21st September 2024. EFL Championship.
Why oh why can’t we turn these totally dominant playing performances into dominant scorelines? Almost 80 per cent possession today and five times as many attempts at goal as the hosts. Cardiff down to ten men after only 23 minutes and Leeds a goal up on the half hour and yet, and yet, for almost the whole of the remainder of the game we all knew that we were only one mistake or one moment of brilliance from Cardiff away from squandering two points. Fortunately, the chances of this Cardiff side coming up with a moment of brilliance seemed very remote – they are a very poor side.
Truth be told Leeds ought to have been four or five goals to the good by halftime. Brenden Aaronson should surely have opened the scoring when he only needed to tap in a low Firpo cross but completely missed it. Ilia Gruev sliced a decent opportunity wide and then shanked another one past the same post when he at least should have hit the target. Those were three really good chances we’d missed inside the first twenty minutes. Cardiff then as good a ruined any chance they had of breaking their winless run when Bagan hacked Willy Gnonto down. For once, a referee had the courage to give a red card for an obvious goal-scoring opportunity denied as Willy would have surely buried the ball in the net had his flow not been so crudely interrupted. Mind you, the way we shoot maybe not!
We finally then got a piece of clinical finishing as Largie Ramazani, on his full debut, sprinted away with the ball from almost on half way, much as we saw Mat Joseph do last week against Burnley. This time though Largie was up to the challenge and he steered the ball perfectly inside the left post and then delighted us all with a series of back flips!
The floodgates should then have collapsed but Leeds continued to regularly open up the Cardiff defence only to then fail to apply the finishing touch. Brenden Aaronson did strike a free kick well but Jak Alnwick in the home goal saved that one well. Then Mateo Joseph did brilliantly to jink inside a defender to create a sight of goal only to finish that off with a weak shot that Alnwick easily stopped. We’d witnessed Largie Ramazani finish superbly for his goal but next he found himself free in the box with only Alnwick to beat but this time he fluffed his lines and shot straight at the overworked keeper. It was all very frustrating.
So, mystifyingly, Leeds went into the dressing room with only the one goal to show for one of their most dominant displays in recent years against one of the worst sides we’ve seen in recent years.
There were fewer clear cut chances in the second half as another slightly worrying aspect of our play caught up with us. Time after time we’d progress into the final third of the pitch only to then fail to produce a killer final ball, let alone find a killer strike. Several times Leeds drew the ire of their fans by refusing to even try to find that killer ball and instead we’d turn back towards our own goal as the fans chanted “Attack, Attack!” trying to urge someone to at least try to get through the Cardiff back line. On the few occasions we did get behind them we again came up short with no clinical finish. Aaronson again should surely have scored at the near post when he slid in to meet a low Jayden Bogle cross but seemed to lead with his wrong foot. We then had the perfect opportunity to put the game to bed as Bogle got behind them again only to be brought down. Up stepped the previously reliable Pascal Struijk with the resulting penalty but he spurned that opportunity to close the game out with a weak strike down the middle that Alnwick kept out with his legs. We missed one down here in that 2 – 2 draw in the cup of course back in January 2023. So, the nerves continued to jangle.
Step forward the one man who we know can strike a football; Joel Piroe had only been on the pitch a few minutes when he showed everyone the way. Another poor attempted clearance by the awful Cardiff defence only found Aaronson and he slid the ball down the inside left channel for Piroe to chase. He took one touch and then, from the tightest of angles, rasped a shot into the far top corner. I do wonder if maybe we should try Mr Piroe up front again; we know he was wasted and ineffective in the deep role we played him in much of last season but when we are missing so many chances maybe now is the time to try him out where we know he does the business.
So, I’m a bit torn as to what to think after this game. On the plus side, we dominated Cardiff much as we have dominated every side this season. On the minus side, we didn’t turn that dominance into goals and Daniel Farke it seems, from his comments after the game, is well aware we have a major issue up front. “The conversion rate was the issue for me” he told reporters, “We will keep working on this.” It is actually a failing that has blighted us for years with umpteen strikers under umpteen different coaches! Come on Leeds, sort it out!
Cardiff City 0
Leeds United 2 (Ramazani 30’, Piroe 87’)
Cardiff: Alnwick (GK), Fish, Siopis (Ashford 79’), Ralls (C) (Robertson 58’), O’Dowda (Willock 79’), Chambers, Kanga (Collins 45’), Bagan, Colwill, Tanner (El Ghazi 58’), NG. Subs not used: Horvath (GK), Goutas, Turnbull, Rinomhota.
Leeds: Meslier (GK), Bogle (Byram 84’), Firpo, Ampadu (C), Struijk, Rodon, Aaronson, Ramazani (Piroe 84’), Joseph (Tanaka 90’), Gnonto (Schmidt 90’), Gruev (Rothwell 90’). Subs not used: Darlow (GK), Bamford, Debayo, Crew.
Venue: Cardiff City Stadium
Attendance: 23,207
Referee: John Smith
Booked: Siopis, NG (Cardiff) Bogle, Gruev (Leeds)
Sent-off: Bagan (Cardiff)