Leeds United next steps needed but transfer looks the business — Graham Smyth's Sunderland Verdict — YEP 31/7/26
By Graham Smyth
The Verdict on Leeds United’s 1-0 pre-season win over
Sunderland.
Leeds United and Sunderland bucked the Premier League trend
last season thanks in no small part to their respective success in the 2025
summer transfer window. The newly-promoted pair spent significantly and wisely
in order to create teams capable of competing physically and technically in the
top flight and they both stayed up. And as they set about recording that
difficult second album and taking their squads to the next level, both will
hope that they are not trend setters. The ideal scenario is that teams coming
up from the Championship struggle as badly as Burnley did last season so that
the competition for the three relegation spots is plentiful.
Leeds' aim in the 2026 window is to improve the starting XI
and in doing so create a squad capable of taking the next step to consolidate
top flight status. To that end Tarik Muharemovic and Harry Wilson have been
added and both started the friendly against the Black Cats. The fact that Alex
Cairns started in goal was a nod in the direction of the next big move in the
window. James Trafford is expected to take the number one spot at Elland Road
once a £40m deal with Manchester City completes. As the second game of the
club's US tour kicked off, the clubs remained close to a full agreement. Lucas
Perri was missing with what the club described as a knock, though he was still
in the US. A move away to Torino is likely but contingent upon Trafford's
arrival.
Other areas Leeds hope to address include left-back, where
Gabriel Gudmundsson is the only natural senior option, and up front. Dominic
Calvert-Lewin's pre-season injury kept him out of the game in New Jersey. One
of the strikers Leeds liked, Levante's Carlos Espi, was taken off the market in
lightning-quick fashion by Real Madrid. The need for another option up top was
not immediately obvious as Lukas Nmecha clipped in the opener inside 10
minutes, catching Melker Ellborg out from long range after Ao Tanaka got a foot
in to disrupt Sunderland possession. But Leeds will need a centre forward and
are expected to continue looking at the younger end of the market for back-up
to Calvert-Lewin.
By the midway point of his first 45 minutes in a Leeds
shirt, Muharemovic was dealing well with Sunderland's forwards and dealing just
as handily with the ball. He played a part in a couple of smart passing moves,
though neither Leeds nor their opponents put together much in the way of
polished attacking moves. Nmecha toiled up top, not getting the physical battle
quite right and giving away a few free-kicks, while Wilson was kept relatively
quiet. When the Whites got forward in transition it was Jayden Bogle looking
most dangerous on the right.
At the other end Sunderland's dangerman Brian Brobbey got
away with going through Joe Rodon to win the ball to briefly create danger
before Muharemovic snuffed out the danger. Rodon and Brobbey had a bit of a
shoving match, though even that had a whiff of pre-season about it, and
Sunderland duly replaced their Dutch international striker in what was
presumably a planned change. Even if Sunderland got in behind a couple of times
they were unable to trouble Cairns.
Leeds continued to look functional, if not especially fluid
in the remainder of the first half and six changes at the break made it
challenging to improve their cohesion but they remained largely controlled.
Sunderland began to shade possession in the early stages of the second half and
fashioned a decent headed chance that had Cairns briefly scrambling before the
ball bounced wide.
Once half-time replacements Ethan Ampadu and Anton Stach
began to get to grips with things Leeds in turn became more of a presence and
spent more time in the Sunderland half, albeit without carving out
opportunities. When Leeds lost the ball, Ampadu and Muharemovic provided the
required level of physicality to win it back. Sebastiaan Bornauw did well to
get his considerable frame in the right place to stave off a couple of threats.
It's rarely possible to look your very best in pre-season
but it's very easy to look poor. Where Leeds looked lightest was in attack,
where Joel Piroe simply wasn't a factor for most of the half. Willy Gnonto's
frustration carried through from the Wrexham game, while Dan James came up with
a couple of nice moments but not in a fashion that ever really hurt Sunderland.
Even with Noah Okafor still to come back in after his post-World Cup break,
there are certain limitations to the Leeds attacking line-up that could yet be
addressed in the window.
Entering the latter stages Leeds finally got into a position
to double their lead. Piroe's sharp turn in the area invited a challenge that
could well have led to a penalty but play was allowed to go on, James ran on
towards goal and failed to beat the keeper with his shot. As it turned out, a
second goal wasn't needed. Cairns made just one stop of note in the 90 minutes
and when it came, late on, it was comfortable. Some of the youngsters got more
minutes
The big positives for Leeds were the win, the clean sheet
and how strong and formidable they continue to look. That foundation remains
from last season and there's no real reason why it shouldn't stand them in very
good stead in 2026/27. The extra bits that they can add between now and the end
of the transfer window will determine how many steps forward they can take from
this position of strength.
