Leeds United got back to winning ways and returned to the Championship’s top six with a hard-fought 2-0 away win against 10-man Cardiff City.
Bottom-of-the-table Cardiff threatened to frustrate Leeds, despite seeing Joel Bagan sent off inside 25 minutes but goals from Largie Ramazani and Joel Piroe were enough to seal the points. A missed penalty by Pascal Struijk brought additional drama in the second half of a performance that lacked attacking inspiration for the visitors. But it was crucial for them to return to winning ways, and they got the job done.
The Athletic’s Nancy Froston picks out three key talking points from the game.
Ramazani looks a livewire
With Manor Solomon sidelined by a back injury, Saturday was fellow summer signing Ramazani’s time to shine from the left wing.
The 23-year-old Belgian took his chance, scoring the opening goal and providing plenty of attacking threat. Cardiff were unable to contain Ramazani as he drifted inside in a fluid forward three, alongside Willy Gnonto and Brenden Aaronson, playing behind solo striker Mateo Joseph. The touch map below shows his movement off Leeds’ left.
Ramazani was Leeds’ most direct player in the first half, looking to pick the ball up and take the game to Cardiff. His efforts were rewarded with a well-taken goal as he latched onto Joseph’s through ball, outpacing the back line and finishing past Jak Alnwick. In all, it was a fun and busy performance from the winger, who has made a case for maintaining his place in the starting XI.
Though manager Daniel Farke was quick to downplay the expectation placed on Ramazani following his £10million arrival from Spain’s Almeria in the final week of the window, amid comparisons to predecessor Crysencio Summerville, he has excited in the minutes he’s had on the pitch.
Leeds fans will hope to see his acrobatic goal celebration — a cartwheel and backflip — plenty more times this season.
Is midfield rigidity really the answer against ten men?
Cardiff were up against it from the 23rd minute when Bagan, who was the last man, got sent off for bringing down Gnonto.
Even before that point, the home team sat deep and invited pressure but Farke’s side were not clinical enough to make them pay beyond their one-goal lead. Leeds remained committed to their 4-2-3-1 formation even after the sending-off, and with Cardiff having only scored one league goal in their five matches this season before Saturday. Cardiff presented little threat offensively throughout, registering two shots on target to Leeds’ seven.
There is a case to be made for the deep-lying pair of Ilia Gruev and Ethan Ampadu representing two defensively-minded players with too many traits in common, especially as Leeds found it hard to prise Cardiff open in the second half. While Gruev took several pot-shots from the edge of the box, neither he nor Ampadu offered the dynamism to create chances from midfield as the game grew increasingly frustrating for Leeds.
With Ao Tanaka and Joe Rothwell on the bench, the decisions to 1) start Gruev and Ampadu and 2) stick with them until late in the game was head-scratching. The risk for Leeds, particularly against more tactically-adept teams than Cardiff, is that they are too one-dimensional in their build-up play. Tanaka and Rothwell only came on in when the match had reached the 90th minute.
Cracking the low block, which has become the default setup for sides facing Leeds, particularly at Elland Road, is the challenge that has led to calls for Farke to show he has a Plan B.
Should Piroe be in the starting XI?
Piroe, who also began this one as a substitute, came on after 84 minutes and converted his first chance to wrap up the win.
In a frustrating second half where Cardiff settled and were able to shut out Leeds, the game threatened to feel like an underwhelming 1-0 win until Piroe’s introduction. Slow and predictable build-up play culminated in more grumbling from the away end when Struijk was unable to convert a penalty won by Jayden Bogle just after the hour. Bogle was tripped on his way into the box but Struijk, who had scored from the spot against Portsmouth in last month’s season opener, saw his tame effort saved.
Shouts of “Attack, attack, attack!” from the away end at 1-0 up against 10 men speaks loudly to fans’ frustration with the rigidity of Farke’s preferred system, but Piroe’s goal transformed the mood. Played in by Aaronson on the left, the Dutchman sent a thundering shot past Alnwick from a tight angle to ensure the final scoreline better reflected Leeds’ dominance of possession.
Piroe, who scored twice against Cardiff for their arch-rivals Swansea City in four meetings before his summer 2023 move to Leeds, got his share of love from the supporters at full time and gives Farke a decision to make about his starting No 9.
What did Farke say?
“In this league, it’s always difficult to win games, especially on the road. We are delivering at the moment on the road with three difficult away games (having drawn 0-0 with current Championship leaders West Bromwich Albion and beaten Yorkshire rivals Sheffield Wednesday 2-0 in the others): seven points, we haven’t conceded one goal, 4-0 goal difference, and this was a pretty dominant and controlled performance from the first to the last second. In the end, we had nearly 80 per cent possession and normally it’s impossible to do this but to dominate the game in this way, it was important for me to not give any chances away.
“We were so dominant and created so much, we scored two fantastic goals. We just didn’t bury the game earlier. Our conversion rate and effectiveness in using the chances was more or less the only thing I could criticise, because in this league you never know — you can be 1-0 up and in the last moments of the game you can concede out of nothing.
“We definitely should have scored a few more and this is something that we need to work on and address.
“I spoke so much about our offensive players needing to have the mentality of a hoover seller. You have to ring 40 doorbells to sell one hoover. You can ring the door and you won’t sell, but you have to do it. It was the same in the penalty situation. There probably won’t be a rebound, but make the run in case there is a rebound. This is something that you need, the greediness to score goals.”
What next for Leeds?
Saturday, September 28: Coventry City (H), Championship, 3pm BST, 10am ET.
(Top photo: Ramazani takes the acclaim from the away end at full time; Ryan Hiscott/Getty Images)
