Gordon Strachan: “The rule change knackered Leeds as it allowed a different style to take over” | OneFootball

Howard Wilkinson’s Leeds United team were the last to be crowned as English league champions before the start of the Premier League era in 1992, with their captain Gordon Strachan suggesting that achievement is often overlooked amid what came next.

For most of the 1991/92 season, Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United appeared to be destined to end the club’s long wait to win the English title, but an end-of-season collapse that included a trio of defeats against Nottingham Forest, West Ham and Liverpool opened the door for Leeds to snatch the title.

The publicity explosion that greeted the arrival of the Premier League and the groundbreaking change it made to the fabric of the English game has seen memories and statistics from the previous era banished, but Strachan told Planet Football that his Leeds team do not need any adulation for an achievement that can never be erased.

“You might be right to say that Leeds team doesn’t get the credit it deserves for being as good as it was, but the lads in that are not too bothered about that, to be honest,” Strachan said to Planet Football, in association with Esports News.

“We all lived through that period. We won the league. It’s in the record books. We created a bit of magic for everyone who loves Leeds.

“The wonderful thing about being a footballer who enjoyed some success is that wherever you go in the world all these years later, people come up to you and say how much they enjoyed watching that team and what that title win meant to them. That’s the accolades I’m after. I don’t need anything else.

“People come up and say to you and say ‘I’m so sorry to bother you’. Then I always respond and tell them ‘you are not bothering me at all. In fact, you’ve just made my day by coming to say hello. Thanks very much. Let’s have a picture and talk about how great I was!!’

“I look at some of the scenes with the international matches this week and it’s been great. You see the smiles on the faces of the players and the fans and they will remember those moments forever because they have been waiting so long to experience something like that.

“We did that for Leeds fans in that title-winning season and the fans that lived through those days will never forget it.”

It wasn’t just the relaunch of England’s top flight division that changed the landscape of the game in the summer of 1992, as the rule stopping goalkeepers picking up back passes from team-mates was also introduced at the same time.

Strachan believes that significant rule change is one of many reasons why Leeds struggled so badly the following season, as they languished in 17th position in a season that saw Manchester United win the title at last.

“I think the rule change with back passes to the keeper kinda knackered Leeds because Howard (Wilkinson) didn’t really pick up on that for a while,” continued Strachan with a smile.

“A lot of things have changed in football since Leeds won the title and that backpass rule was a big one, as it allowed a different style of football to take over.

“The backpass rule change was the perfect storm that paved the way for Barcelona’s Tiki-Taka football. If the players in Pep Guardiola’s team had come along ten years earlier, it wouldn’t have been as easy for them to do what they did, even though they were great players.

“I really admire a lot of the players playing now and the football we see is fantastic, but it’s different.

“Do you miss the blood and guts of it, those crunching tackles? Probably, but if you are the receiving end of that blood and guts, as I was at times, it wasn’t always fun.

“Put it this way, I’d be quite happy to play in the modern game with these wonderful pitches and with referees making sure there is minimal contact. Bring it on.”

This year’s Premier League action has seen a shift back to what some would describe as a more traditional brand of the game, but Strachan insists the reliance on long throws and corners were always likely to return in place on an over-reliance on possession-based football.

“I said four or five years ago that a lot of what we have seen with the passing out from the back and possession football would change and we have seen that this season,” he added.

“Football managers always come up with systems that will break things down and we’ve seen that. We’ve also seen the return of long balls being used more effectively and corner kicks being used more effectively.

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“I’ve never had any problems with teams passing it out from the back, but you also have to give the fans what they want to see at the other end of the field. They want to see shots, crosses, headers, goals and saves.

“We are all different coaches, we all have different ways to play, I’ve seen lots of different styles in the Premier League this season and that’s great.

“So many of these systems we are seeing in the Premier League, people are saying they are something now. Well, we saw all of them a long time ago and people just forget that, trust me.”

By Kevin Palmer