Leeds United lessons learned vs Derby County with chance taken, frustration harnessed and revenge enjoyed — YEP 11/1/26
By Kyle Newbould
Lessons learned from a gutsy performance as Leeds United
booked their place in the FA Cup fourth round draw.
Leeds United booked their place in the FA Cup fourth round
draw with a come-from-behind 3-1 win at Derby County on Sunday. Goals from
Willy Gnonto, Ao Tanaka and James Justin capped off a much-improved second-half
performance from the Premier League outfit, whose quality shone through
eventually.
Ben Brereton Diaz opened the scoring for Derby just minutes
after a missed Joel Piroe penalty but Leeds rallied well, showing an impressive
combination of fight and quality to defeat their Championship hosts. Below are
some of the YEP’s key lessons learned from the victory.
Karl Darlow takes his chance
A large part of the pre-game chat surrounded goalkeepers,
more specifically whether Karl Darlow should replace Lucas Perri on a more
permanent note following some recent mistakes by the latter. Farke has been
hesitant to chop and change the position where stability is most important but
in starting at Pride Park, Darlow had a chance to stake his claim.
The Welshman might have wanted to do better with Diaz’s
effort but it could also be argued he was unable to set himself, such was the
swiftness with which the chance to shoot arose. Other than that, he coped under
pressure, claimed deep crosses and looked very confident with his feet, most
notably clipping a beautiful pass out to Jack Harrison or punching a pass
through the lines to Tanaka.
A very Leeds United first-half
It’s never easy for Leeds in cup competitions and while
Farke’s much-rotated side still had plenty of quality, the combination of early
kick-off and familiar foe in John Eustace made for a difficult opening 45. Rams
goalkeeper Jacob Zetterstrom was in the kind of form lower-level goalkeepers
always seem to be against the Whites and parried away Piroe’s poor spot-kick as
one of several good stops.
That Brereton Diaz took advantage of some sloppy play
minutes later just about summed up the first-half, and Derby fans revelled in
the joy, chanting ‘it’s happened again’ and ‘Leeds are falling apart’ with
glee. Frustration grew heading into the break and something had to change.
Willy Gnonto’s frustration harnessed
Derby’s gameplan was clear from the off as they looked to
ruffle Leeds' feathers, with the tricky Gnonto an obvious candidate for strong
challenges. Those challenges often crossed a line and the Leeds winger’s
frustration grew when Craig Forsyth inexplicably escaped two yellow cards in as
many minutes, one for a late challenge and the other for stopping a
counter-attack.
Rather than dwindle, Gnonto harnessed that frustration and
very much took it out on the ball to make it 1-1. A slick move from Leeds saw
Piroe find the Italian with a smart dummy, and his right-footed effort had
ripped through the net before Zetterstrom even had a chance to react. It was
all smiles again after that goal.
Daniel Farke gets his win over John Eustace
Farke was quizzed a few times on his record against Eustace
before Sunday’s game and admitted he might need a little extra help from his
players to get one over on his old foe. In four previous meetings as Leeds
boss, he hadn’t won a single time despite managing the better team on every
occasion.
He had the better team again on Sunday and this time it
showed, with Farke finally able to crack a smile on the touchline as Justin
made it 3-1 in added-time. The Whites boss will just be pleased to come through
a potential banana skin with positives to take but will no doubt be glad to put
questions over himself vs Eustace to bed.
Leeds United fans get their revenge
There were around 5,500 fans in the away end at Pride Park
and after a frustrating first-half, they got to really enjoy themselves against
an old Championship foe. Home end chants of ‘falling apart’ were mirrored
tongue-in-cheek while Marcelo Bielsa’s name rang out after a rendition of
‘We’ll spy when we want’.
