Leeds United reminded only half the battle is done - Graham Smyth's Sheffield Wednesday Verdict - YEP 2/9/23

When the window closed Leeds United could finally say with real conviction they were in control of their squad but as Sheffield Wednesday reminded them that's only half the battle.

By Graham Smyth

The night is always darkest before the dawn and it would not have been deadline day without some drama and trauma. Luis Sinisterra got the move he wanted, joining Tyler Adams at Bournemouth, as evening uncertainty and late night doubt kept Leeds fans hoping, praying and guessing.

And though the season is now well underway, a sun-baked post-deadline game against Wednesday had the feel of a new day about if for Leeds. A new-look but now settled squad, managed by a man who has the know-how to guide it to where it needs to be. New faces on the bench in Glen Kamara and Djed Spence. Deal sheet signing Jaidon Anthony unable to join in just yet but present all the same.

You could hardly say Leeds supporters have never had it so good but compare their lot to that of their Owls counterparts, many of whom have just about had it with their owner, and any optimism in the air was found almost exclusively in the home sections of Elland Road. It was the recently relegated side, not the recently promoted one, looking upward in the lead up to this one.

Putting four past Ipswich, albeit with Sinisterra involved, was enough to suggest that winless, pointless Wednesday had real cause for worry against Farke's men.

Herein lies a lesson Leeds have learned before in the second tier. Just because you should beat someone handily does not a win guarantee.

What played out in the sunshine was the kind of frustrating attack versus compact defence routine that was reminiscent of some of the days experienced by Marcelo Bielsa's Leeds team.

Where Ipswich came to play a week prior, leaving space in which Leeds could play themselves, Wednesday came to nullify and to stymie. To sit in, to head, tackle and block, then counter now and again.

A Leeds XI showing two changes - Crysencio Summerville filled the Sinisterra void and Jamie Shackleton replaced the injured Sam Byram at left-back - held plenty of menace from the off.

There was possession, link-up play, pace out on the left through Willy Gnonto and Shackleton and a threat more centrally through Summerville.

The latter is going to cause no end of headaches for defences this season and he looked key to unlocking the Owls defence. Leeds' best chance of the first half came when Summerville straightened up an attack that had been going side to side and redirected it goalwards with a lovely clipped ball into the run of Georginio Rutter. The Frenchman hit the target, but didn't score, and Wednesday survived.

There were other moments before the break that could have led to a breakthrough. Joel Piroe shot wide when well placed, a Shackleton cross hit Gnonto and went behind, Summerville fired over from the edge of the box and Gnonto hit the side netting.

Ethan Ampadu had the cigars out in the middle and Archie Gray was impressing again, but with Piroe not particularly in the game and Devis Vásquez so rarely troubled in the Owls' goal, they reached the break with the clean sheet intact.

Shackleton and Gnonto led the charge early in the second half, the former jinking inside a defender to curl an effort just over the top and the latter repeatedly going at and past his markers to create chances.

A beautiful cross was headed down but wide by an unmarked Ayling and a cut-back found Piroe 16 yards out, only for Leeds' big goal threat to fluff his lines with a woeful touch.

Summerville did at least test Vásquez when played in by Rutter but when the Frenchman himself was put clean through by Ampadu's ball, he simply passed a lob attempt into the keeper's hands.

Besides one huge let-off at the other end when Callum Paterson hooked over from the penalty spot, Leeds were on the ball and on the attack. They just couldn't get on the scoresheet. The longer it stayed 0-0 the more Wednesday's resolve grew and though new boy Djed Spence provided a dynamic boost with a late cameo, there was a same-old feeling to the result. Farke, unconcerned as he might be about the points tally this early in the season, has drawn all three of his home games and the déjà vu must be getting boring.

There will be more games like this, many more of them in fact, when teams come to Elland Road to throw up a wall and challenge Leeds to find a way around it. Shackleton's performance at least kept one bit of business that Leeds didn't do out of the post-match discourse, because his left-back showing was perfectly adequate. The number 10 position, where Piroe found life so much more difficult a week on from an impressive debut, instead came under scrutiny. Against Wednesday there were numerous times when the situation called for a killer pass - akin to the one Summerville supplied for Rutter in the first half - and not another dribble or a ball into a wide area. Maybe Piroe will be the man to supply those passes but most expect to see him finishing off moves as he did for Swansea. With the window closed Farke's options and solutions must all come from within.

"Obviously we always play more or less, especially in possession, with two players behind one striker," he said after.

"Today it was Cree Summerville and Joel Piroe. We have also the chance once for example Patrick Bamford is back that also Georginio Rutter plays a bit deeper."

He went on to list Ian Poveda and Mateo Joseph as other potential fixes to any creativity problems that crop up in games.

In truth creating opportunities was not a huge issue in this game because they made enough of them to win and, just as it was with Bielsa's side, the time to worry is not so much when chances don't go in but when chances don't come at all.

The international break gives Farke time to reflect on it all but more importantly to look forward to the games to come and how they can be won. He has his squad. The exodus is over. The remaining transfer variables vanquished. Control off the pitch is now in his grasp and the battle for control on the pitch and on the scoresheet can truly begin.