Accidental boss exposes Leeds United weakness as Daniel Farke made to consider striker-less formation — YEP 14/12/23

Few teams in the second tier of English football set up with a three-man defence and wing-backs minus a recognised striker, but Sunderland's tactical tweak for the visit of Leeds United on Tuesday night may inspire fellow Championship sides to follow suit.

By Joe Donnohue

Leeds' narrow defeat by Sunderland in midweek was a bitter pill to swallow for the Whites after a run of nine wins in their previous 11 Championship fixtures, but there could be few complaints from the away side whose attacking threat was largely thwarted.

Sunderland, on the other hand, made the most of their limited opportunities and decisively broke the deadlock during the second half through teenage forward Jobe Bellingham. The Black Cats' interim boss Mike Dodds admitted to tweaking his team's setup from the weekend's win over West Bromwich Albion, including different roles for the likes of Bellingham, whom he praised highly, and false nine on the night Alex Pritchard. The win over Leeds was Dodds' second of two games in charge of the side since his hasty appointment as temporary head coach following Tony Mowbray's sacking.

Despite going through their warm-up drills with the defensive coach in a back four, Sunderland operated more of a five-man structure in front of goalkeeper Anthony Patterson, which was flexible enough to double as a 3-4-3 when the home side were on the front foot, or reacting to pressing triggers. Trai Hume and Niall Huggins offered width and tenacity, while - left-to-right - Luke O'Nien, Dan Ballard and Jenson Seelt proved difficult customers for Leeds' front-line through the middle of the pitch.

Sunderland's wide attackers Abdoullah Ba and Jack Clarke doubled as auxiliary wing-backs when Leeds were in the ascendancy, forcing the Whites inside, through the more congested central areas where O'Nien pushed up to add a further defensive presence in midfield. Consequently, Joel Piroe's opportunities to take the ball under his spell and turn were largely suffocated, while Georginio Rutter's every touch fell under the watchful eye of whichever central defender followed him into deeper positions, which tended to be the physical and imposing Northern Irish international Ballard.

"It's always the same when you find the side was parking the bus that much, five at the back and more or less at times the three midfield players and two offensive players also have to cover the wings, it's more like you are forced to play through the centre," Farke said, offering his post-match assessment. "That's why we were fighting also to create a bit more over the wings as the centre is also quite closed. So, credit to them. They were well structured."

Leeds' 15 touches in the Sunderland penalty area was the second-lowest they had mustered all season, two more than in their 1-0 defeat by Birmingham City at the beginning of the campaign when Farke was unable to name a full substitutes bench. Before Piroe's 89th-minute toe poke which was cleared off the line by Hume, Leeds' Expected Goals (xG) tally for the match was among their lowest this season - a fact Dodds drew upon in his post-match press conference.

"Their Expected Goals was like 0.4 and for a team of their quality, Premier League quality, to limit a team to that number of chances is remarkable, really," he said.

Sunderland tend to use the ball, rather than limit the space of their opponents - they have the third-highest average possession figure in the Championship this season - but against Leeds only managed 32 per cent, a season-low, and certainly intentional. Out of possession, the Black Cats were especially disciplined, employing Pritchard as an unconventional, press-leading false nine.

"He was always someone that was in my thinking because he's tactically so bright," Sunderland's interim coach said at full-time, applauding the 30-year-old's unselfish undertaking. "I knew I would need him in these types of games."

The ex-Norwich midfielder covered lots of ground, blocking passing lanes rather than engaging the likes of Joe Rodon and Pascal Struijk when in possession of the ball inside Leeds' half. Only upon crossing the halfway line did Sunderland begin to apply pressure on the United ball-carriers, led from the front by Pritchard and aided by the youthful supporting cast. The approach asked Leeds to find solutions of their own, as opposed to exploiting gaps in the Black Cats' structure.

In all, Sunderland's setup was one of the more tactically intriguing Leeds have faced this season and certainly problematic for Farke and his coaching staff. Earlier in the campaign, Leeds toiled against the likes of Sheffield Wednesday at home, but in recent months have found a way to break down teams intent on sitting deep, often through exposing their opponents' own ill-discipline in maintaining a resolute defensive structure. Sunderland did not afford Leeds that opportunity and when a team are organised as such, 90 minutes can feel but a brief moment in time.

Farke's task is to innovate and conjure solutions to such an approach, but working in his favour is the fact not every team in this division - in fact, decidedly few - boast the tactical flexibility, quality or personnel to carry out Sunderland's game-plan. That is not to say a fix is not high on the agenda inside Thorp Arch video suites, it very much is. Play-off football come the end of the season will pit the division's best sides - physically, tactically and mentally - against one another and on Tuesday night's showing, if Leeds are to rely on the play-off route to regain Premier League status, there is every chance they will need to overcome the Black Cats.