The Verdict on Leeds United's frustrating defeat against Manchester City.
If Leeds United cannot take momentum from their performance in a 1-0 defeat by Manchester City then perhaps they can take righteous anger and turn it into rocket fuel.
Farke said before the game that his side would have to be spot on in both boxes to get something against City. The unsaid part of that was that everyone on the planet expected most of the action to come in Leeds' box. Yet the game's first big chance and half chance both came at the other end, inside the opening couple of minutes. The Whites were not spot on. Brenden Aaronson curled a perfect ball into the box for the unmarked Dominic Calvert-Lewin and the bewildered, haunted looks on his face and that of Farke said it all about the finish. It went wide and Leeds denied themselves the perfect start.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin missed a great first-half chance against Manchester City.placeholder image
Dominic Calvert-Lewin missed a great first-half chance against Manchester City. | AFP via Getty Images
But there was plenty to like about the home side's attitude in the opening 10 minutes. James Justin's aggression helped put them on the front foot and Aaronson sent in another delivery that was just too strong for Gabriel Gudmundsson at the back stick. Jayden Bogle's one-two with Anton Stach wasn't perfect as another attack ended in a goal kick. Encouraging, but not spot on.
As for the other end, Karl Darlow went nearly 15 minutes between touches of the ball. Antoine Semenyo did race in behind Pascal Struijk to shoot well over the bar, but the offside flag went up anyway. And Leeds continued to cause problems and create chances. Struijk's clever ball gave Calvert-Lewin a run into the area where he spun and shot right across the goalmouth and out the other side. Aaronson fought and danced to dig the ball out of the corner and Leeds worked it across the edge of the box for a Justin shot that Gianluigi Donnarumma got down to save.
The key to Leeds' great start was manic aggression. Pressing in numbers and creating chaos to win the ball and then playing quickly with it. Bogle charged down a clearance, raced to the loose ball and fired it to the near post where Aaronson arrived and steered wide. By the half hour mark Leeds could say they had been the dominant force in the game, even with a minority share of the possession. City's rare forays into the final third were rebuffed. Leeds took away central passing options, forcing the visitors to try and cross from wide areas and the deliveries were defended comfortably.
With 10 minutes left in the half Bernardo Silva finally started to get on the ball and probe for openings. He unlocked the right flank before a ball was fizzed through the Leeds box, and was involved in a move that led to City's first corner of the game. Leeds stood strong but with pressure building they needed an out and twice Ethan Ampadu got his touch wrong with a break possible. When Stach did nick the ball to send Aaronson into the clear, the American took a heavy touch as he reached the area, giving himself less of an angle and was unable to beat Donnarumma.
What Leeds did not want was for the game to open up, because when it eventually did in the wake of Aaronson's break, City were able to create. Omar Marmoush got away on the right and forced Darlow into a good save. Nico O'Reilly got up to meet a cross from the right and his header forced Darlow into an even better stop.
City continued to press as the half reached stoppage time and fewer than 10 seconds remained when the hosts were undone by sheer quality. Rayan Cherki took three men out of the equation with one pass, Rayan Ait-Nouri ran onto it and slid the ball across goal for Semenyo to slide in the opener. It was every bit as clinical as Leeds needed to be and though the quality differential was always likely to show, it took a sucker punch right on half-time to separate the sides.
Chances came for Leeds United
The story of the first half threatened to repeat in the second. Leeds created the first chance again. This time it was Stach finding Calvert-Lewin with a beautiful delivery and though the striker controlled and ran into the area, his shot was blocked behind. Farke once more had his face in his hands in frustration and possibly disbelief that Leeds' biggest issue was in the City box and not their own.
It wasn't possible for Leeds to recreate the chaos of the opening period, the away side's constant recycling of the ball starting to sap energy from home legs even if all the possession amounted to very little. Recognising that something had to change to break the rhythm of the game and getting next to nothing from officials who took no action for Cherki's stamp on Gruev, Farke replaced Aaronson with Lukas Nmecha and gave Leeds more of a presence in attack.
If anything it was City who looked more ominous, however. Ampadu and Gruev were unable to lock down the middle of the pitch, Stach began to fade and Darlow had to hurl himself through the air to tip away a goalbound Marc Guehi header and keep Leeds in it.
Read More
But as Farke threw more and more fresh legs at it and went to a back four, Leeds began to turn the tide and then turn the screw. They were knocking on the door with 10 minutes remaining, winning throw-ins that Ampadu could hurl into the area and corner kicks. Amid the chaos the ball landed on Matheus Nunes' arm in the box and the officials missed it, before VAR deemed his arm to be in a natural position.
On came Jaka Bijol to add another aerial threat and his first touch was so nearly a goal, getting up to head a Stach delivery down and agonisingly past the post. Leeds pushed and pushed, sending the ball into the box but there was to be no eruption of joy. Instead, the full-time whistle saw Farke erupt in fury, charging towards Bankes who withdrew and wielded his red card as if to defend himself. Speaking after the game Farke's assistant Edmund Riemer explained that the referee's prompt whistling for full-time, despite the time wasting and yellow-card pauses during six minutes of stoppage time, were at the heart of the manager's response. In truth his ire at the officials was provoked much earlier and only grew as the game went on.
But Riemer was keen to express pride at the Leeds performance. Restricting a team of such incredible offensive talent to relatively few chances and making enough nuisance to be able to feel aggrieved at the result should do nothing but good to the Whites' confidence. They come out of the weekend with a further goal difference gain on West Ham United, who also lost. From here on in Leeds play the majority of their games against teams in the bottom half of the table and just one against top six sides. Plenty of those games are to be played at Elland Road, which needs no excuse or refereeing incompetency to burn ferociously. The next game coming so soon will not be easy on the legs but hearts will still be ablaze when Sunderland come to town.
Continue Reading