All change at Leeds United as promotion statement looms — Graham Smyth's Watford Verdict — YEP 12/2/25

By Graham Smyth

It's all change at Leeds United - they are no longer reliably good under Daniel Farke, they're becoming reliably brilliant.

Ten came out of the side for the FA Cup game at the weekend after big brothering Coventry City and all 10 went back in at Vicarage Road. It was as if they had never been away. The 4-0 win over Watford somehow felt routine, because by and large you know what you're going to get from this version of Leeds now. Players like Joe Rodon, Ao Tanaka, Jayden Bogle, Manor Solomon and Dan James have built stellar runs of form upon the practice of consistently doing their jobs professionally.

Where last season's team became reliant upon one or two star men to provide moments of individual brilliance, the current crop are dangerous everywhere. That doesn't just mean that goals can come from players in various positions, it means Leeds can score goals that start just about anywhere on the pitch. And that balance, that threat from left, right and centre, has taken a very good team and made them collectively brilliant, and brilliant to watch. Criticism of a lack of entertainment has dried up completely thanks to a deluge of goals. Farke’s name is being sung by away ends. Minds are changing with the times.

What was perhaps most reassuring about the win at Watford was an almost wholesome element that makes this team likeable. They worked hard for everything they got. Yes, the home side gave a helping hand or two but there was Leeds United effort underpinning every situation from which they profited. Brenden Aaronson and Ilia Gruev covering huge distances, Rodon refusing to give an inch, Bogle and Junior Firpo getting stuck in out wide, Solomon and Tanaka picking off passes - the dirty bits of the game allowed Leeds to shine.

Not for the first time this season, those with certain selection expectations were proven wrong by the team Farke put out. The much-anticipated return of Pascal Struijk to centre-back and the subsequent move back into midfield of Ethan Ampadu will have to wait. Farke has shown, time and time again, that he works only to his timeline and with a 14-game unbeaten run and five-point gap at the top of the table he has earned the right to be trusted.

The evidence of the first two minutes suggested that the Leeds team Farke put out would carry on exactly where they left off at Coventry, making two good chances. Bogle headed the ball into space, Aaronson cut it back and a defender teed up Joel Piroe whose strike took a deflection and flew over the top. A clever pass from Ilia Gruev put Firpo in space on the other flank and his low cross found Solomon who couldn't get a shot off.

But Watford's immediate response suggested it might not be plain sailing for Farke's men. First Imran Louza drove a shot just wide via a deflection and then found Edo Kayembe completely unmarked on the edge of the box for another shot that took a nick on its way through and just shaded the post. Only one of the two suggestions would prove true.

Tom Cleverley's programme notes pointed out that Leeds style is 'dominating and suffocating' opponents and while that wasn't precisely how it went early on, the visitors did look the more likely to open the scoring. A flowing move down the middle involving Solomon and Aaronson should have ended with the opener but Piroe's shot was tame.

The next chance also fell to Leeds, this time to Dan James and he was the picture of composure. Watford were the architects of the goal, Kayembe passing blindly into no-man's land and watching in horror as James' pace took him onto the ball and into the area where he applied a clinical finish past Egil Selvik.

When Leeds created a counter of their own, from their own box no less, James showed once again what it is Farke has come to expect from his winger. Ampadu cleared the ball as far as Aaronson, he did brilliantly to turn the ball into the path of Piroe and he rolled in James. This finish was even better than the first.

By the 35th minute it was all over. Solomon took receipt of a throw from the left flank, headed for the middle and his deflected shot deceived Selvik. Cleverley bemoaned the concession of that goal because 'you should never concede a shot, never mind a goal from a throw-in.' What will please Farke, however, is that Leeds built that goal from the very back. Illan Meslier's long pass, under pressure, gave Piroe a chance to compete with a centre-back and Aaronson was in place to fight for the seconds. From that territory and possession came the throw. From that throw came the goal.

So dangerous were Leeds on the counter that James threatened the Watford goal from the centre circle, running onto a loose ball and curling an effort that had Selvik worried but bounced off target, but the home side stemmed the bleeding until midway through the second half. That was when Leeds began to knock the stuffing out of them completely with a fourth goal that was arguably the prettiest of the lot.

Ao Tanaka rang a ring around Tom Ince, slid the ball to Solomon and his cut back allowed Piroe to shimmie Mattie Pollock to the turf and finish with precision. Subsequent efforts from Piroe, James and Tanaka could all easily have added to Watford's humiliation but they all went wide.

A late, late rally from the Hornets could equally have taken the gloss off the scoreline but Meslier was there and so too was his crossbar to safeguard yet another clean sheet.

Leeds this season have at times been boring and good and more recently they have been brilliant and good. In the next two games it matters little which of those Leeds sides show up so long as they're good, because this could be a statement month like no other in the title race. If Farke gets what has come to be expected from this team against Sunderland and Sheffield United - and his attitude that they can do more and be better gives them every chance - then the expectation levels will be sky high and entirely justified.