Leeds United 2-1 Watford: Cheers lads — Square Ball 23/10/24

Something in the water

Written by: Rob Conlon

I’m used to watching teams sabotage themselves at Elland Road, but it’s usually the one in white. If Watford wanted to beat Leeds on Tuesday night, they had a funny way of going about it. While goalkeeper Daniel Bachmann has been nursing a back injury in recent weeks, their medical staff might be better off sending him for an exorcism. Bachmann was spooked by the sprinklers before the game and became possessed by the spirit of Paul Rachubka, gifting Largie Ramazani and Brenden Aaronson goals in the opening ten minutes. Clearly, there’s just something in the water at Elland Road.

In between those goals, a break from Aaronson led to Wilf Gnonto shooting narrowly wide of the far post. Leeds seemed in the mood to score ten, and Watford seemed willing to let them. Like Jaap Stam’s Reading knocking the ball around their defence while losing to Leeds under Garry Monk, or Jonathan Woodgate’s Middlesbrough sleepwalking around Elland Road against Marcelo Bielsa’s promotion winners, United seemed confused by Watford’s inertia after giving us a two-goal headstart. More opportunities followed for Gnonto, Joel Piroe, and Ao Tanaka, but with Manor Solomon rusty after replacing the injured Ramazani early on, Leeds weren’t able to shift through the gears and stretch the scoreline — nor did they have to.

Even when Leeds’ defence all chose the same time to malfunction and allowed Kwadwo Baah to pull a goal back shortly after half-time, Watford reverted to breaking the game up on Leeds’ behalf, clattering into clumsy tackles or feigning injuries to kill time. Their pantomime villainy was counterproductive for two reasons. Not only did it suck any impetus out of a game they were meant to be chasing when Leeds could have been nervous, it galvanised the crowd, who turned up hoping to see a game of football and at least now had something to shout about. If Watford were so determined to lose, then we wanted to make sure Leeds remembered they had to go win it.

Daniel Farke appreciated the helping hand. “I have to say to our supporters, big, big compliment,” he said afterwards. “It felt in this moment we need them and they need to be there after so many sucker punches in the last weeks with injuries. They made sure we stayed awake and played on the front foot.”

This time last year, Leeds returned from the October international break and produced a thrilling comeback from 2-0 down to win 3-2 at Norwich. But the euphoria of that win was followed by the comedown of Farke rotating his starting XI and Leeds losing 1-0 at Stoke. There was always a danger of a similar adrenaline dump after Leeds battled through the fatigue of players returning late from international duty to record their best win of the season against Sheffield United on Friday, but Farke stuck with the same team and his regulars got the job done with some encouragement from the terraces.

Ramazani’s injury and one of Piroe’s dozier nights might mean Leeds could benefit from the reinjection of Dan James and Mateo Joseph’s energy against Bristol City at the weekend. Their introductions from the bench swung the momentum back in Leeds’ favour by dragging the team back up the pitch, even if Joseph wasted the prettiest cross of James’ career with a tame header that even Bachmann couldn’t throw into his own net. James got his own back by shooting at the near post when he could have given Joseph a tap in, while Jayden Bogle had earlier hit the post with a cross only for Piroe to give Bachmann an easy save he made look difficult on the rebound.

Leeds could and should have won by more, but there were still signs that we could do with free agent Josuha Guilavogui being capable of getting up to speed quickly. Like Gnonto, Joe Rothwell wilted as the game went on, unable match the high standard he set against Sheffield United. Thankfully, his midfielder partner Tanaka was excellent again. After agreeing with Farke that he needs to hone his defensive instincts, Tanaka is evidently a fast learner. Eager to scrap to win possession back while remaining full of touches of class in the way he drops a shoulder and keeps the ball moving, his tenacity meant that Watford had plenty of the ball after making it 2-1, set-pieces aside they never got too close to Leeds’ goal.

It’s a win that is unlikely to be remembered come the end of the season, but still good enough to take Leeds joint top of the league against a team that would have drawn level on points with United had they won. Sure, Leeds’ best player on the night might have been the opposition goalkeeper, but we should never turn our noses up at benefiting from a slice of good fortune. Lord knows we’ve earned it.