Leeds United reunions, Farke's complaints, Ayling's intervention and off-camera Sunderland moments — YEP 13/12/23
Leeds United suffered their first defeat in eight outings at Sunderland on Tuesday night with an uncharacteristically tame offensive display being punished by a single goal.
By Graham Smyth
Jobe Bellingham was quickest to react to a surprise ball in
the box, beating Illan Meslier and winning it for the managerless Black Cats,
but the big disappointment for the Whites was how little they created.
Sunderland interim manager Mike Dodds was able to provoke a disciplined
defensive performance from his side and they stopped an in-form Leeds attack
from combining effectively in and around the area. Here's the YEP take.
Good day: Jack Clarke and Niall Huggins
Getting one over on a former club, regardless of what
players will say publicly, has to feel good. The duo played full parts in the
victory for Sunderland, Clarke giving Archie Gray a tough time and Huggins
sticking to his defensive duties manfully. Both dug in as the pressure came on
late in the game. They each shared a few moments with ex-colleagues at
full-time and there have been no gloating but this one will have meant
something different to other Sunderland wins this season.
Bad day: Georginio Rutter
Leeds' frontman always puts a shift in, always presses
defenders and the goalkeeper and always tries to make things happen but he was
forcing it at times against Sunderland. He wasn't the only one but this will
definitely go down as an off day for Rutter, who couldn't make the ball stick
in the final third or turn his possession into chances. We saw only a couple of
glimpses of his skill on the ball. It wasn't a Rutter problem that Leeds were
facing, it was collective, but he did struggle.
Daniel Farke
Sunderland threw up a wall whenever Leeds were in
possession, retreating to cover space and refusing to engage with the Whites'
centre-backs or Illan Meslier for the most part. That meant Leeds had to try
and play through congested areas and were stifled for the vast majority of the
contest. Farke was unable to fix it, even with his changes from the bench. His
talk of Sunderland parking the bus, the pitch being heavy and a possible red
card that never came, all smacked of complaining about things outside Leeds'
control when ordinarily he isn't one for excuses. He did not make mention of
the penalty Sunderland could have had or how they created the better chances in
the game, making Meslier the busier of the two goalkeepers. This was an off
night, when his plan did not work as it has done so well recently. One to
bounce back from and learn from.
Off-camera moments
Spence and Summerville having a chat on the pitch during the
warm-up, as outfield players broke off into their respective on-field
partnerships, signalling that the Spurs loanee would indeed be filling in at
left-back. Mateo Joseph's unsuccessful nutmeg attempt on fitness coach Tom
Robinson. Klaesson and former Leeds goalkeeping coach Barcherini, now head of
keeping at Sunderland, catching up at the end of the warm-ups. Farke fuming as
Rutter failed to control a pass from Piroe with Leeds on the break. Summerville
hopping mad in frustration as he begged for team-mates to speed up the
attacking play. Ayling trying to rally the troops from the touchline after
Leeds went a goal behind, attempting to intervene as his team-mates made their
way back to halfway with vocal encouragement and applause. Struijk leading a
delegation to complain to referee Dean Whitestone at full-time and then,
realising that they had the official surrounded, pushing his team-mates back so
he alone could speak. Rutter catching up with Adil Aouchiche, with whom he
played 31 times together across four different French international age groups.
