When fellow newly promoted side Sunderland visited West Yorkshire at the beginning of March, the Elland Road faithful were hopeful the Whites could take a big step towards Premier League safety with a victory under the lights. Football rarely follows the script however and, despite threatening against the Black Cats throughout and having penalty appeals turned away, a dubious spot-kick of their own proved enough for Régis Le Bris’ team.
Speaking to LUTV afterwards, Leeds United manager Daniel Farke explained his frustrations, saying: “One of these cruel evenings of football. Sometimes, you have to take it. You are so dominant, you dominate the game, you create shot after shot, cross after cross, corner after corner. You don’t give one chance away but somehow the opponent is in the dressing room and wins this game 1-0 without really having a chance. It is of course frustrating and disappointing and tough to take today.
“It is difficult to open them. This is why they have won so many points on this level. I think what was a bit missing in the first half was a bit more clarity in the final third. We were so dominant but I think we should have been a bit more precise with the final pass, precise with the final corner kick, with the final cross. Also to anticipate it a bit more, like a bit more of the accountability in the final third. Sometimes the game of football is also like this.”
The Emirates FA Cup Fifth Round meeting with Norwich City came at a welcome time to reset after that frustrating defeat but promised to be no guarantee as the Canaries headed into the tie in fine form under new boss Philippe Clement.
Leeds, though, were on it from the off and showed their Premier League quality through first half strikes from midfielder Sean Longstaff and left-back Gabriel Gudmundsson – the Sweden international’s first goal of what was a fine debut campaign for the club. Joël Piroe demonstrated his clinical nature with an arrowed third late on as the Whites progressed to a first quarter-final in the competition since the 2002/03 season.
Gudmundsson was again in the headlines the following week as top-flight football resumed, yet this time in much differing circumstances. With the deadlock still be to broken at Selhurst Park, the defender was bizarrely, and controversially, shown a second yellow card and dismissed against Crystal Palace. Not dispirited though, United rallied and produced a resolute defensive showing to grind out a stalemate and earn a valuable point.
“First of all, I have to give a huge lot of compliments to my players because they just proved why I would trust in my boys with my life,” the boss said in South London. “I can always count on them. We are perhaps not perfect and flawless, otherwise we would have been in the lead at half time.
“But how we adapted to the strange circumstances also in the second half, to show such a mentality and such a unity, we didn’t give any chances away. I think it was one of the rare games where the team who has to play for such a long period in underload even had more expected goals than the home team. I am just proud of this performance and how united we were today again.”
United rounded off the month in 15th prior to the March international break with another impressive performance by the defence, keeping a cleansheet in the goalless draw with high-flying Brentford in what was another good display according to keeper Karl Darlow.
“We have defended terrifically as a team in recent weeks. So that is a collective effort right from the front. Obviously, we are slightly disappointed that we don’t win the game. I think last 20 minutes, 30 minutes, we were the more dominant team looking to push and win it. We cancelled each other out in the end.”
