Leeds United seek help from within after sickening déjà vu — Graham Smyth's Verdict — YEP 24/8/24
By Graham Smyth
Daniel Farke did not have to look to the hills on Friday
night in Sheffield to see where his help was coming from.
It's a good job, really, that Farke and his team did such a
good job at Hillsborough, because no one was riding to the rescue. Largie
Ramazani was at Thorp Arch on Thursday, wearing all the right gear, but not
registered in time to be any help whatsoever 24 hours later. At around 11pm on
Friday night Manor Solomon was getting closer to a loan move from Tottenham
Hotspur, but by that time the game was done and Leeds were taking three points
back up the M1 with them.
It takes a village to raise a child and a squad to raise a
promotion challenge but fortunately for 49ers Enterprises and everyone involved
in Elland Road decision making it took just 11 men to stuff the Owls and raise
spirits around the club at the end of a fraught week.
Before we get to the good stuff, of which there was plenty,
consider for a moment the mood had this game gone the other way. Defeat or
maybe even just a failure to win would have turned the wailing and gnashing of
teeth all the way up to 11. This season was not supposed to start like this.
Deja vu was not on the menu and yet it has been served up in sickening
portions, with exit clauses for both starter and main, and a light bench for
dessert. Two goalkeepers, a 16-year-old prospect and two of his fellow teenagers
padded the numbers on the padded seats in the away dugout. Max Wober out
injured. Patrick Bamford out injured, again. When the team sheet came out, the
starting XI looked fine but worried eyes looked to the bench. Had that matchday
squad come away pointless, the club's hierarchy would have been looking for
shelter from the fallout. The season has started, lads and lasses, why does it
look like this, again?
Until such a time as the squad looks as it should, as filled
out by quality and quantity as it should, then the only real defence to the
charges being laid at the feet of the ownership, the CEO, recruitment heads and
Farke is found in results. Without results, the club is a sitting duck taking
fire from all sides. So this game mattered. It mattered anyway, as a
competitive fixture and a Yorkshire derby to boot. But it really mattered that
Leeds gave everyone something to smile about, or simply license to breathe out.
And just like anything worth having, the result was not
easily come by because Wednesday are a big, strong, solid unit of a side. In
Danny Rohl they have an impressive character in charge, someone potentially
capable of steering a previously listing and wayward ship to happier waters.
Rohl put out a back five that made Leeds' front line look like tiny children.
And for the opening period of the game, size mattered. It mattered when
Wednesday won corners or long throws, one of which was headed wide by Dominic
Iorfa. It mattered when Brenden Aaronson was bounced unceremoniously to the
turf in successive 50:50s.
But it began to matter less and less when Leeds began to use
the ball and their heads. Without possession, Wednesday had to lumber around
after nippier, more nimble opponents and they found it hard to defend darts
into their area. Mateo Joseph had the first chance, from an acute angle, and
Pascal Struijk the second, from a short corner routine. Neither found the net.
Speed of thought and of foot was going to be absolutely key
if Leeds were to play their way around or through tree trunk legs and into
space. That's exactly what brought the opener. Building from the very back and
Illan Meslier, Leeds passed the ball quickly and slickly down the right, via a
delightful Dan James flick, and into Willy Gnonto in the middle. His through
ball put Mateo Joseph in the area and though he went down under what looked
like a foul, the ball fell kindly for Aaronson to make it 1-0.
From that moment on the result rarely looked in doubt, for
Leeds assumed near total control of the football. Gnonto popped up all over the
place, even dropping into a central defensive midfield position to take
possession and drive forward to get another attack going. What made his
ever-growing influence all the more impressive is that it took a conscious
decision on his behalf not to lose his head, in order to use it to hurt
Wednesday. He was kicked all over, rarely offered much protection by the referee's
cards and then shown one himself for what was admittedly a rash challenge of
his own. Though he muttered and gestured and advised referee Simon Hooper, he
kept a lid on it and kept dusting himself down to go again.
He wasn't the only one causing problems, though. The pass
Joseph played to put James in on goal for the second did serious justice to the
number 19 on his back. Pablo Hernandez himself would have been proud of it.
James did the pass justice with his finish, a dinked effort. How close the
finish was to what James intended is up for debate but the quality of the move
that brought the goal is not.
And with a 2-0 lead early in the second half, Leeds were all
but home and hosed. They bossed things for the vast majority, only very rarely
giving Wednesday a sniff through a careless moment here or an ill-advised pass
there. Junior Firpo impressed at left-back. The centre-backs passed it well,
defended sensibly and used physicality when it was needed. Bogle had a better
time of it going forward than the other way, but did his bit. Meslier was well
protected in the main. Ethan Ampadu helped add control and Ilia Gruev was the
engine. Aaronson was tidy and scored. James was fully invested and scored.
Gnonto was a problem. Joseph could have added to the scoreline but went off to
an ovation for his part in both goals. The substitutes had no real impact but
saved legs. No one was grumbling when it finished without further goals.