Leeds United 2 Hull City 0: Solomon’s debut, Aaronson trusted again, Farke’s full-back headache — The Athletic 1/9/24

By Nancy Froston

Leeds United head into the international break on a positive note after securing their first home win of the season against Hull City.

Goals from Mateo Joseph and Joel Piroe were enough to wrap up the points and send Daniel Farke’s side fourth in the table before a two-week break. Leeds took their time to break Hull down after a positive start but were rewarded for their persistence with two second half goals.

With four new signings enjoying a rapturous welcome in the sunshine at Elland Road, The Athletic picks out three key talking points for Leeds.

How did Leeds’ new players get on during their debuts?

Three summer signings made their debuts against Hull and all of them impressed. With only full-back Isaac Schmidt ineligible for the match after signing from St. Gallen after the EFL cut-off for the matchday squad on deadline day, Manor Solomon, Ao Tanaka and Largie Ramazani were all selected in the 20.

Winger Solomon started on the left in the absence of Dan James, who was out with a hamstring injury, and the Spurs loanee showed his class from the off.

Linking up well with left-back Junior Firpo, Solomon ran at Hull captain Lewie Coyle and seemed to enjoy the battle. Cutting inside and out, Solomon offered a variety of wing play either by feeding Firpo on the overlap or coming inside to send crosses into the area. It was a promising start given Farke’s cautious words on the readiness and fitness of both Solomon and Ramazani coming into the weekend.

Yet the choice to start Solomon was, Farke says, easy — and his decision was rewarded with the 25-year-old’s assist for Joseph’s opening goal.

“Overall, I had to keep in mind that we had four signings but none of them have any experience in the Championship before,” Farke said. “None of them have experience in British football in the senior game apart from Manor Solomon.

“He has experienced a higher level, Premier League level and had his Fulham spell after a difficult season last year. He had four pre-season games with Tottenham, so was in his rhythm already. For that, we got the feeling that it’s easiest for him to handle expectations and be in the starting line-up.

“Largie showed glimpses in his touches and his movement. He looked sharp but for me. I was happy with his performance and what Ao is capable of; he is a pretty cool player, cool person and is cool on the ball. He has shown this in the last 10 minutes because we hardly gave the ball away.”

Has Brenden Aaronson locked down his place as Leeds’ No 10?

After two successive games getting the nod ahead of Joel Piroe in the starting line-up, Aaronson looks like he has won Farke’s favour for the No 10 role moving forward. While there were hopes that Leeds would bring in another player to compete in that area on deadline day, they were unable to complete deals for Sheffield United’s Gustavo Hamer or Freiburg’s Roland Sallai.

Aaronson’s return after spending last season on loan is almost like Leeds having a new signing and the USMNT international has grown into things since coming back into the fold from his loan spell at Union Berlin last year.

A goal against Sheffield Wednesday and another positive performance against Hull have helped his case as he seeks redemption — but Farke sees both the American and his nearest rival in the position Piroe as different players to fulfil different jobs.

With Piroe scoring the second of the game, albeit while playing as striker once Joseph had been substituted, the choice is between a player operating as a 9.5 (a deep-lying striker) or a 10.5 (an attacking midfielder who can play out wide) for Farke. Aaronson looks to be winning that battle, although Farke hinted that he would have welcomed a signing in that area.

“Once an opponent is sitting deeper and parks the bus, you need this creative player and it’s never easy when you don’t have the traditional No 10,” he said.

“We have Brenden Aaronson who is a specialist in this position. We have other players and other options who can play there, like Joel Piroe, who is more of a finisher from this position. Perhaps one of our wingers can also play in this position.

“If we need to be more compact ,we have Joe Rothwell who can play in this position. We do not have a traditional Diego Maradona No 10 in the squad but if you don’t have it, you have to work with other tools.”

Does Farke have a full-back conundrum?

With new arrival Schmidt watching on from the stands, Farke now has the 24-year-old, Sam Byram, Jayden Bogle and Junior Firpo as options at full-back.

Both Firpo and Bogle were able to play high against Hull and showcase their offensive strengths. But at times, Hull were able to get at Leeds down the right flank via Liam Millar, who had a good battle with Bogle, highlighting some of his defensive frailties in the position.

While Byram, who came on in place of Bogle when he was substituted after suffering with cramp in the second half, he shut down Hull’s advances on that wing in a more defensively sound showing. Competition in the full-back unit is healthy and Firpo’s place at left-back looks most settled of the two positions.

Farke, who said that he has “proper competition” in his full-back positions, is known for preferring his full-backs to offer plenty going forward and effectively play as wing-backs, which is in the capabilities of new signing Schmidt should he be given his chance in the next game.

What next for Leeds?

Leeds will spend some time on the training ground over the international break before returning to league action with a home match against Burnley on September 14 (12.30pm UK time; 7.30pm ET).