After heavy defeat English leader shows the way (5)
I believe the answer is:
route
'the way' is the definition.
(route is a kind of way)
'after heavy defeat english leader' is the wordplay.
'after' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'heavy defeat' becomes 'rout' (I've seen this before).
'leader' indicates taking the first letters.
The initial letter of 'english' is 'e'.
'rout'+'e' is 'ROUTE'.
'shows' is the link.
(Other definitions for route that I've seen before include "track" , "The way to go" , "Regular journey" , "Itinerary; way" , "Direction of travel" .)