Leeds United brought the chaos back in 3-0 win over Coventry City — and it looks good — Yorkshire Post 29/9/24

By Stuart Rayner

A return to organised chaos could be the way forward for Leeds United after Georginio Rutter.

It is hard to imagine any Leeds manager emulating the beauty of Marcelo Bielsa's haphazard football, where players popped up from everywhere in a way you might think random if you did not know better.

Jesse Marsch tried his own chaos theory but it was neither as good to watch, nor as successful.

Daniel Farke's football has fitted German stereotypes – organised, efficient, nowhere near as thrilling.

Last season it came to be based around Rutter playing between the lines but the effervescent creator has left and despite Farke's requests, no specialist replacement came. Brenden Aaronson is back from a loan but very Marschian – more hustle and bustle than flair.

So a new plan of attack was needed and the 50 minutes before Coventry City were put out of their misery demonstrated how it can work.

Farke loves a 4-2-3-1 formation but Saturday’s "three-quarter line" behind Mateo Joseph was different.

In theory, Willy Gnonto was on the right, Aaronson central and Largie Ramazani left. In practice they went where they wanted. If someone was already there, no bother.

Against a Coventry side squeezed into a bank of four protected by another of five, unable to get out if they wanted to – manager Mark Robins was adamant they did – it worked a treat.

Gnonto was at centre-forward when he let Junior Firpo's pass come across him, opened his body and speared into the net.

Ramazani was there when Gnonto found Jayden Bogle, who exchanged passes with the alleged winger then scored his first Leeds goal.

Gnonto was much further down the right when Ao Tanaka released him with a quarterback pass to set up Joel Piroe’s third goal in four substitute appearances for a 3-0 win.

There were plenty more chances between goals one and two, much less so two and three as Leeds became more Farkian and focused on a clean sheet and energy preservation with Norwich City and Sunderland away looming.

When it flowed it was thrilling and effective. Only one of those words is usually attached to Farke’s Leeds.

"This is something that we want to add to our game," he explained. "Last season we had unbelievable individual quality with Cree Summerville and Georgie Rutter.

"This season when we don't have a poster boy there but many interesting players we want them to be a bit more flexible and fluent with a bit more movement, changing positions a lot and doing some things that look crazy to the outside world.

"Hopefully it's sometimes crazy for the opponent with overloading the pocket, even two wingers on the same side sometimes.

"It's down to a lot of work in training but I can't tell them each pass during the game, it's too noisy. It's up to their creativity and awareness to realise which tools to use."

This was only Ramazani's second start in English senior football and Farke noted an crucial difference to the first, in Cardiff seven days earlier.

"When we are so electric and you have 35,000 cheering you, it's a bit easier perhaps than a difficult away game, especially with many young lads on the pitch," he stressed. "But it was another step forward.

"Largie needs a bit more physicality but he was involved in many good situations for us. I'm pretty happy for Willy – a goal, a good assist. Joel Piroe, (it was) important for him. We need to enjoy our game up front."

And whilst Rutter's £40m sale to Brighton and Hove Albion might have accelerated and exaggerated it, this, says Farke was always the strategy to evolve his team.

"Sometimes as a manager you have to adapt to different scenarios but it was always the plan to make Willy Gnonto more flexible in his movements," he revealed.

"It was of course a reaction to our major sales but it was the plan anyway to be a bit more flexible in our development as a team."

If it means more football like this, surely few Leeds fans will grumble. The Whites were never likely to fly out of the blocks this season after three of their best players – Archie Gray went too – were pulled from under them and Ramazani, Manor Solomon, Ao Tanaka and Isaac Schmidt only arrived at the end of August.

Ethan Ampadu's first-half block tackle shuddered his knee and set up Tanaka’s longest Leeds outing. Whilst it was a pity he was shackled to the holding role, he showed what he is capable of from there by releasing Gnonto for the third.

Quickly after he came on, the team's brief became much more about protection than adventure. Leeds did that well too.

Ben Sheaf started the second half with Coventry's first shot but it cleared the crossbar and provoked Leeds’ second goal. After that, all the Sky Blues had was a weak Joel Latibeaudiere header and Brandon Thomas-Asante’s shot on the turn.

The wingers played their part defensively too.

"They work so hard to defend and on the ball they've got amazing qualities," commented Bogle. "If we can keep a clean sheet we know we've always got the quality to score goals."

Add unpredictability and the task for opponents gets trickier still.