Ethan Ampadu has become a pillar – steady, consistent, committed — The Athletic 8/1/24

By Phil Hay

Death, taxes and away days in the FA Cup. Leeds United can count on all three and after their third-round win at Peterborough United, they wait to discover if a 14th straight away tie in the competition defies odds of 16,000 to one.

Leeds have been on this run for fully eight years, never at home, and it has become a source of FA Cup entertainment for everyone bar themselves. London Road yesterday was League One versus the Championship, but any amount of time spent with the club on the road in this tournament — at Sutton United, Newport County, Histon, Crawley Town, wherever — makes competent, professional progression no mean feat and a 3-0 victory nothing to be sniffed at. To sum up: Leeds have made a pig’s ear of far easier draws than this.

But to death, taxes and away days in the FA Cup, add Ethan Ampadu in Daniel Farke’s starting line-up. The season ticks on and as it does, so does the impression that within the confines of Farke’s dressing room, no player is more integral to it than Ampadu. Needed in the league, needed in the Carabao Cup, needed in the FA Cup; all of those duties taking him to 29 straight starts and counting, with no rest beyond a few minutes near the end of Leeds’ Christmas defeats to Preston North End and West Bromwich Albion.

Using him at Peterborough, amid six changes made by Farke, meant playing him at centre-back, which from Farke’s point of view was fine by him. Ampadu took the captaincy to boot and maybe this week has demonstrated more than any other that Leeds’ current manager makes no bones about which individuals are doing for him.

On Thursday he was jettisoning Djed Spence, giving up on a loanee who, depending on who you speak to, can be the best right-back in the Championship, hard work or both. Farke wants a certain character in his squad and without going to town when he spoke about Spence’s premature exit publicly, the Tottenham defender was clearly not it.

One of the striking moments in Spence’s few Leeds appearances, at the end of December’s 2-0 win at Blackburn Rovers, was Farke collaring him on the pitch after the final whistle for a prolonged debrief about positioning and game management. Farke has done similar with other players, too, but Ampadu, United’s £7million ($9m) signing from Chelsea, falls into the category of a footballer who appears to need no babysitting; steady, consistent, zero hassle. Farke is yet to test the impact of removing the 23-year-old from his line-up, like the pillar he is loath to fiddle with.

There were other ways yesterday for Farke to fill the left-sided defensive slot that Pascal Struijk normally holds down: Liam Cooper, who was on the bench, or Charlie Cresswell, who was left at home. Cresswell, Leeds’ England Under-21 international, is himself becoming an example of how Farke constructs a pecking order; that even in the FA Cup, against a League One team, there was no role for him. Farke banked on Ampadu and got more than anyone bargained for – a clean sheet combined with a goal in each half, Ampadu’s first for Leeds and, aside from an effort for Spezia in a Serie A play-off last season, his first for anyone.

Players with that sort of goalscoring record often need the sort of strike Ampadu converted before half-time at Peterborough. It was one of two moments of controversy late in the first half, the first leading to Ampadu’s opener. Jaidon Anthony began his run-up to a free kick before referee Sam Allison had blown his whistle, prompting Peterborough to freeze. Bamford performed a semi-conscious knockdown and Ampadu, in the absence of any resistance, decided he might as well smack in a close-range shot. If Allison did Leeds a favour there, he levelled it out soon after when Willy Gnonto went over a challenge from Josh Knight, a penalty in the eyes of everyone bar Allison.

But then, in the 48th minute, came the goal of the season, unless someone finds a way to score more highly on the Van Basten scale than Bamford. The striker, starting for the second time in a week having rediscovered his mojo and his finishing touch against Birmingham City on New Year’s Day, posed no apparent threat to Fynn Talley in the Peterborough net as Ampadu asked a question by sending a high ball forward.

Bamford took a touch with his chest, sent Knight to the wrong fire, swivelled and, in one motion, lashed a left-footed volley high beyond Talley’s reach, perfectly placed and enough to send team-mates sprinting away with mouths open and hands on their heads. Ampadu rarely scores at all. Bamford cannot have ever scored better. “It’s a world-class goal,” Farke said. “I have no other words.”

But there, again, was another player Farke had stuck with and sought to back, never willing to encourage the idea of Bamford being unhappy, unproductive, or done. The reward for unleashing him against Birmingham was a performance that helped to plug the leak of points during back-to-back losses. The reward for retaining him at London Road was exquisite technique which will be watched on repeat for days.

In the final minute came a second collectors’ item for Ampadu, still on the pitch and on hand again to glance in a header from a corner. One career goal became three like that and there were no complaints from him about the intensity of his schedule. “I’ve had periods in my early career where I’ve not played many minutes,” Ampadu said. “This is what you strive for and it’s all about looking after your body.”

On various fronts, there was a message in the air about what happens when Farke believes in a player, what happens when he doesn’t and how much those levels of trust seem to underpin his approach to management. It was, in hindsight, the same message that came from the handling of Gnonto when the winger was agitating to move on in August: that you are either on board or not, with no grey area in between. And in the case of a figure like Ampadu, it is clear how far faith will stretch for those who tick the right boxes.