When the news broke that Dan Ballard wasn’t fit enough to make Leeds’ starting eleven, a lot of people were concerned, but ultimately we did a good job defensively.
For long periods of time, especially in the second half, the game was very much a back-and-forth affair and the lads who had to make up for the Afcon defeat and the Balad-sized gap performed extremely well.
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It’s a real shame that we’ll probably be without the Northern Ireland international for four weeks or so, but apart from losing Dominic Calvert-Lewin who made some quality runs between the centre-backs and met a really good cross, the lads who stepped up in the short space of time did really well.
It was obvious that Dennis Serkin was tired towards the end and with more quality options on the bench, maybe he would have been replaced, but we defended resolutely at times (Trey Hume’s goal-line save was huge) and we ultimately deserved the point we earned.
mentioned above Harvey podcast Simon Adingra was very sad about his absence from the Ivory Coast team and he really stepped up his training to take advantage of this opportunity to shine – and what a performance he had shown just before the half-hour mark!
If he wanted to catch the attention of the national team coach then he did absolutely the right thing by scoring his first Premier League goal for the Lads and what a goal it was.
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Granit Xhaka’s pass was absolutely perfect, but his touch inside the post and curling shot were a thing of beauty. Adingla is one of the best players on the pitch and after a poor performance against Brighton, he really brought his game to Leeds’ defense – especially in the first period.
He was extremely unlucky in the final moments of the first half when he collected a brilliant cross from Brian Brobbey at the back post but ended up hitting the corner of the post and crossbar. If that leads to assists and goals, then he deserves it.
If this is the start of Adingra truly showing what he’s capable of, we have a lot to be thankful for that he didn’t travel to Africa for the games he missed.
Elsewhere, I was a bit surprised to see Chris Rigg start, and while he had a decent enough game and made some decent contributions at times, I do think Eliezer Mayenda delivered at a higher level when he came on.
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Rigg did well and after about twenty minutes his tackle won the ball back, which is what every Sunderland fan wants to see. That said, Mayanda came in and helped a lot more in terms of running the ball towards opponents and creating pressure and worry for them, and I thought Eli did a lot of good things in getting the start for himself in the absence of the Africa Cup of Nations players.
His run in the 75th minute showed us what we missed and what we didn’t really get from Rigg.
It will be interesting to see how that plays out as Rigg has clearly done some things to impress the coach, but when we have less physical fitness among the Afcon lads on the park, using Mayanda instead of Rigg to make up for it makes a lot of sense to me.
Up front I was really pleased with Brian Brombie’s defensive performance and on another day he might have scored a goal or two.
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His physicality and power with his back to goal caused plenty of problems, and it was the No.9’s grit that had an even greater impact – and legitimately so – when he and Ardingara both tackled hard and drove Joe Rodon off the pitch.
I thought there was a moment or two when someone made a semi-decent shout about a very advanced free-kick or penalty – including shortly before his header hit the crossbar – but that wasn’t the case. I’m not sure the referee wants to give the home team anything, but with the graft and muscle Brobby has put in, it shows me why he’s currently favored over Wilson Isidore.
However, given that neither Brobbie nor Isidore has scored, I do think we may be entering the transfer market in January.
If Mayanda isn’t seen as an attacking option and those two lads don’t score often enough, we could put another player on top to ensure we get to 35 points as soon as possible in 2026 and go from there.
We could have easily lost that game with a handful of players missing on international duty and star players like Dan Ballard unavailable at short notice, we could have kept our unbeaten home record alive until 2026 and not allowed the flurry of shots Leeds created in the second half which represented a point won rather than two lost.
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Leeds performed well and, as is often the case in Championship games, there was little to differentiate between the two teams – nor were the two managers employing tactics that pitted themselves against each other.
Sometimes we wasted the ball too much and sometimes we should have shot instead of over-attacking – like Lutsharel Geertruida’s chance in the first twenty minutes.
There were also times when we were too far behind (including during the Leeds goal) and there were times when we had to go all out and do whatever it took not to concede a goal, but we got a point – which we deserved – and then we moved on to the next one.
If we can continue to score with great goals like this and defense at the end, despite all the challenges we face, we will be in the top ten or even the top six or eight by the end of the season.
