Leeds United boss Daniel Farke hails players for 'best performance of season' in win over Sheffield Wednesday

Without a win in their first three games and with fans unhappy at the way the club is being run by their American owners, the Whites produced a timely reminder of why they were installed as favourites to win the Championship as they comfortably beat their hosts 2-0.

Leeds could have won by a much bigger margin as they controlled the game after opening the scoring, but goals from Brenden Aaronson and Dan James were enough to bring an important three points and morale booster.

"It was definitely our best performance of the season - the perfect away performance,” said manager Farke.

"More or less from the start we were able to dominate this game. We were brave and dominant.

"The goals we scored were fantastic. The first goal, you can put it in your album for best practice in possession football from the build-up to the finish.

"I'm pretty happy for the boys because they made the next step forward. There's still much work to do, but under these circumstances, for this stage of the season, it was a mature performance and they definitely do deserve some compliments.”

Farke named two goalkeepers on the bench as it showed how United are short of players after selling or loaning out so many in the summer and he reiterated that work was going on to add to the squad in the last week before the transfer window closes.

New £10 million winger Largie Ramazani was signed too close to the game to be involved at Hillsborough, but he is expected to be joined at Elland Road by at least three more players in the next week.

“We definitely need a few additions, but I'm pleased for the lads,” added Farke.

“Obviously it's good we have Largie signed and I have made it clear we definitely need a few more if we want to be ambitious.

“Just with a squad of 12, 13 senior players, for this emotional and ambitious club to be successful it's not possible.

“We have a good group to build on, we showed this today but we will also need a few additions and then we speak about them when they have trained with us. At the moment all the players deserve to be in the spotlight that were involved tonight."

Wednesday had won their first home game 4-0, but aside from a few set piece scares they rarely looked like following up with another success.

Leeds, whose only change was Aaronson for Joel Piroe, had their first chance in the first five minutes when Mateo Joseph saw his close range effort saved by keeper James Beadle's feet after good work by Aaronson and Gnonto who mostly played as joint number 10s.

Pascal Struijk headed wide from James' dangerous cross, but it was even before the opening goal arrived on 24 minutes.

It was a goal of beauty as the Whites played the ball out from the back with a move started by Jayden Bogle. A superb flick by James opened space for Aaronson, he move the ball on to Gnonto and the Italian's through ball set up Joseph inside the box.

Joseph was brought down when about to shoot, but it did not matter that no penalty was given as Aaronson followed up to finish smartly to put United ahead.

From this point Farke's men looked more composed and took control to play their best football of the season so far.

Clear chances were not so frequent, but Aaronson sent a free-kick narrowly wide and later in the half Joseph and James both came close to meeting Junior Firpo's superb low cross

The domination was rewarded three minutes into the second half with another classy goal.

Firpo won the ball in defence and found Joseph who then played a brilliant ball in behind the home defence for James to show his pace in running clean through.

He then showed the kind of finishing that saw him improve so much last season as he dinked the ball over the keeper to make it 2-0.

Wednesday did have one big chance to hit back as Svante Ingelsson's throw was headed wide by Di’Shon Bernard.

But Leeds were soon threatening again as Bogle played Joseph in, but the otherwise impressive young striker fired over after cleverly creating space to shoot.

Only good saves by Beadle denied James and Joseph while Illan Meslier denied Ike Ugbo at the other end.

In truth, it was a comfortable night for United who have now set a standard for the campaign ahead.

Sheffield Wednesday 0

Leeds United 2

(Aaronson 24, James 48)

Friday, August 23, 2024

Championship

Attendance: 28,800

Wednesday: Beadle (GK); M Lowe (Johnson 89), Bernard, Iorfa, Valery; Ingelsson (Palmer 79), Bannan; Musaba, Windass (Gassama 70), Valentin (Ugbo 70); J Lowe (Smith 79).

Leeds: Meslier; Bogle, Rodon, Struijk, Firpo; Ampadu, Gruev; James (Byram 90), Aaronson (Gelhardt 90), Gnonto (Rothwell 88); Joseph (Piroe 84).

Referee: Simon Hooper