QPR 2-2 Leeds United: Can’t get no sleep — Square Ball 17/3/25

Tossing and turning

Written by: Rob Conlon

The sleepless nights at Leeds United have officially begun. For most fans, that means struggling to nod off at night as the league table flashes in and out of view after another return from the capital with dropped points. But for Daniel Farke it was the night before Leeds’ visit to QPR that kept him awake, tossing and turning in the bed of a London hotel while asking himself over and over again, Gruev or Rothwell? Gnonto or Aaronson? Gruev or Rothwell? Gnonto or Aaronson?

The following day, Farke got one out of two right. In theory, Ilia Gruev might have given Leeds a solidity they lacked in going two goals down at Loftus Road, but Gruev’s recent performances have been those of a player who returned back from a serious injury months ahead of schedule and isn’t quite ready yet, so opting for Joe Rothwell from the start at least gave Leeds and Ao Tanaka in particular some help in pulling the strings from midfield. Brenden Aaronson over Wilf Gnonto though? Farke’s rare half-time swap to reverse his initial call tells its own story.

Oh, Brenden. I neither expected nor wanted to be writing so much about Aaronson this season, but for better or worse he has made himself A Story throughout the campaign. Over the summer and opening months of 2024/25, Aaronson kept talking about his frustration at being known for his work rate and hard running rather than his technical prowess:

“I’ve always been really good at finding space in between the lines and being able to drive with the ball, take people on, and play the final ball and score goals.”

Around the same time as the last of those interviews, a stat was doing the rounds that Aaronson was the most dispossessed player in the Championship by a considerable distance (which remains the case). Subsequently, Farke’s advice to Aaronson at half-time of the defeat at Millwall was to tell him to stop running so much then and concentrate more on those areas of the game he wants to be known for:

“We spoke at half-time, that he runs too much, that he overloads the wings and then in the decisive moments where it counts [he’s not ready]. This is out of good intention, his feeling for the positioning.

“[He has played a] different style of football before, for teams a bit more hectic. He has to channel it. If he calms his game down in some areas and moments, he will be in more concentrated positions to play the final pass or finish. If you play football with always pulse 200 [bpm] it’s hard to be cool in the head.”

That advice has seemingly gone unheeded. Fast forward four months and the latest Aaronson stat doing the rounds is that he has covered more distance than any other player in the Championship. If Aaronson wants to understand why he has the reputation he has, then look no further than QPR’s opening goal, as he showed the enthusiasm and energy to get back and intercept a pass into Leeds’ penalty area, only to carelessly give the ball straight to Koki Saito to bend into the far corner of United’s goal.

It was Aaronson’s first assist since Christmas, of sorts, and Farke himself has evidently given up on the idea of refining Aaronson as a creative force judging by what he said when discussing his team selection after the game:

“I was thinking about Gnonto to play from the beginning. If Gruev had played, I may have done. Because we had two ballers in midfield I wanted Brenden Aaronson to run about.”

Is this really what Leeds need from the player in one of the most decisive positions on the pitch — someone “to run about”? To be fair to Aaronson, some more running about might have helped Leeds avoid conceding a second goal, as Rothwell and Manor Solomon were far too slow in trying to stop a cross from the right for an unopposed Steve Cook to head home while United’s defence argued over who should have been marking him.

At that point, I can’t have been the only one having flashbacks to Leeds’ 4-0 defeat at Loftus Road last season that crushed any last hopes of automatic promotion. So it’s at this point my faith — or at least hope — that this team has learned from those painful lessons is reignited.

Five minutes before half-time, Leeds worked the ball to Solomon on the left-hand side of the area and his low cross was diverted beyond the offside Jayden Bogle and into the bottom corner by touches off Junior Firpo and QPR’s Morgan Fox. Enter Wilf Gnonto, belatedly introduced at half-time and almost immediately creating the equaliser with an incisive pass that put Dan James through. James’ cross was blocked into the air to Solomon, whose shot was saved only for Bogle to bury the rebound.

Oh, Willy. I both expected and wanted to be writing much more about Gnonto this season, particularly after a start to the campaign in which he seemed to be becoming the impish gnome that Leeds United’s attack has been deprived of since Samu Saiz moved back to Spain. Gnonto’s pass to James brought all the imagination and ability that Aaronson doesn’t, but the rest of the game was also a reminder of why he can be equally frustrating as Leeds reverted to huffing and puffing in search of a winner, Gnonto scuffing the best chance harmlessly across the face of goal after meeting Firpo’s low cross as his influence on the game waned.

Still, Gnonto showed more than enough in his cameo to be considered a viable alternative to Aaronson as a number 10 in Farke’s starting line-up. While he can drift in and out of games and in and out of seasons, with eight games remaining and only two points separating Leeds at the top of the table and Burnley in third, the challenge is there for him: Willy, the title is there to be won and you’re more than good enough to go win it. It’s time to step up.

That Leeds are still top on goal difference also shows the value in coming back to earn a point rather than collapsing to defeat like last season. Searching for a winner, Leeds were ultimately grateful for a reflex save from Illan Meslier and a big tackle late on from Pascal Struijk in coming away with a draw. As I wrote following a 1-1 draw at Preston in December, after which Farke discussed his “26 wins and several draws” blueprint for promotion:

It’s in keeping with Farke’s reputation, then, that the difference in securing promotion might not be winning more games, but turning some of those ten defeats Leeds suffered last season (like, say, Preston away) into “several draws” in 24/25.

United are in an almost identical position heading into the March international break as they were in 23/24, and the tired legs and minds at QPR mean that if we want things to end differently this time around, now is the moment to cross all your fingers and toes and pray to any and all gods that everyone gets back from international duty without injury. It’s time to rest up as much as possible over the next two weeks, because when we return the sleepless nights are only going to get worse.