THE 1999-2000 LEEDS CAMPAIGN
Summary of the results for the '99/'00 season. Fixtures played can be found here.
KEY:
/L = League Games ; /C = Cup Games ; /A = All Games ; C.S. = Clean Sheets ; % = Percentage of Total
| GAMES | PLAYED | C.S. | % | WON | % | DRAWN | % | LOST | % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HOME/L | 19 | 7 | 36.8 | 12 | 63.2 | 2 | 10.5 | 5 | 26.3 |
| AWAY/L | 19 | 6 | 31.6 | 9 | 47.4 | 4 | 21.1 | 6 | 31.6 |
| ALL/L | 38 | 13 | 34.2 | 21 | 55.3 | 6 | 15.8 | 11 | 28.9 |
| HOME/C | 8 | 6 | 75.0 | 7 | 87.5 | 1 | 12.5 | 0 | 0.0 |
| AWAY/C | 9 | 3 | 33.3 | 3 | 33.3 | 2 | 22.2 | 4 | 44.4 |
| ALL/C | 17 | 9 | 52.9 | 10 | 58.8 | 3 | 17.6 | 4 | 23.5 |
| HOME/A | 27 | 13 | 48.1 | 19 | 70.4 | 3 | 11.1 | 5 | 18.5 |
| AWAY/A | 28 | 9 | 32.1 | 12 | 42.9 | 6 | 21.4 | 10 | 35.7 |
| TOTAL | 55 | 22 | 40.0 | 31 | 56.4 | 9 | 16.4 | 15 | 27.3 |
Leeds' final position at the end of the '99/'00 season was third, representing not only an improved League position on the previous season but also qualification for the lucrative Champion's League. This was at least partly due to key differences between the Leeds team of the '98/'99 season and the Leeds team of the '99/'00 season.
Perhaps the most important factor was the fact that the players were more experienced and had learned to play better as a unit. This lead to improvements in various areas of play, as shown by comparing the statistics for the two campaigns. Though Leeds played 6 more games in the '99/'00 season, they still managed to keep more clean sheets than in the previous campaign - the overall figure going up to 40% from an already impressive 38.8%.
There was also a significant rise in the proportion of games won (56.4% compared with 44.9%) and this was as much to do with the growing confidence in the team as the attacking style of play and never-say-die attitude. Leeds' home form improved hugely as well, the Whites winning 70.4% of all home games (compared to the previous season's 62.5% - which isn't all that bad either!)
Where Leeds didn't do as well was in the losses department, where the proportion of losses increased by 4.9% to 27.3% overall. There were various reasons for this. One was that the attacking style adopted by Leeds occasionally left them susceptible to counter-attacks and conceding goals. Another related to off-the-field events - Leeds suffered a mini-slump around the time of the harrowing events in Turkey where 2 Leeds fans died. It is to their credit that Leeds still managed to pull something out of a season which started so well but threatened to go so wrong.
If you want to see how Leeds did with and without The Chief during the '99/'00 season, then click here.
The '98/'99 Season The '00/'01 Season The '01/'02 Season The '02/'03 Season