Leeds 3-3 Liverpool: Arne Slot sees his house of cards fall down again — Daily Mail 6/12/25
Leeds 3-3 Liverpool: Arne Slot sees his house of cards fall down again as hosts fight back to heap pressure on beleaguered boss
By IAN LADYMAN, FOOTBALL EDITOR
Maybe Arne Slot knew it was coming. Maybe he has already
grown used to that feeling of dread and inevitability when his Liverpool team
are placed under real pressure.
Maybe he knew it when, with his team clinging to a 3-2 lead,
the assistant referee signalled nine minutes of added time. Maybe he knew it
when Leeds won successive corners with three of those nine minutes remaining.
Certainly when he saw his goalkeeper Alisson Becker half
come for the ball and then change his mind, Slot must have suspected his house
of cards was about to fall once again.
So when Leeds substitute Ao Tanaka reacted to Alisson’s
hesitancy to crash home a dropping ball for the equalising goal, Liverpool’s
beleaguered manager was probably the least surprised man in this part of West
Yorkshire.
This is Slot’s world right now. This is his team. And until
they find a way to do the basic things better, Slot will continue to edge
closer to that unthinkable position of a manager sacked just months after
winning a Premier League title.
It can happen. It shouldn’t – certainly not yet – but it
can. Slot will know this and he will take his team to Milan in the Champions
League this coming week knowing that something fundamental must change soon.
Twice it seemed as though Liverpool had won this game. First
when Hugo Ekitike scored twice in the opening five minutes of the second half
to put distance between his team and a Leeds side that at that stage had not
registered a shot on target.
Then again when – after Leeds had scored two quick goals of
their own – Dominik Szoboszlai ran through to make it 3-2 with just ten minutes
of regulation time to play. At that stage Liverpool did look as they would edge
this and had they done so we would have been able to talk about character and
grit and determination. Liverpool would also have just been a point outside the
Champions League places.
But the margins are desperately tight for Liverpool right
now and they keep falling the wrong side of them. Slot is at least able to say
his team are three games unbeaten following on from the horrors of home defeats
to Nottingham Forest and PSV. But a win at West Ham has been followed by draws
with two promoted teams – Sunderland and Leeds – and that is not approaching
good enough given the heights scaled last season.
Leeds manager Daniel Farke deserves credit for making smart
substitutions. He didn’t sit on his hands when his team needed something new
and was rewarded. This draw came on the back of the midweek win over Chelsea
and Leeds have now scored six times against two of the really big dogs of the
top division. Farke must be doing something right.
Early on his team clearly sensed that Liverpool were
vulnerable and, doubtless aware of their opponents’ dismal record when falling
behind in the Premier League this season, were on the front foot early on.
Indeed, they had three efforts on goal in the first five minutes.
Liverpool were unsure of themselves in the face of Leeds’
energy and intent. A failure by the Liverpool back four to clear their lines
aerially allowed Noah Okafor to shoot a foot wide across goal in the 2nd
minute. Then, when a corner was cleared to the edge of the penalty area,
Gabriel Gudmundsson volleyed just over. Soon after that it was a throw-in that
bothered Slot’s team and Okafor was able to shoot again and this time his
effort from 12 yards skewed wide from a Liverpool challenge.
The defending champions were not exactly rocking but they
were certainly uncomfortable. Only over time did Liverpool managed to find the
possession that managed to settle the game down a little bit. It started with
some counter attacks led by Cody Gakpo and Ekitike down the channels and
supplemented by some busy work from Florian Witz in behind. Then, over time,
spells of possession started to build.
A curling Curtis Jones shot that struck the bar from 22
yards was indicative of Liverpool’s growing threat in the 17th minute. Ten
minutes later, meanwhile, Virgil van Dijk eased forwards to meet a Szoboszlai
free-kick and head narrowly over.
Encouragingly for Liverpool, they were able to stretch Leeds
when they came forwards. Jayden Bogle and Gudmundsson were both booked for
fouls on breaking opponents. What was less impressive was the manner in which
they wasted good positions with poor final passes and decisions.
A great example of this came just after the half hour when a
superb Milos Kerkez tackle won the ball in his own half and set Gakpo away. The
Dutch forward moved forwards in to a dangerous position down the left but when
the moment came to deliver the killer pass, he delivered a cross so overhit
that it almost exited the field over on the far side.
He did rather better just before half-time when he ran from
his own half down the left on to a pass and drove in a shot that may well have
gone in had it not struck Joe Rodon on the thigh and deflected behind for a
corner that came to nothing.
Leeds were by no means absent as an attacking threat during
this time. Indeed they finished the half strongly. Tellingly, though, neither
goalkeeper had been asked to make a save during the opening 45 minutes of the
game.
That soon changed and when asked the question Leeds
goalkeeper Lucas Perri didn’t have the answers. Not that it was his fault.
Twice in the first five minutes of the second half Leeds defenders coughed up
the ball and twice Ekitike scored.
Rodon was first to err in the 47th minute as a pass across
goal served only to play the Liverpool striker clear on goal. Ekitike still had
much to do as a defender was arriving on the cover, but he finished well low to
the goalkeeper’s right and into the corner.
It was a gift but still it had to be taken. Then Leeds
coughed up the ball again – this time on Liverpool’s right side – and when
Conor Bradley crossed beautifully, Ekitike beat Perri on the stretch and nudged
the ball slowly in to the goal from six yards.
Leeds fans wanted a foul but it was all a bit wishful.
Ekitike and Perri had collided but contact had come after the ball had been
played.
Suddenly Liverpool were ahead and comfortable and for a
while it remained like that. Gakpo worked Perri with a curler as the team from
Merseyside dominated.
But a Leeds substitute injected some life into the home team
with 20 minutes to go and what happened next changed the whole feel of the
game. Wilfried Gnonto seemed second favourite to reach a ball played to the
byline in the 70th minute but he cleverly tempted Ibrahima Konate in to a
challenge and when referee Anthony Taylor was asked to take a look at the VAR
monitor he correctly awarded a penalty that Dominic Calvert-Lewin stuck away.
With Elland Road alive and energised, Leeds suddenly washed
over Liverpool like a white wave. The home team attacked down the left within
two minutes and when another substitute Brenden Aaronson fed Anton Stach in the
penalty area, he cut on to his right foot to smash a shot past Alisson from 12
yards. The strike came through red shirts and replays showed that one of Van
Dijk or Konate really should have blocked it.
Van Dijk almost made amends within minute as his header from
a free-kick was pawed away by Perri. But then Liverpool gathered themselves to
score a fabulous goal as Ryan Gravenberch played a pass that was dummied by
substitute Alexis MacAllister and allowed to run through to Szoboszlai who
scored across Perri with his right foot.
With ten minutes left, only a dummy would have placed money
on no further scoring. It really had been that kind of second half, a period of
back and forth football that would have done wonders for Liverpool’s belief –
and indeed league standing – if they had managed to come out on top of it.
