It is hard to imagine another Leeds United player wearing the number 15 shirt, so used have we been to seeing Stuart Dallas flying up and down the pitch (the right-side, left-side, centre of the pitch – he covered it all). Before Dallas, there were some notable wearers, such as Fabian Delph in 2008-09, and some not so notable (Cyril Chapuis for three games in 2003) but number 15 will always, at least for a generation of Leeds fans, belong to Stuart Dallas. Other than numbers one to eleven, no player has ever worn a shirt number in more appearances for Leeds United than Dallas wearing 15, playing 266 times in total. He packed a fair bit into those 266 games – appearances alongside both Paul McKay and Raphinha, a 90th minute winner against the Premier League champions and running the equivalent of 10 marathons in one season. The latter seems a good place to start to look at why Stuart Dallas was so popular with Leeds fans.
Running... a lot
It was a pre-requisite to be able to play in a Marcelo Bielsa team that you had to be fit and have the stamina to run all day. In Stuart Dallas, Bielsa found the perfect player. Although he struggled with injury in Bielsa’s first season, starting just 13 games and being named on the bench 20 times, from the start of 2019-20 until Bielsa’s final game, Dallas played in 113 out of 119 games, starting 111 (the two he didn’t start were both cup games, against Arsenal and West Ham). In the 2019-20 Championship season, only two players had more touches than Stuart Dallas in the entire division, which was an average of 75 per game – across his first three seasons with the club, Dallas averaged 51 touches per game. He was becoming more and more integral to the way Leeds set up.
Then came the 2020-21 Premier League season – across that campaign, Dallas ran the length of 10 marathons, a total of 423 kilometres. Sadly, the recent achievements of the self-proclaimed ‘Hardest Geezer’ in Africa render these numbers seemingly smaller and insignificant by comparison but looking at his peers in the Premier League then, Dallas ranked fourth overall for distance covered and second for total sprints with 773.
*data via Second Spectrum
Even more impressively, Dallas’ numbers never dipped below 10km in any match in the Premier League. The most distance he covered in an away game? At the Etihad in April 2021 (11.8km). Although, some of that may have been running over to celebrate in the 90th minute.
Looking at his numbers right up until the date of his injury at home to Manchester City, Dallas was still up among the Premier League’s best runners and sprinters (teammate Raphinha topping the sprints).
*data via Second Spectrum
A superhuman effort from a footballer who put everything into every game and never stopped running. At the time of his injury, he was also on a run of 77 consecutive starts for Leeds United in league football – a number emulated by only 24 other players in the club’s entire history. The only other player to achieve it this century was Mateusz Klich (92 from 2018 to 2020), and before him was Gary Kelly in the early 1990s. Those types of feats don’t come around often.
It was also revealed during this run of consecutive starts that one of Dallas' best friends had died early in the 2021-22 season, but he continued to play through, or "crack on" as he put it. Speaking openly, my own best friend had died unexpectedly a few months earlier and with that still fresh in my mind, I thought about writing him a letter to let him know I felt I understood how he was feeling and always regretted not doing so. But my respect for Stuart Dallas after that went up tenfold, for him to continue playing Premier League football without a break after such a difficult experience showed the character of the man.
April 10th, 2021
Arguably, Stuart Dallas’ most iconic moment in a Leeds United shirt was one in which, sadly, no supporter was there to witness in person. Leeds turned up at Manchester City in April 2021 to face a side who had won 36 of their previous 43 matches in all competitions. City hadn’t lost at home against a newly promoted side since February 2007, when Reading beat a City side containing the likes of Hatem Trabelsi, Ousmane Dabo and Nicky Weaver at the Etihad. For a similar comparison, on that very same day Leeds were losing 2-1 at Norwich with a goal from an 18-year-old Jonny Howson, in a lineup featuring Neil Sullivan for the last time. Armando Sa was there, a man most of us would not recognise if he walked past us in the street. These were different times.
The stats of the game do tell a story here, even with a Liam Cooper red card factored in. Man City had 29 shots, Leeds had two. Man City had seven times as many touches in Leeds’ box as Leeds had in theirs (49 vs 7). Man City had 14 shots inside the box, Leeds had none.
But that didn’t matter. Stuart Dallas didn’t need any shots from inside the box – he had two from outside the box and they both went in, the only Leeds player to score two goals from outside the box in an away Premier League game and the only player to score two goals away at Man City in the Premier League. “He wouldn’t, would he? Stuart Dallas. That’s astonishing!” as Peter Drury put it.
Looking at it through the realms of Leeds United’s history, only six players have ever scored two goals in a top-flight match against the side top of the table (in no way part of a joke, they are spread amongst three Englishmen, two Scotsmen and an Irishman). Dallas was the first to do since Mick Jones in 1969 against Everton and away from home, the only other ones to do it are Charlie Keetley (1932 vs Arsenal) and John McCole (1959 vs Spurs). A rare, slightly niche place in our history belongs to these men.
On as a much-used sub (in the early years)
Although Dallas started the final 77 league matches of his Leeds United career, perhaps a not commonly known fact about him is that he’s the third-most used substitute in the club’s entire history. I recall stumbling on this fact a few years ago and expected Dallas to quite easily to break John Pearson’s record of 60, but he then went on to start 123 of his final 125 appearances for the club. Compare that to his first 141 games for the club when he was subbed on 50 times.
Derby...
I have still not been able to bring myself to re-watch the highlights of our 4-2 defeat to Derby in May 2019. Frankly, it was a disastrous day before the game even got started when I failed my driving test for a second time (thankfully passed a third time) in the afternoon, so I shouldn’t have been surprised by what happened. But the one thing I can still see in my mind’s eye is the image of Stuart Dallas charging around like a madman to get Leeds into the game and his exceptional second goal. Dallas led all Leeds players that day for shots, shots on target, duels, possession won and fouls won, as well as joint top for tackles made. In fact, this was the game in which Dallas had his joint most shots for Leeds (6), his most shots on target in a Leeds match (4) and won the most fouls (7) and in only two other games did he win possession more often (11). Dallas did everything he could that night. It wasn’t enough and he remains the most recent player to score two goals for Leeds at Elland Road and end on the losing side. At least he didn’t fail his driving test the same day, I suppose.
Incredible versatility
Marcelo Bielsa once compared Stuart Dallas to Javier Zanetti, one of the most versatile players of his generation. In Leeds United terms, Dallas was a modern day Paul Madeley, a player so versatile he wore every number from 2 to 11 in a Leeds United shirt (an ironic contrast to Dallas wearing number 15 on 266 occasions, but anyway). Dallas became known for his versatility under Bielsa, but even in his first season in 2015-16, signed as a winger, Dallas could play on either wing and did so, playing almost an equal percentage on both sides of the pitch.
Now let’s compare to the 2019-20 promotion-winning campaign – Dallas didn’t play a single minute on the wing or in an attacking position, and just 6% of his minutes were at right-midfield. 61% was spent at full-back and the rest in midfield (something which would stand him in good stead for the following campaign).
In 2020-21 in the Premier League, after spending 16% of his minutes in central midfield the previous season, Dallas’ most common position was in the centre, playing over half of minutes either in central or defensive midfield. To prove he did have the same level of consistency, he still spent 29% of it at left-back, as he had in 2019-20. This further advanced role led to Dallas scoring eight times, a total bettered by only a handful of midfielders (it was the same total as James Maddison managed and only one fewer than Phil Foden) and him winning the Player of the Year and Players’ Player of the Year awards for Leeds United at the end of the season.
A look at Dallas’ total position map for his time at Leeds United further highlights his versatility – 42% at full-back, 22% in central midfield and almost 40% in either wide-midfield or on the wing. I have no doubts that had he been tried there, he would have made a great centre half, too.
Longevity in the modern era
In terms of a place in Leeds United’s history, only 33 players have ever played more times for the club than Stuart Dallas. If you exclude any player who appeared under either Don Revie or Howard Wilkinson (not that we would, but bear with me), only seven players have more appearances outside of those glorious club eras, and two of those players are Liam Cooper (283) and Luke Ayling (268).
When Dallas made his 250th appearance for the club in January 2022 against Burnley, he was the first player to hit that landmark since Lucas Radebe in November 2003. It was the largest gap ever between players hitting 250 games for Leeds United and pointed to the years of chopping and changing, the constant stream of loan players and the many who simply weren't good enough to play for the club. Dallas survived, prospered and to top it off then scored in that 250th match, something that players such as John Charles, Billy Bremner and Mick Jones had previously achieved (and Luke Ayling would emulate a year later). He was amongst legends.
For everything he has done for Leeds United, Stuart Dallas will always be looked upon with affection by supporters. I feel that to sum up his versatility, longevity and non-stop running, there’s nothing else to say other than: look at his touch map. The man was everywhere.
