10th December 2024. EFL Championship
Go on, admit it! You were as nervous about this one as I was! We all knew ahead of the clash with Boro that a win for Leeds would make a huge statement about our current form and prospects for the rest of the season. Defeat would surely have us thinking we weren’t good enough to do more than keep pace with the rest of our promotion rivals. Victory though would start to stretch the top six or seven teams in the table and give confidence that yes, we are actually the best team in the division and we should now be able to power ahead.
In truth, Boro didn’t look much better than most teams we’ve faced at Elland Road this season and an 8th successive home win was far more comfortable than we all expected. They did at least set up to play their normal attacking game, not that they had much chance of showing it in action. The early goal coming in just the 14th minute was exactly what we needed to give us confidence and to make Boro at least think about having to come at us to get something from the game as, even in those early minutes, Leeds had so much ball that it must have been tempting for the visitors to sit back and try to escape with a point.
With games coming thick and fast it was not unexpected to see some rotation and so we had the return of Willy Gnonto and Mateo Joseph to the starting XI with Manor Solomon and Piroe dropping to the bench. But, what on the face of it could have been a blow to lose both regular full-backs – Firpo and Bogle both missing out through injury – proved to be no concern at all as Sam Byram was fit again just in time to once again fill in for Bogle while Max Wober had already proved he was at least a good deputy for Junior Firpo if not maybe even strong competition for his place. It is a sign of how strong the squad now is that those four changes seemingly made no difference to our potency against what was said to be one of our strongest rivals. I think nothing signalled our intent more than Max being caught offside in the first minute of the game! We have been fairly fortunate that every time we’ve lost either Bogle or Firpo, Sam has literally just come back after his own injuries.
Once again, the only gripe we could have with Leeds about this performance was that it took us so long to put the game to bed. Clearly the better side, Leeds were yet again found wanting in front of goal a few times and, having got to half time only one goal adrift, we all knew Boro would rearrange their troops at the break and give it a go at the start of the second half. And so it was. Even so, we have to count ourselves unlucky that it was the head of Max Wober glancing the ball into his own net that got them the break they needed. If it had been at the other end we’d have been raving about what a fine header it was! Boro have been scoring goals for fun lately so for that to be their only way through us is more credit to the dominance of Leeds in the game and credit to our tenacious tackling in midfield and defence that kept their supposedly sparkling forwards quiet.
There was an element of luck about that Leeds opener, Dan James, recently our most dangerous player and the one who is creating most of our openings, fired the ball across and a deflection seemed to help the ball fly towards Mateo Joseph at the near post. The keeper did well to block that one at point blank range but then he tried to stretch and kick the ball further clear only to see it cannon back past him off the knee of Willy Gnonto! You need a bit of luck sometimes and we can’t really say we’ve had that much this season! We were unlucky that no one got a touch to the ball when Dan played exactly the same pass again minutes later.
At this stage the game didn’t look that different to the Derby encounter a few days earlier, Leeds dominating but not creating enough clear-cut chances to fuel more goals. About the same time we went 2 – 0 against Derby we should have done the same here though, the ball falling perfectly in front of Brenden Aaronson in loads of space, 15 yards from goal. It bounced up, making it admittedly more difficult, but he had loads of time and he shanked the ball miles over the bar. Composure, composure, composure that lad needs to think about. Willy Gnonto blasted a shot that the Boro keeper saved well as the half drew to an end.
That unfortunate equaliser got the nerves jangling early in the second half but Leeds showed no sign of panic other than racing to get the ball back on the centre spot for a quick restart. The corner they scored from came following a terrific near post save from Illan Meslier keeping out a pile-driver of a shot. Meslier would be needed again midway in the new half when Ben Doak got free of Max Wober on a rare occasion but Illan was quickly out and smothered the ball at his feet. Doak is reputed to be a rising star but we saw very little of him in this game and that must be largely down to Max. We saw little of Latte Lath when he came on too, another rising star in the Boro portfolio.
Our forward line reverted to how we lined up against Derby on 69 minutes as Piroe and Solomon replaced Joseph and Willy Gnonto. I have to say Joseph was, once again, not very visible and Willy was nowhere near as effective on the left as Dan James was on the right. Good as the Leeds squad is at the moment, it does still feel as though we could be even stronger with a centre forward who has more goal threat than Joseph and one who is more mobile than Joel Piroe. The only other option is currently Patrick Bamford who, on paper, fits that bill perfectly, but, for whatever reason, Paddy remains out of sorts and out of contention.
In the 73rd minute we squandered another big chance when Ao Tanaka rolled the ball to Dan James, 15 yards from goal on the right. Dan didn’t catch the ball quite right and it fairly tamely went straight to the keeper. It was the first blot on an otherwise perfect performance from our flying winger but he soon made amends. A minute later Sam Byram made a crunching tackle in midfield sending the ball down the middle to Piroe. One touch put the ball into Dan’s path again and this time he blasted it across the keeper and inside the left post. It was a thunderous shot and capped a thunderous Dan James performance.
Of course there was always the worry that we’d then ’do a Leeds’ and throw away a couple of points ‘a la Sunderland’ earlier this season, but the only side that looked like scoring again was Leeds. The crowd was up and roaring by this time and the players seemed to respond. We looked as fresh as when we started as we were first to every ball, winning every challenge and going forward at pace. We were counting down the minutes of added time when we sprung forward again. Another Tanaka interception fed Piroe again and he found Dan James once more, free on the right. Leeds were four v two in the final third and this time Dan threaded the ball through, dissecting the Boro two and finding Tanaka, Aaronson and Solomon all lining up to apply the finish! Ao was first there and with the keeper upon him, a clever little shimmy moved the ball to his right and Brenden applied the final touch from six yards. 3 – 1 was finally more representative of the game.
This was a statement performance from Leeds, make no mistake. To make sure it remains so though we now must go to Deepdale and replicate the performance on Saturday and come away from there with no slip-ups and with three points. Last season, about this same time of year we thrashed Ipswich 4 – 0 to record a similar ‘statement’ victory only to go to Preston days later and lose 2 – 1 with an ill disciplined lack lustre performance. Come on Leeds, let’s not “do a Leeds” this time please.
Sky Bet Championship
Leeds United 3 (Gnonto 14’, James 74’, Aaronson 90+2’)
Middlesbrough 1 (Wober og 54’)
Leeds: Meslier (GK), Struijk (C), Rodon, James (Schmidt 90+4’), Rothwell (Guilavogui 90+4’), Aaronson, Joseph (Solomon 69’), Tanaka, Byram (Ampadu 85’), Gnonto (Piroe 69’), Wober. Subs not used: Darlow (GK), Bamford, Ramazani, Crew.
Boro: Dieng (GK), Barlaser, Clarke, Hackney (C), McGree (Burgzorg 81’), Latte Lath, Dijksteel, Azaz (Conway 82’), Edmundson, Borges, Doak. Subs not used: Brynn (GK), Jones, Ayling, Gilbert, Howson, Hamilton, McCormick.
Venue: Elland Road
Attendance: 36,422 (2,888 away)
Referee: Ben Toner
Booked: Wober (Leeds) Edmundson, Dijksteel (Boro)