Dacourt dreaming of a white Christmas

For a man with a generous face of bright white teeth and soft brown eyes, there is a cantankerous look that comes over Olivier Dacourt when he is trying to be helpful, trying to give a full answer to a question he may not comprehend totally. His face compresses and he stares. But in that moment you see the determination we have come to expect from him.

Dacourt had just been asked if October mattered, in the sense that you never hear managers talking about leagues being won and lost in that month.

It may have seemed a premature query, but Dacourt understood its implications immediately: after Liverpool at Anfield this lunchtime, Leeds host Chelsea at Elland Road next weekend and visit Old Trafford the Sunday after that. October could well matter.

"Oh yes," he said firmly.

Leeds are top of the Premiership, three points clear of Arsenal and Manchester United. They have conceded two goals in seven matches and are unbeaten in the league since losing at Highbury in May.

Their last defeat before that was in January. Alongside their opponents today, they could justifiably be called England's team of 2001. However, Leeds have not been consistently impressive so far this season.

"But the confidence is coming," he said. "You saw that on Tuesday when we played well and scored many goals" - Leeds beat Leicester City 6-0 at Filbert Street in the League Cup on Tuesday night.

"Maybe we aren't playing especially well but we have the results, and the staff have prepared us to be ready for October, November, December and January. We know those will be hard months. Now we are starting to get fitter.

"We're fitter than a month ago and that is - what's the word in English?" His face screwed up and his eyes glared with the effort of expression in a new vocabulary. "Intentional? The staff have worked on that."

Given that Leeds's first-team coach, Brian Kidd, made a virtue when at Manchester United of ensuring that the physical fitness and mental enthusiasm of his players peaked around March, it is no surprise that he is installing comparable preparation at Leeds now.

What is diverting, though, is that effectively Leeds have used August and September to get fit and yet they remain ahead of Kidd's old club. That speaks of strength.

Not that David O'Leary will be caught saying that, and Dacourt made similar managerial noises about the Leeds squad being too small and the worry of injuries.

"Arsenal have so many players...." he said. "But we can fight against anybody." It is no less than we have come to expect from the defiant player who was sent off in his first Leeds game, a Champions League qualifier against 1860 Munich.

That was August 2000, but it was not his first debut for an English club. He had come to England from Strasbourg two years earlier. Liverpool's neighbours Everton paid £4 million sterling for him. He stayed one season and went back to France with Lens for £6.5 million sterling.

By the time O'Leary bought him his worth had risen to £7.2 million sterling. Now, three weeks after his 27th birthday, Dacourt would cost upwards of £10 million sterling.

No wonder he said of his position in English football: "Now it's better because I'm in a better team and I don't get so many yellow cards. And although we are not in the Champions League, now everybody knows us, big clubs know us. Maybe it was a little surprise that Leeds got to the semi-final last year, but we beat Milan and Lazio, for example, so in Italy they know we have quality.

"It's totally different from Everton because while they had some good players, they didn't have the money. So you have to sell and when you do that it's very difficult to win things.

"The chairman here has given the manager the key - he buys the players he wants to. At Everton Walter Smith could not do what he wanted to do. Three months after I joined they sold Duncan Ferguson - the talisman! Straight away you can see they don't want to win things. Straight away you know you will leave.

"When I signed here they said they would buy Rio Ferdinand. And they did. It's a big statement. That's why Everton fans are unbelievable - they're already playing to avoid relegation and every week they still have a full house. Only in England."

Though he is appreciative of that fanaticism - "I can't say that Leeds is a beautiful city, but the club is good and the football is so exciting" - England is not the only country on his mind in a World Cup season.

He won his first cap for France in the Confederations Cup in the summer, playing in three of the five games, and he described reaching the France squad as his "first target".

"But it's very tough. Maybe this is the hardest team to be involved with. It's not like in England where the coach picks 27 players or something; in France it's 18. Patrick Vieira was the top in England in 1997 but it took him three years to play for France. Only at Euro 2000 was he a regular. It takes time." That is why, if Dacourt is selected for the controversial friendly in Australia in a month's time, he will go. It means that Leeds may well be without him for two, possibly three, games.

Yet, they have no Champions League to distract them this season and Dacourt's rising confidence in Leeds's rising confidence should also be stressed. "When you are confident you can do anything. My example is Beckham."

Moreover, Leeds and Dacourt take "a good memory" of last season's game at Anfield into their big October. Six months ago, Leeds won 2-1 having been 2-0 up at half-time.

"I think the first half at Liverpool was our best half of all last season. We were 2-0 up and nobody could say nothing."