Leeds totally dominated this game against a lacklustre Coventry City, and if anything should have won more comfortably. It now looks like the team is coming together, though there will be tougher tests in the weeks to come.
After last week’s win over Cardiff Daniel Farke chose to name an unchanged starting eleven, and was able to do so despite the pre-match suggestions that Struijk is struggling with a reoccurrence of the injury that required an operation last season. So far the manager has used the clutch of signings from the last week of the transfer window as squad players, with the wingers only getting a look-in because of the injury to Dan James.
That might change during next week’s busy schedule, with two more games to come in just over six days. Farke’s opposite number Mark Robins had demanded a passionate response to their previous defeat by Swansea, but what his team produced was anything but, seemingly having no answer to the pace and fluency that we managed to maintain for the full ninety minutes.
As we dominated possession from the off there were a couple of half-hearted early appeals for penalties, but from the crowd rather than the players. There were a couple of early grumbles from the stands at the first signs of the all being passed around at the back, but none of us were complaining about the patient build-up that followed Bogle’s ball back to Meslier on 16 minutes.
As the move developed 7 different players touched the ball and Ramazani spotted Firpo on the left, completely untroubled by the Coventry defence. His ball into the centre found the similarly unmarked Gnonto racing through on the edge of the area, and although Wilson got a hand to his powerful shot, but that only deflected it up into the top corner of the net.
A few minutes later Coventry had a penalty appeal of their own, after Gnonto’s risky challenge on Mason-Clark from behind, but again there was nothing doing from the officials. Instead Leeds took possession and swept to the other end of the field, where Wilson initially seemed to have done well, as he raced to the edge of his area before Ramazani could go round him.
But the Coventry keeper then lost the ball and as their defence scrambled the ball out to Gruev, the Bulgarian tried a shot from forty yards that would have embarrassed the keeper had he managed to place it in either corner. But Wilson had managed to scramble back and palm the ball away from the centre of his goal.
That was the first of three shots that were directed straight at Coventry’s stopper from good positions. One came from Ramazani after a clever turn on the edge of the area. Then Jospeh was able to run past four defenders before his shot was tipped over the bar. At the other end I worried that Mason-Clark’s trickery might expose Bogle’s suspect defending, but their attacks tended to peter out after a poor final ball.
The main downside to the first half was an injury to Ampadu, which we can certainly do without when we’re getting short of options for central defence. But as far as midfield was concerned Tanaka proved to be a more than capable substitute. We really should have got to the break more than one goal up, but Ramazani and Gnonto both shot just wide after being played into space on the left.
Thanks to a number of stoppages six minutes injury time were announced, long enough for Bogle to race down the right past as Dasilva failed to track his run, but he could only shoot into the side netting. During the interval there was a touching tribute to 90 year-old Annie Cochrane who is finally retiring, though I couldn’t hear what she mumbled into the mike after being asked for a funny story.
The visitors began the second half looking a little bit more determined, and although their first attack only produced a shot way over the bar, I started to fret that it might go the way of last season’s game, when they grabbed an equaliser late on. But that was laid to rest a few minutes later as Bogle and Ramazani played a one-two on the right, before Wilson failed to hold Bogle’s shot and the ball bounced into the net.
On the hour Robins made three changes to try to get his side back into the game, but this produced little more than a feeble header that gave Meslier no trouble. Soon after Farke made a change of his own. In his latest comeback Bamford had managed a jog down the touchline without injuring himself, but it was Piroe that got the nod to replace Ramazani.
And the Dutchman was to further enhance his subersub status after fter another ineffectual Coventry attack broke down, and an excellent ball down the right from Tanaka picked out Gnonto. His cross found the onrushing Piroe, and again Wilson failed to hold the shot, though in fairness it was directed to the spot he’d just come from, so he didn’t have time to adjust.
Piroe’s ratio of goals to minutes on the pitch must now be easily the best in the Championship, and possibly in all four divisions. With the game now won Farke made three more subs, possibly with an eye on the busy week to come and the need to give his first choice players as much rest as he could.
And for the second match running the opposition produced their best shot of the game right at the end, when a good number of their fans had already left the stadium. Thomas-Asante turned and shot from distance, forcing Meslier to tip the ball over the bar. After four minutes on injury time the referee finally put the remaining Coventry fans out of their misery with the final whistle.
The win only took us up one place to fifth, though with most of the teams above us dropping points, the promotion race is starting to look very tight. The two wins after the Burnley game have pulled us back into that race, but both have been against feeble opposition. The next four games look much tougher, and they might give us a clearer picture of how our reshaped squad compares to our rivals.