Caution is advised for those travelling across the UK this weekend, and Derby journeyed to Leeds with a mentality of damage limitation.
There have been some stormy encounters between these two sides over the years, but such a classic felt unlikely: Paul Warne’s gameplan was to batten down the hatches. With Ebou Adams suspended, the head coach opted to pen his Rams into a 5-4-1, hoping to shelter the goal of Jacob Widell Zetterström, whose box Leeds would look to flood.
In the opening stages, it worked well: though Leeds had almost all of the ball, they were struggling to break into Derby’s box thanks to disciplined defending. The best of this came from Nat Phillips, in the 13th minute. The Liverpool loanee put in a strong tackle on the edge of the box to intercept Jayden Bogle’s through ball after the former Ram had made a surging run from inside his own half.
A Ben Osborn free kick saw the Rams pile players forward, but the poor delivery left them vulnerable to the counter, which Kayden Jackson took a booking to stop by fouling Brenden Aaronson.
After 25 minutes, Leeds had only had four touches in the Derby box and were regularly seeing shots blocked. Frustration was building for the hosts, as was evidenced by Joel Piroe’s 30-yard pot-shot.
This changed in the 39th minute, when the visitors were undone by their biggest strength: set pieces. Having earlier miscued his header from a corner, Joe Rodon this time nodded Joe Rothwell’s free kick from the right into the bottom left corner for his first goal in South Yorkshire.
The deficit doubled five minutes later, Max Wöber, who had come on for the injured Junior Firpo, finding the back of the net. Aaronson’s cross deflected off Jerry Yates and into the Austrian’s path, before he showed a poacher’s instinct for his first Leeds goal.
It was the hosts who had the first chance of the second half, Daniel James seeing his shot blocked, before Manor Solomon curled one wide from 20 yards moments later.
Zetterström sprang into action to push away James’ 25-yarder before making two great saves in as many minutes as the hour mark approached.
The Swedish International first denied Ao Tanaka, who shot from a similar distance to James and then Joel Piroe who rolled an effort across goal which Zetterström tipped around the post with his fingertips.
Derby’s number one had kept them in the game, and they soon put together their best attacking move. Slick one-touch passing on the left-hand side culminated with Liam Thompson’s low cross which was held by Illan Meslier.
Were the winds of change beginning to swirl? Not quite. The Rams finally managed to register a shot on target with ten minutes to play as Thompson fired straight at Meslier from range, but Warne’s side never truly had a sniff.
Analysis: Is this just where Derby are?
It wasn’t quite Derby fans’ last trip to Elland Road, was it?
That was of course the Championship playoff semi-final second leg (the 2019-20 clash was played behind closed doors).
Derby’s circumstances couldn’t be much more different these days, and few expected them to go toe-to-toe as happened five years ago, but the need to shut up shop from the first whistle is something no fan hopes to do against rivals.
That being said, looking at the game more objectively, Leeds have a squad full of players who have played regularly in Europe’s top five leagues and worth more than £100m. Daniel Farke’s side have moved back to the summit of he league, while Derby had won just one of their previous nine games ahead of kick off at Elland Road.
Paul Warne’s post-match interview on BBC Radio Derby echoed this, while also admitting that he wasn’t disappointed that his side didn’t go for it once 2-0 down, as they could have lost by four or five.
While that was something we could all but confirm based on what happened on the pitch, Warne also described his side as “a League One team and a bit of sugar on top.”
I’m stumped. I cannot understand what saying that publicly will achieve.
It was another fairly passive display, which could perhaps have been different had Ebou Adams and the injured David Ozoh been available, but ultimately, the Rams always looked likely to leave empty handed.
Tuesday night’s trip to Turf Moor will surely be an uphill battle too, with Burnley sat in third place on a six-game unbeaten run. As a tough month continues, Derby will have to remain defensively solid.
But more “personality” on the ball, as Warne called it, is the least that fans deserve.
Leeds (4-2-3-1): Meslier (GK); Bogle, Rodon, Struijk (C), Firpo (Wöber 21’); Tanaka, Rothwell (Guilavogui 85’); James (Ramazani 85’), Aaronson (Joseph 68’), Solomon (Gnonto 68’); Piroe.
Substitutes not used: Darlow (GK), Schmidt, Ampadu, Bamford.
Derby (5-4-1): Zetterström (GK); Wilson (Ward 81’), Phillips, Nelson Cashin, Forsyth; Jackson (Goudmijn 65’), Thompson (Barkhuizen 81’), Osborn, Mendez-Laing (C) (Harness 65’); Yates (Collins 81’).
Substitutes not used: Vickers (GK), Bradley, Blackett-Taylor Brown.
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