It had been a game to reflect the tyranny of analytics-based football, when thought and expression are abandoned for the playbook, where set pieces rule, and long throws become key events. For Brentford’s Michael Kayode, read Leeds’ Ethan Ampadu, both taking an age before hurling the ball into a mass of bodies, and the ball being headed away.
As it stands, scoring a goal from open play remains a valid tactic, and it was from such a situation that Rico Henry set up Jordan Henderson to score his first goal in English football since December 2021, via an unfortunate deflection off the Leeds defender Jaka Bijol. In turn, Leeds found their equaliser from open play, Dominic Calvert-Lewin nodding home Wilfried Gnonto’s cross. Henry and Gnonto, both substitutes, had added a dab of quality to a previously constipated contest.
Two teams both looking over their shoulders must now look to festive fixtures to pull them away from danger. Having looked nailed on to avoid any semblance of a relegation battle, Brentford’s recent form has endangered them, the gap to Leeds at kick-off just four points, as it remained at full time.
In mid-November, Daniel Farke’s chances of making Christmas were akin to those of a prime turkey only for his team to deliver high-amped performances and four points from a daunting triple header. Had such endeavours drained Leeds? Their performance did not meet those high standards. They were immediately subjected to the aerial barrage of Kayode’s long throws and Brentford’s attempts to reach their forward line with direct, long passes. Rescuing a draw at home to Liverpool last weekend had required launching the kitchen sink at their opponents but Farke’s team are playing circumspect football in seeking safety, going against his attacking instincts. Until needs must, that is.
