Sunderland 2-2 Leeds United: FFS — Square Ball 6/10/24

Could we just...not?

Written by: Rob Conlon

I went to bed still thinking about it. I woke up in the middle of the night still thinking about it. As I begin writing this match report, yes, I’m still thinking about it. FFS, Illan, mate. Could you just…not?

If we’re all still thinking about it, then you can bet the cost of a Leeds United membership that Illan Meslier is still thinking about it, unable to think of anything else. The dodgy patch of grass, the teasing spin on the ball, the three points not just in the bag, but already being notched on the Championship table: Leeds, joint top of the league, blowing kisses at the Sunderland fans with the self-satisfaction of a hard week’s work. Or not, after all. Instead, Meslier was back in the dressing room, on the verge of tears, while Junior Firpo was busying himself sharing videos of his goal on Instagram — a bigger twat’s trick than throwing a strop down the tunnel at full-time, if you ask me — to distract his mind from the urge of throttling his own goalkeeper. Firpo of all people should know that footballers can sometimes drop a bollock, although that wouldn’t have made the bus journey home any less awkward.

The cruelty is that until it happened, Meslier was playing better than he has all season. Maybe the script had been written when his first-half wondersave was rewarded by Sunderland sticking in the rebound for the opening goal anyway. We just can’t have nice things. But for the next 88 minutes he played with a rare assurance, punching the crosses that needed punching, catching the crosses that were there to be caught, running the clock down when there was time to be killed. After one, admittedly slightly unconvincing, claim of a set-piece, he held the ball aloft above his head for a while as if wanting to show Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris, his former mentor at Lorient — look, Dad, I’ve learned how to catch!

Even more cruel was that many of Meslier’s Leeds teammates had also played as well, if not better, than they have all season. This week has asked tough questions of Daniel Farke and his Leeds squad — injuries to key players, a quick turnaround for away trips to opponents who are unbeaten at home, early concessions giving those teams the chance to frustrate United — but Leeds have largely found the answers with a resilience and poise we still had doubts they possessed.

While the last two games have reinforced the solidity that Ethan Ampadu and Ilia Gruev bring to this side, the new midfield of Ao Tanaka and Joe Rothwell have shown what the partnership of Ampadu and Gruev lacks: “two ballers”, as Farke described Tanaka and Rothwell afterwards. Their defensive vulnerabilities might be evident in the space in front of the back four, but the jeopardy that creates might just help make Leeds games more entertaining this season, something even the naturally cautious Farke is willing to embrace. “In terms of positioning and also what we do against the ball, we have to work a lot, definitely,” he said at full-time. “But I can’t, and I won’t, make Joe Rothwell a completely different player than what he is right now. Steel against the ball and shifts like a teenager and covers 12km, so I can’t make out of him a different player and also not out of Ao Tanaka.”

Rothwell in particular was a breath of fresh air at Sunderland, full of classy control and forward passes. It doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, simplicity was key to Leeds breaking down Sunderland as they dropped deep and reverted to five at the back after taking the lead — Rothwell walking into a pocket of space to get the ball from Pascal Struijk and immediately shifting into Sunderland’s half so Leeds could get possession to their forwards quickly. Wilf Gnonto’s cross was a beauty, matched by Joel Piroe justifying his inclusion up front with a neat header into the bottom corner, finished with a coolness Mateo Joseph is yet to learn. It was an accurate, precise goal, but also so basic it makes me wonder why Leeds can’t do it more often.

With Brenden Aaronson getting in the way of too many promising attacks, Leeds failed to match that precision until ten minutes into the second half, when a long ball dropped for Largie Ramazani and Firpo’s one-two with Gnonto and side-foot into the corner again made football seem far easier than Leeds can be guilty of making it look.

Should Leeds have made more of an effort to go for a third goal? The result ultimately says yes, but for all but the final seconds their game management could have been filed under ‘the perfect away performance’. Alongside Struijk, Joe Rodon relished the defending he had to do. Meslier got to live the life of every other goalkeeper in the division whenever they play against Leeds, running down the clock at any opportunity, even if he did take a bump to the head from Struijk for his sins. Some fans were speculating whether that head knock was more serious than we thought by the end of the game, but like Loris Karius’ horror show for Liverpool in the 2018 Champions League final, I’d have a lot more sympathy for that theory if he didn’t have a history of playing silly buggers.

The good news is that this last week has proved Leeds are a good team. A two-week break should mean Farke has more options who can help Leeds score the goals that will kill games off when Sheffield United visit Elland Road in the first game back, a fixture with enough spite — mainly Chris Wilder’s face — to jolt the players out of feeling too sorry for themselves. As they showed at the Stadium of Light, Leeds don’t have to complicate things. If they can get the basics right, the league is there for the taking. But as I finish writing this match report, I’m afraid that’s still not what I’m thinking about right now.