11 January 2019		MF	Paweł Cibicki	IF Elfsborg
25 January 2019	25 February 2019	GK	Will Huffer	Barnet
29 January 2019	31 May 2019	FW	Hadi Sacko	Ankaragücü
31 January 2019		FW	Sam Dalby	Morecambe
		DF	Tom Pearce	Scunthorpe United

References

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• 2018–19 EFL Championship by team
• Leeds United F.C. seasons
• 2010s in Leeds