Only one way Leeds United top two dream can live after 'wobble' - Graham Smyth's Sunderland Verdict — YEP 10/4/24

The Championship has reached 'crunch time' as Daniel Farke calls it so this is not the moment for a Leeds United implosion and nor is it a time to be throwing chances away.

By Graham Smyth

Saturday was one of those, because Ipswich Town lost, and yet so too did Leeds thanks to a largely underwhelming performance against a good Coventry City side and a couple of notable missed opportunities in front of goal. Tuesday night was one too, because Leicester City lost. Leeds did not, they drew 0-0 with Sunderland, yet some of the reaction to the result would have suggested otherwise.

Leeds are entering the final four games of the season with one win in their last four, or one defeat in their last four, depending on how you like to frame it. To some it's a wobble at the worst possible moment. To others it's the Championship finally baring its teeth having been kept on a leash by Farke and his men for three unbeaten months. What is not up for debate is that Saturday and Tuesday can only be seen as missed chances because Leeds have got themselves into a position where these games all still mean something as the season nears its conclusion. Automatic promotion will live or die on these last few fixtures, only because Leeds made a race of it and dragged themselves into the conversation. They were good enough to get here, they just have to stay good enough to remain here.

And yet if the mood on Tuesday night proved anything it was that trust takes an age to build and an instant to crumble. Just like in December when Leeds went through a slump that included dropping points in successive games to Coventry and Sunderland, Farke's decision-making ability is once again under heavy scrutiny. That's Farke the mastermind of 12 wins from 13 Championship games to start 2024. Starting Patrick Bamford when the confidence is no longer flowing as it did during his purple patch, making no changes at the break, leaving Mateo Joseph and others on the bench until the final 10 minutes - it was all up for debate at full-time.

There were hints of the kind of night it might be from the outset, because Sunderland's defensive organisation asked Leeds to be patient in possession. It took the hosts several minutes to get into any good positions because the ball spent a good amount of time in and around halfway, at the feet of centre-backs Joe Rodon and Ethan Ampadu. The patience in their play comes from the manager, for the players trust his process just as he has trusted their quality even through dips in form this season. If Leeds cannot go forward in what they believe to be the correct manner, then they go backwards or sideways to keep the ball and look for another opening elsewhere.

Alas openings were few and far between in a mostly mundane first half. Georginio Rutter, so often the conductor of magic, got off to a slow start and only burst to life for brief moments. The best of those was a skip away from Dan Neil and a blast from distance that seared past the near post.

Leeds had control of the game but were unable to create really good chances. Sunderland for 33 minutes were unable to create much of anything at all. Their best moment in an eventual spell of pressure came when Jack Clarke drifted past Rodon and drove for the near post, forcing a save from Illan Meslier. The two did battle again, this time from distance, and Meslier was equal to that one too.

Before the break there were moments of promise at the other end, too. Bamford was played through, went past Anthony Patterson and blazed his cross as wildly off-target as a right-foot shot he had attempted a couple of minutes prior. Leeds continued to have patience, but at some point it started to look like other things. Like frustration. Like a lack of tempo. Like predictability.

The second half had to look different and at the very least it sounded different as the South Stand led the vocal charge. While the performance on the pitch did not immediately match the atmosphere, Leeds at least did start to lift it. Crysencio Summerville darted away on a break and fed James, who was felled in the area by the already-booked Ballard, only for an offside flag to keep the centre-back on the pitch. Leeds came again, Summerville exchanging short passes with Bamford and finding Rutter, whose shot was deflected wide. The resulting corner was cleared as far as James and he couldn't keep his shot on target.

Just as in the first half, Sunderland had moments but they were few and far between. Farke swapped Glen Kamara for Willy Gnonto and the little Italian brought further urgency to the game and appeared to convince his team-mates that the right hand side of the pitch was not to be avoided. The ironic cheers every time Archie Gray got the ball told the story of the first 70 minutes, as the teen and Daniel James were ignored, in space, as the ball went left time and time again. With a little more balance to their play, Leeds pressed and won corner after corner, without ever looking remotely like scoring from one. The closest they came was when Rodon was denied a header at goal by the hand, the high-above-his-head hand of Luke O'Nien, a hand that none of the officials were able to spot. That was as clear a sign as any that this was not to be Leeds' night and Farke's late triple change did little to change that. Even Summerville, on whom Leeds relied too much on the night, couldn’t fashion what you would call a good chance. Chance creation was what did for the win, in Farke’s eyes.

A point, he insisted, can still be important at this stage of the season though. At Norwich, when he first won the title, they drew four of their last six and he still recalls the reaction to each draw. A draw is not enough for promotion, came the cry, and yet history now tells us otherwise. There is so little time left in the season that it will quickly become apparent if Farke's decisions and this point were enough for Leeds, or if this week was when he and his players holed the good ship promotion beneath the waterline. But perhaps now is not the time for head scratching or head-loss. It's definitely not the time for Leeds to fall apart, or fall out, on or off the pitch. Leeds United's chance of automatic promotion is still alive and it only exists because of Farke, his players and the support they have had from the stands. As a unified force they might just hold it together and cross the finish line in the top two. Divided they almost certainly will not, so there’s only one option. Don't throw it away now.