Leeds United act up as classy Wilder gets frontrow seat — Graham Smyth's Sheffield United Verdict — YEP 25/2/25

By Graham Smyth

If this Leeds United team are not champions then they're doing the damnedest impression.

Going 16 unbeaten, winning five in a row, scoring 18 in those five, conceding just two and coming from behind with late, late goals on consecutive Mondays to beat a pair of promotion rivals. If that's not title-winning behaviour then we're about to see the most ‘Leeds, that’ event of all time and something truly special from Sheffield United or Burnley. In truth, Daniel Farke and his players have the league by the scruff of the neck and can decide what happens next. Their fate is very much in their own hands.

If the numbers and the results haven't yet suggested strongly enough that this is Leeds United's title to lose, then the faintest air of resignation in the voice of the man closest enough to them in the title race should have been.

Chris Wilder watched on in delight as his Blades rattled their visitors good and proper at Bramall Lane in the first 20 minutes, going a goal up and making the league leaders look decidedly second best. He watched in concern as Leeds wrestled back control of the game, levelling it up midway through the second half through Junior Firpo's impression of an old-fashioned centre forward targetman. He watched in despair as Leeds won it with goals in the 89th and 90th minutes. He was all class in defeat, waiting in the tunnel to shake every hand and offer his congratulations, and even if his words said that there's a long way to go, his voice said that Leeds should get there first.

Sheffield United fans before the game were all saying the same thing: "We're not playing well but we're finding a way to win."

Enter Leeds with their cover version of the same tune. Having lost Ethan Ampadu to what Farke is calling a second serious injury of the season and missing their manager from the touchline as he served his ban, Leeds started like a pale imitation of the side they have been of late.

The whole point of a central midfield of Ilia Gruev and Ao Tanaka was to give them solidity and control but the pair were wobbly. They were never wobbly close enough to their own box to cause much of an immediate issue but often enough - in Gruev's case particularly - to allow the Blades to build serious momentum.

Sheffield United were far more adventurous than they were at Elland Road and Leeds had more urgent defending to do in the early minutes than they've had to do in a number of recent games combined. Had it not been for Gruev placing himself on the goal-line as a corner came in and Illan Meslier failed to punch under pressure, it would have been 1-0. The Bulgarian headed off the line and Leeds survived, but continued to look rattled in and out of possession.

Soon it was 1-0. The goal was scored, in his own net, by Meslier. His role was the easiest to identify because of his status as the last row of the defence but he was far from alone in taking blame. Gruev was slow to react in midfield, Daniel James didn't get close enough to stop Ben Brereton Diaz' cross and Joe Rodon let Callum O'Hare run off him to head against the bar. When the ball bounced down and Tyrese Campbell nodded it back into the goalmouth, Meslier could only paw it over his own line clumsily to complete the disaster.

Initially the goal did little to wake Leeds from their uncharacteristic malaise as passes continued to go astray, the midfield failed to get to grips with the opposition and too many players did too little to take responsibility. Meslier passed the ball straight out of play under little pressure and then came for but did not get a long throw, relying on Rodon to clear from the six-yard box. At this point it felt like one of those nights.

But Pascal Struijk started to step up in possession, Tanaka built his way into it and Manor Solomon provided the brightest spark, even if he squandered Leeds' best chance of the first half. Struijk clipped a lovely ball over the top to put the winger in behind, he settled himself and then shot straight at Michael Cooper. Wasteful, yes, but it was at least something.

At the start of the second half the Blades appeared to still have plenty of intensity in the tank and put Meslier under some more pressure. He came sliding out to the very edge of his area to gather a ball at Brereton Diaz' feet and just about stayed within legality. He then went diving down to his left to take a well-hit Vini Souza strike.

In between those moments Leeds mustered little beyond a wayward Firpo header from a dangerous Tanaka cross. Wasteful, yes, but it was a warning the Blades failed to heed.

When the equaliser came it was a perfect James cross from a similar position to Tanaka's that gave Firpo a second chance. It was, as Wilder pointed out, a header the likes of Joe Jordan would have been proud to plant in the back of a net. This was where the momentum shifted once and for all.

Leeds' fitness levels and the strength in depth in wide areas make them a nightmarish prospect late on in games. They score so many goals in the final 20 minutes because they exhaust the opposition mentally and physically and can bring on fresh legs in the form of quality players like Willy Gnonto. He got straight to business, going at the Blades and winning an attacking free-kick, then a corner with a beautiful shot that brought an equally beautiful save from Cooper.

Fellow substitute Joe Rothwell, who proved against Sunderland what he can do in a cameo, sent in the corner and Firpo glanced it to the back post where Tanaka added a deft two-yard finish. The away end burst its banks to a tidal wave of bodies and even the injured Ampadu was swept up in the emotion, running down the touchline to celebrate with his team-mates.

Seconds later, with the Blades reeling, James raced away on a counter, fed Piroe and he detonated a long-range missile to set it all off again. Champions find a way and Leeds are blessed with so many ways to win. If the flowing one-touch stuff doesn't get it done then a set-piece will. Or a thunderbolt from distance. It takes more than tactical superiority or technical ability to turn it all into points, though. It takes a certain mentality and it is one this Leeds team appears to possess in spades. To show it with any regularity is one thing but to demonstrate it so theatrically in consecutive games against two of the division’s best is just champion.

Farke will not hear it said - he used the Ampadu injury as evidence of just how much can still go wrong - and no one at Leeds will call themselves champions until such a time as the mathematics crown them, but they're looking the part and playing it brilliantly. Leeds United, acting up. Only Leeds United can stop them now.