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It wasn’t very long ago that the anticipation of Leeds United’s latest teamsheet would give me a feeling of dread. Everyone was waiting for Daniel Farke to get sacked and what we thought were his final rolls of the dice kept coming up with the same results: shit and bust. Leeds’ unbeaten run over the last month has removed that anxiety, but Joe Rodon’s absence at Anfield meant there were more questions than usual over what the line-up was going to be. When the answer arrived… well, it was interesting.
Farke’s four changes from the draw at Sunderland were understandable due to the risk of injuries and suspensions, but they left supporters wondering whether Leeds were willing to write this game off ahead of the visit of some team from over the Pennines on Sunday. After all, this was a Leeds XI that had literally never played together before, making a collective debut at the home of the reigning champions.
But Leeds never played for a single second like this was a free hit. Some set-pieces in the opening stages allowed Leeds to throw a few early punches, and when Liverpool started to dominate possession thereafter the Peacocks were composed and concentrated in making sure they were going to be a bastard to break down. If the tension of knowing the slightest of mistakes could be punished made it an uncomfortable watch for supporters, then imagine how uncomfortable it would have been for the players, knowing they couldn’t switch off for a split second. No wonder Ilia Gruev’s legs stopped working as stoppage time approached, misplacing a pass and falling over as he tried to rectify his error. After ninety minutes of intense focus not just on his own diligent performance but constantly making sure his teammates were doing the same with his usual quiet authority, his brain must have been fried to such an extent that he might as well have had steam coming out of his ears.
It was a thankless task for Leeds’ players all night, from Lukas Nmecha toiling away up front on his own to Brenden Aaronson making shuttle runs up and down the left wing, tasked with helping Gabi Gudmundsson match the energy of Liverpool’s right wing duo Connor Bradley and Jeremie Frimpong. But the stats that say Liverpool had two thirds of possession and sixteen shots to Leeds’ four don’t reflect the game; Leeds’ hard work made it bloody hard work for those wearing red shirts, too.
Jaka Bijol, Pascal Struijk and Sebastiaan Bornauw, making his first Premier League start, were rock solid in the middle of the defence, frustrating Liverpool’s forwards by regularly repelling their attacks. They were complemented by the excellent James Justin to their right. Justin was given a start to protect Jayden Bogle from a fifth yellow card and one-match ban but, if anything, only enhanced Leeds’ stubbornness at the back. As Liverpool frantically attempted to find a winner late on, their sub Federico Chiesa retrieved the ball for a throw-in and like a mini Rasmus Kristensen looked desperate for a teammate to take it instead while everyone yelled at him to get on with it, his own brain as fried as Gruev’s in the face of Leeds’ tenacity even though he’d only been on the pitch for ten minutes.
If there was one frustration, it was that in the few opportunities Leeds fashioned an attack, they occasionally overplayed their hand in trying to find a final pass on the edge of the box rather than test Alisson in Liverpool’s goal. It was a reminder that Leeds still don’t possess the playmaker that Farke has been asking for for two years, but the irony is that player might not have helped Leeds on a night like this. Anfield required the discipline and hustle exemplified by Gruev and Aaronson, who followed up his encouragingly wispy performances of recent weeks with his usual restless reliability off the ball.
A huge part of Aaronson’s trustworthiness under Farke has been the fact he never gets injured. Around him on Merseyside, Leeds were calling upon their second-choice full-back in Justin, second-choice striker in Nmecha, fifth-choice central midfielder in Gruev, and fourth-choice centre-back in Bornauw, who himself continued his worrying injuries-per-appearance ratio by limping off late on. Yet they were all among Leeds’ best performers, making themselves worth their weight in gold as squad players, a luxury United lacked last time around in the Premier League.
Had Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s ‘winner’ after coming off the bench been allowed to stand rather than ruled out by an offside flag it would have felt like the ultimate smash and grab but, again, it’s worth pointing out that Liverpool hardly peppered Lucas Perri in Leeds’ goal. With an open net in front of him, Hugo Ekitike inexplicably headed the ball sideways and off Perri’s expensive new fringe in the first half, but that was as good as it got for the hosts. There was a scare when Virgil van Dijk headed a corner wide after the break, but Liverpool felt similarly queasy when Alisson gave Ampadu the chance to score from thirty yards with a botched clearance, only for Ampadu to pass it back to him straight down the middle of the goal.
Instead, Ampadu succumbed to a dickhead ref seemingly intent on establishing a home advantage given the supposedly fabled Anfield atmosphere lived up to its mythical status: it doesn’t actually exist. Having ignored a blatant foul on Anton Stach on the edge of Liverpool’s penalty area in the first half and restarted the game with a drop ball because Dominik Szoboszlai had gone down holding his face, the ref gave Liverpool a free-kick in almost the exact same position after the break after the ball brushed past the top of Ampadu’s arm. If the handball felt harsh, the decision to give Ampadu a yellow card that rules him out of the Scum game felt downright churlish. “To give a yellow for this situation is, I have to be a bit careful, hard to accept,” Farke said afterwards. New Year, same dickhead refs.
Excellent in Leeds’ recent upturn, Ampadu will be a big miss at Elland Road on Sunday, but the good news is that Leeds currently have a manager and squad with the resilience and nous to solve the problems of any shortcomings. Get what we dream of at the weekend, and they’ll have already made 2026 a year worth remembering. ⬢
