Leeds United 1-1 AC Milan: Rough and… ready? — Square Ball 11/8/25

Rejoice

Written by: Rob Conlon

As proved by the white, yellow and blue shirts filling the pubs of Dublin on Saturday morning, Leeds’ friendly against Milan was a day of celebration. And after United were showered with love and affection by the Irish hardcore, it was time to rejoice for a couple of reasons.

First, pre-season is officially done, meaning we don’t have to scrutinise any more friendlies asking questions that only the proper stuff can answer. I don’t know about you, but I’ve missed The Fear. Do Leeds still have gaps in their squad that need filling? Probably, but that brings me to the second cause for celebration.

Anton Stach, I’m ready for you to one day break my heart!

Stach’s performance was all anyone could talk about afterwards. The club were keen to point out that the midfielder is really tall upon his arrival from Hoffenheim this summer. Maybe they should have made more of a deal about the fact he’s bloody brilliant at football too. Time and again, Stach brought Leeds to life by loping forward from midfield with the assurance of Paul McCartney crossing Abbey Road.

He might be big, but boy he can move. He was booked for leaving one on a Milan player after a strong slide tackle. He grabbed Leeds’ deserved equaliser from the corner of the penalty area by whipping in a ball that was asking for a touch but instead found the bottom corner as the goalkeeper did his best impression of Illan Meslier.

While Leeds continue to preach patience in their search for attacking improvements, we needed a display like this from one of the actual new signings to give everyone — fans, players, manager and boardroom — a bit more faith that United’s transfer activity so far has raised the levels of the team. And Stach wasn’t the only one. Gabi Gudmundsson is tiring to watch in the best possible way and combined well with the lively Wilf Gnonto. Lucas Perri got his first 45 minutes between the posts and didn’t look freaked out when claiming a cross and throwing the ball really far to launch a counter-attack. Ao Tanaka is and always will be majestic. Most encouragingly of all, Leeds looked recognisable to the team that won 100 points in the Championship last season, dominating the ball with almost two thirds of possession and barely being troubled in the second half apart from a header that Karl Darlow fumbled, bouncing the attempt off his own crossbar.

Leeds needed Stach’s equaliser after Santiago Gimenez put Milan in front midway through the first half. Gimenez finished at the back post after Milan were given far too much space on the left wing, a recurring theme as Isaac Schmidt was defending inexplicably narrowly in a terrifying reminder of Leeds’ defending under Jesse Marsch. Was Schmidt being asked to stand so centrally or was this just a public explanation of why Daniel Farke only felt comfortable giving Schmidt brief cameos as a winger last season? Either way, everyone would feel a lot more confident with Jayden Bogle returning at right-back against Everton. Farke said afterwards he hopes Bogle will be “a topic” to play against Everton, but if not, just play Sam Byram instead. He knows what to do.

While Milan were much more threatening in the first half than the second, Leeds should still have been ahead by the time Gimenez scored the opener. Gnonto waited too long after being put through on goal by Pascal Struijk’s excellent pass over the defence, ignoring the opportunity to give Joel Piroe a tap in only to fluff his attempted lob by passing the ball straight into the ‘keeper’s arms. Two minutes later, Stach drove Leeds forward, got the ball back from Gnonto on the edge of the box, dummied past a defender with some neat footwork and hit the bar. Piroe wasn’t given a great deal to work with and has rarely been a striker to grab a game by the scruff of the neck, and those two chances demonstrated that if Leeds are to cause teams enough problems in the Premier League, they’re going to need to get players close to Piroe to help him out.

Whether Piroe will be the striker for the rest of the season remains to be seen, but while Leeds continue searching for new forwards, there was enough to suggest we might get some promising responses to the questions that are going to be answered against Everton at Elland Road next Monday. Bring. It. On.