Leeds United lessons learned vs Brighton with woeful run extended, set-piece frustration but Okafor promise — YEP 2/11/25
By Kyle Newbould
Leeds United’s terrible recent record at Brighton continued
as they fell to 16th in the Premier League.
Leeds United endured another difficult 90 minutes on the
road as they fell to a 3-0 defeat at Brighton on Saturday. Danny Welbeck opened
the scoring for the hosts inside 11 minutes before quickfire second-half brace
from Diego Gomez effectively ended the contest.
Daniel Farke named an unchanged side after last week’s 2-1
win over West Ham but Leeds found much less joy at the Amex Stadium and
Brighton’s superior quality showed. Defeat sees the Whites drop a place to 16th
and the YEP has reflected on a few key takeaways from the difficult day.
Leeds United’s Brighton woes continue
Another trip to the Amex, another defeat and another 90
minutes without scoring. Leeds’ recent record on the south coast is terrible
and rarely on Saturday did they look like improving it. Brighton started
quickly and got their rewards through Welbeck, and while Farke’s side enjoyed
plenty of possession after falling behind, they created little of note.
Make no mistake, Brighton are a brilliant side technically
and their superiority showed, with players like Yankuba Minteh, Gomez and
Georginio Rutter producing moments of brilliance to create or score. Leeds have
now failed to score a single goal in each of their last eight trips to the Amex
Stadium, making it one of the most miserable places for fans to go -
particularly given the distance.
Regular issues resurface
Brighton hadn’t kept a clean sheet in their eight Premier
League games before Saturday but rarely looked like conceding against Leeds. It
took 84 minutes for goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen to be called into action, first
by Lukas Nmecha and then Anton Stach, which paints the picture of another
toothless attacking performance.
Leeds only really looked dangerous when Noah Okafor had the
ball, with Brenden Aaronson easily managed and Dominic Calvert-Lewin often left
isolated. The 28-year-old needs to get goals too, however, and should have got
on the end of a dangerous Jayden Bogle cross at 1-0.
Leeds’ greatest weapon mis-firing
There will be plenty of games this season where Leeds aren’t
quite at it, or at least not at the level of their established Premier League
opponents. Those are the games where a good set-piece can change everything but
Sean Longstaff’s dead ball quality disappeared down south.
He found Joe Rodon at the back post with his first, a
floated back-post corner, but efforts after that were either far too deep or
frustratingly hitting the first man. Leeds had seven corners on Saturday and
did not look like scoring once, which compounds the open-play attacking issues
they were suffering.
Noah Okafor’s minutes increasing
A difficult game to take many positives from, but another
increase to Okafor’s minutes is promising. Equally promising is that he
continued to look sharp and full of energy beyond the hour-mark, creating
problems for Brighton full-back Mats Wieffer just moments before Gomez made it
2-0.
Leeds need Okafor to be at his best and they need him sharp
for 90 minutes, particularly with Willy Gnonto out for so long and needing to
build fitness once he returns. The Swiss international got 77 under his belt at
Brighton and while the result and performance were both disappointing, they can
at least take that as something to build on.
