Micah Richards and Gary Lineker react to Man City vs Leeds United with Erling Haaland 'goal drought' joke
Leeds United were beaten again on Saturday but showed promise in fighting back from 2-0 down.
Leeds United were ‘so close’ to taking a brilliant point from Manchester City but for a ‘little bit of magic’ from Phil Foden, says Micah Richards.
The Whites fell to their fourth straight Premier League defeat on Saturday but showed signs of life, fighting from 2-0 down to draw level at 2-2 before conceding a late decider. City went ahead inside one minute through Phil Foden before Josko Gvardiol grabbed a second mid-way through the first-half, and it could have been far worse going into the break.
But after a change of formation and personnel at half-time, Leeds came out a different side with substitute Dominic Calvert-Lewin scoring before winning a penalty, the rebound of which Lukas Nmecha scored from. City did eventually get a handle on the tactical tweaks, however, and after regaining control saw Foden arrow in a 91st-minute winner.
A sixth defeat in seven leaves Leeds in the Premier League relegation zone for at least a couple more days but they are only below West Ham in 17th on goals scored. And Richards saw plenty of effort and promise from the struggling Whites.
“It was the fact they [City] rested 10 players against Leverkusen midweek in the Champions League, and I didn’t have a problem with it,” Richards told The Rest Is Football. “But then Leeds came back, got it to 2-2, fully deserved, worked really hard.
“Man City could have scored three or four in that first-half but the effort from Leeds to come back in that second-half. [They were] so close but then a little bit of magic from Foden.”
Foden’s brilliant brace highlighted the challenge Leeds faced against City, with Daniel Farke’s side one of few able to keep Erling Haaland quiet but for one of his teammates to step up. The Norwegian has 14 goals in 13 Premier League games and had only failed to score at the Etihad on one occasion before Saturday, against Tottenham Hotspur.
Gary Lineker joked that after three games without finding the net, Haaland is now in a ‘goal drought’ relative to his usual form but the fact he was kept so quiet is testament to the work of Leeds’ defence. Pascal Struijk and Joe Rodon did a good job between them in keeping the 25-year-old at bay, while Jaka Bijol looked comfortable between the pair having come off the bench at half-time.
Daniel Farke’s verdict on Leeds United formation switch
It remains to be seen if Farke will make a more permanent switch to a back three, with Leeds next in action at home to Chelsea on Wednesday, but a more direct style of play certainly worked at the Etihad. The Whites boss was quizzed on the tactical tweak but rightly kept his cards close to his chest.
"We're always prepared to play in a 3-5-2, it would be too easy to reduce it to this," he said. "If the answer of how to win here and dominate against a side who has won every title you could win was just to play 3-5-2 then many teams would win here. It's not that simple. It's about the principles, how you want to play against the ball. The execution was now how we planned during the whole week. The structure gave us more clarity but in possession we still had one striker and one a bit more flexible. Today it was helpful to gain control back.
"If it's just that easy, we play 3-5-2 and we just win and perform at a top level, then anyone could be a Premier League manager. It has to fit to a game, to a structure. How Man City played today, the way they pressed, for that it was right. We couldn't have done it against Aston Villa, they had a completely different structure in the pressing and were sitting deeper. To come here and play man against man like we did in parts of the second half, to do it over 90 minutes against so many sides as a newly-promoted side is not that possible.
"Today it was definitely the right choice. It's important we're flexible and it's important to do it when the right players are fit. We [previously] had Nmecha and Calvert-Lewin both not on full fitness. When you don't need wingers and can create more through the centre you can do this and we did today. It's always a solution but not in each and every moment."