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It was a crucial week for a manager who needed results to calm discussion about his position. He got two goals in quick succession, displaying enthusiasm in the comeback and the drama of leaving his team to celebrate late. for many a surprising second partFelt like he would be Ernie Slott. Instead, it was Daniel Farke.
Leeds staged not one but two fightbacks, scaring off a third supposed superpower in the last eight days and underlining they have the right man in the dugout. Liverpool? The brilliant goals that initially seemed destined for wins in the 2-0 and 3-2 wins instead reflected their defensive shortcomings. “There’s a sense of disbelief,” Slott said. “We only have ourselves to blame. To go 3-3, I don’t think we deserved it.” And if it’s a bit paradoxical, if Liverpool feel they deserve more than they are getting, they continue to hinder their own efforts.
They were unbeaten in at least three league games, which would hardly have seemed an achievement unless they lost six out of seven, but on a day when they could have finished fifth in the standings – which would have belied the truth that the league table never lies – they demonstrated their failures and their decline.
They were a team that scored late and crucially early in the season. Yet Ao Tanaka, who equalized in the 96th minute, gave the final verdict. While Liverpool lost 2–0 leads in August and September, they emerged victorious in the end. And if it appeared that would be the case again when Dominic Szoboszlai restored their advantage, Leeds had other ideas. “Nobody gives up,” Tanka said. So he showed it.
Meanwhile, Liverpool could crumble under pressure. Consider the leads goals. Slot did it. “We succumbed to the same pattern,” he lamented, adding that there was a VAR intervention which led to Leeds’ first chance. But there was also Ibrahima Konate’s latest mistake. His manager said, “He has been a little too active at the crime scene.” Anton Stach’s equalizing goal was, in Slott’s words, “a first for him in football”. Tanaka’s goal came from a corner. “I don’t think there is any team in the world that can be in a higher league position if they give away 10 set-pieces [goals]Slott said.
Konate unnecessarily tripped on substitute Wilfried Gnonto when he only needed to get the ball out for a goal kick. “It was an effortful tackle,” Slott said. Dominic Calvert-Lewin converted the penalty; Scoring for the third consecutive league game, he achieved something he last did at Everton in 2020.
Brendan Aaronson was then allowed to break into the Liverpool box and find Anton Stach. Liverpool had a number of players at their disposal but no one stopped him as he lifted a shot beyond Alisson. Stache’s corner would then be handled by Ryan Gravenberch; Otherwise it reached Tanaka at the far post unhindered to fire. This time, there was no Federico Chiesa to make the crucial goal-line clearance.
This time the super-sub was in white for Leeds. While Slote ignored Mohamed Salah and sent on Wataru Endo to try to seal the win, the catalyst for a Japanese cameo was Tanaka’s. All three of Leeds’ goals involved at least one substitution, whether Gnonto or Aaronson or Tanaka. After his spectacular goal against Chelsea, the midfielder has had quite a week.
Same is the case with Leeds. United could be in for some late drama this time around after losing to Manchester City in injury time last Saturday. It’s been a remarkable two and a half games for him: from Farke’s half-time conversion to the demolition of Chelsea at the Etihad. Although he eschewed the 5-3-2 he introduced at City, his preferred 4-3-3 allowed three goals.
For Liverpool, the concession of three felt even worse because this was a team that had been selected with solidity in mind. Which, due to the chaos of the ending, they completely lacked. He had chosen a formula that worked well at West Ham and less successfully against Sunderland. This was not the case against Leeds: Liverpool had little creativity in the first half, with Curtis Jones hitting the bar but little else happening. His strength was very low in the second half. Slot claimed, “We barely missed a chance and conceded three goals.”
The benefit they got from slot selection came with Dominik Szoboszlai’s goal from the right flank, as Mohamed Salah’s station on the bench felt more like a permanent change in the pecking order. Hugo Ekiti, brought on after Alexander Isak was rested, struck twice in three minutes in what looked to be the match-winner until Liverpool conceded two of the six goals.
Initially, he received little service from his peers. So an opponent forced a mistake, providing a defense-splitting pass for Joe Rodon to score his first goal in nine games. A second was also gifted by Leeds, with Gabriel Gudmundsson losing the ball to Connor Bradley, whose cross was finished off by the Frenchman. “Two mistakes where we assisted on their goals,” Farke said. Liverpool’s third was their best. Szoboszlai ran onto Gravenberch’s pass, assisted by an Alexis McAllister dummy, and fired a shot past Lucas Perry.
Game over? Not with this Leeds side. “We had a magnificent field compared to any other field in world football,” Farke said. “Mad, another magical night here at Elland Road.” But for Slott, it turned out to be a sad night.