Midway through the first half and with Leeds United starting to get a grip of possession, Anton Stach wandered forward to briefly stand near Dominic Calvert-Lewin up front. They have been teammates for less than a month but for Calvert-Lewin it must have felt like being reunited with a long lost friend. Lord knows he needed the company. It was one of the few times all afternoon he could read the name on the back of another Leeds shirt without straining his eyes and peering into the distance.
Before long Stach was strolling back into position and getting an earful from his captain Ethan Ampadu, who moments earlier had looked for a simple pass to his left only to realise his fellow midfielder wasn’t where, in theory, he was meant to be stationed. On another occasion Stach shuffled over to the right-hand side of the pitch trying to find space, but that was where Sean Longstaff was being told to play. Longstaff was diligent enough to notice Stach’s presence and shuffle over to the left to cover his absence. Except Stach was already getting back into position, meaning Leeds’ midfield were so wary of being caught out of shape they were accidentally following each other around West London.
The most confusing part of it all was trying to work out what to make of a game in which we learned nothing new. Leeds were set up to be hard to beat, and they were. The defence was well marshalled by Joe Rodon and Pascal Struijk, the midfield combative, and in the rare moments Karl Darlow was called upon the goalkeeper commanded his penalty area and made a couple of excellent saves from long-distance strikes. Leeds were only beaten because of a painfully rotten freak of an own-goal in injury time.
The problem, aside from the shape of Gabi Gudmundsson’s forehead, was further up the pitch. Again, this was nothing new. Making his first Premier League start, Noah Okafor showed moments of skill and promise, but whenever he beat his full-back he only had Calvert-Lewin to aim for, who was either isolated or offside. Brenden Aaronson was drifting off the right wing to attempt playing as the number 10 that Leeds don’t have, but part of the reason Leeds don’t have a number 10 is because we know Brenden Aaronson isn’t very good at playing as one.
Instead, Aaronson was selected more for his defensive workrate, which is the one part of his game that can be always relied upon. To his credit, Aaronson fulfilled that part of his role as dutifully as ever, and it’s worth pointing out that Leeds had more control of the game when he was on the pitch rather than after he had been substituted. But the question is how much Aaronson was to thank for that control, and whether — having already sacrificed an attacker for a three-man midfield — Leeds would have made better use of that control without also sacrificing a right winger who possesses more threat and leaving Jayden Bogle all alone on the touchline?
I’m glad I’m not the manager, because I don’t really know the answer. Aaronson ruining a promising counter-attack by taking too long to make up his mind only to give the ball away anyway was met by groans in the away end and loud chants for Wilf Gnonto, but it’s also worth pointing out that Gnonto had started the previous three league games in which Leeds’ attack was equally — if not more — blunt. As a result, Leeds’ main threat so far this season has been hoping someone like Okafor or Bogle will go full Diego Maradona circa 1986 and dribble from the halfway line before walking the ball into the net.
Given the most promising aspect of pre-season was [Anton Stach’s galloping runs forward against AC Milan](https://thesquareball.net/leeds-united/leeds-united-1-1-ac-milan-rough-and-ready/), it might help if Stach and Longstaff — whose fierce hit from the edge of the box clipped the top of the bar in the first half — were allowed to get closer to Calvert-Lewin or even, god forbid, beyond him, rather than be tethered to a lead that only extends to the edge of either penalty area like a puppy whose owner just wants them to heel at the centre circle. Arguably Fulham’s best chance of the game fell to their defensive midfielder Sasa Lukic, who was standing on the edge of Leeds’ six-yard box when he failed to hook the ball into the bottom corner, whereas when Aaronson reached a low cross to the near post to force a save out of Bernd Leno with Leeds’ best and clearest chance of the game, he was the only United player in the opposition’s penalty area.
In defence of Daniel Farke, Leeds aren’t the only club in the Premier League whose tactics are so cautious. Across the division, teams are so frightened of leaving themselves exposed they opt for the sanctity of slow, safe possession, waiting for the opposition to make a mistake for them. Fulham were no different, failing to attempt a single shot on goal in the first half, yet could afford to wait before turning to their wildcard from the bench in new £35m winger Kevin, who changed the game upon his introduction for the final fifteen minutes.
The 49ers’ failure to sign Igor Paixao or a similar player as well as Okafor, despite Farke’s repeated pleas, has backed their manager into a corner, although Farke will need his team to come out fighting next week against Wolves and avoid the temptation to stray into self-pity as he did in his post-match at Craven Cottage.
Before the match, Farke insisted that while he was “open and transparent” when calling for more attackers while the transfer window was open, but now the window is shut, “you won’t hear one bad comment or one bad word from me in any way in terms of being angry or disappointed or whatever.” After the defeat he repeated that line, only to contradict himself by bemoaning his lack of offensive quality:
> “We would just need a bit more quality in the offence like more or less each and every other Premier League side has. I can’t expect something from a player he’s not capable of delivering. It’s not like I expect players labelled not good enough three years ago to come here and score goals for fun. …
>
> “No criticism or disrespect of my players, \[but \] the players we have — Gnonto, James, Harrison, Aaronson — they were all with us two and a half years ago when we were relegated and they were all called hopeless and not good enough for the Premier League. They were outstanding on Championship level but they still have a point to prove that all those labels were not right. We shouldn’t expect any miracles.”
Whether he’s right or wrong, it’s not what the 49ers need to hear. It’s not what the supporters need to hear. And most importantly of all it can’t be what those players need to hear. Rather than remind them about getting relegated in a hopeless team, Farke should be emboldening his attackers, helping Gnonto rediscover the verve with which he toyed with Premier League full-backs for a few months as a carefree teenager after being dropped into the biggest league in the world, or showing Jack Harrison his goals against Liverpool, Newcastle, Chelsea, or his hat-trick at West Ham. Admittedly I’m not sure what he can show Aaronson but there must be something from his time at Fizzy Salzburg apart from clips of him harrying defenders, otherwise Leeds wouldn’t have spunked £25m on his signature.
And yet, and yet, and yet. Leeds played well enough at Fulham and when the final whistle was blown I didn’t want to sack the manager or tear it all up and start again. Instead, as the ball bounced off Gabi Gudmundsson’s face and flew so precisely into the corner of the net to compound United to their latest inconceivable defeat in the capital, a part of me wanted to laugh, because it would have been so hard to believe if it didn’t feel oh so familiar. ⬢