Leeds United 3 Coventry City 0: Lots of positive signs as Whites cruise home after bright start — Yorkshire Post 28/9/24

By Stuart Rayner

For as long as it took to win the game, Leeds United were fluid, inventive and entertaining against Coventry City.

That they do not go for the throat anywhere near often enough is a charge regularly levelled against Daniel Farke's Leeds but with away games on Tuesday and Friday and the game effectively won as soon as Jayden Bogle scored his first goal for the club in the 49th minute, there was no need for fireworks, just German efficiency.

A 3-0 win did the job and there was plenty to be positive about, even if things did fizzle out a lot in the second half.

Most of them revolved around the wide players, if you could call Willy Gnonto and Largie Ramazani that. Neither was chained to their flank, as likely to be on the opposite side or in the hole behind Mateo Joseph when the ball was at Coventry's end as, for most of the afternoon, it was.

The first quarter of an hour was all Leeds without much by way of actual goal threat, but as soon as Gnonto put that right, they were in charge of the game. With Coventry pinned back in their own third, Gnonto and Ramazani were always on the move, Brenden Aaronson always looking for the straight through-ball to Joseph or a runner

Coventry had two virtual time-outs in the first half, when Ben Wilson then Ethan Ampadu received treatment but on neither occasion could their manager Mark Robins come up with an escape plan that allowed them to break out.

Even so, for all their possession it took until the 16th minute for Leeds to have a shot on goal.

Aaronson fed Junior Firpo and Gnonto allowed the ball to come across him, opening his body and spearing a shot into the back corner of the net with his right foot.

Once Leeds got a taste for it, the shots started to flow.

When Aaronson slightly overhit a pass to Ramazani in the centre-forward slot, Wilson came off his line to save, and blocked again from Joseph. As the ball came out to Ilia Gruev he backpedalled in time to tip the long-range shot over. Ramazani chested a nice chipped Gruev passs and swivelled on it to force a save, before Wilson tipped over the product of Joseph's driving run.

When Bogle played a good pass into Joseph, his lay-off found Aaronson to pick out Ramazani for a shot wide. When the winger found Gnonto, the Italian's shot deflected wide. Pascal Struijk flicked his header wide at the corner.

Gruev played a lovely switch to Bogle but he found the side netting with the angle narrowing.

All the while Coventry did not have as much as a shot. Ben Sheaf put that right just two minutes into the second half when Struijk's sloppy pass picked out former Huddersfield Town midfielder Jack Rudoni but the Whites took the hint.

In no time at all Gnonto was playing the ball down the right to Bogle, who exchanged passes with Ramazani, again in the hole, then produced a shot Wilson got a hand to but could not keep out of his net.

With 49 minutes gone, the game was over as a contest but floodgates remained shut.

It would be another half an hour featuring little more than an Aaronson shot dragged wide and a weak Joel Latibeaudiere header to keep Ilan Meslier awake in between.

He would finally earn his corn in the second added minute with a leaping save to keep out Brandon Thomas-Assante's shot on the turn.

The move started with a lovely pass from Ao Tanaka, brought on for his first extended run-out for Leeds after Ampadu jarred his knee making an excellent block tackle in the 40th minute.

Disappointingly the Japan international with an eye for goal was pretty much chained to the midfield anchor but he could still spray a wonderful pass from there to release Gnonto down the right. When the ball came in for another substitute – Joel Piroe – Wilson again got a hand to the shot without keeping it out.

It was Piroe's third goal in four games and he is in danger of falling into the age-old trap of being too effective as a substitute to break into the starting XI.

In Ramazani, though, Leeds look to have found a new first-teamer to replace some of the unpredictability which left for Brighton and Hove Albion with Georginio Rutter. For that alone, it was a good afternoon for Leeds.