What Wilfried Gnonto offers Leeds as a No 10: Passing, pressing and attacking instincts

New York Times

19-03-2025

Brenden Aaronson's first assist in 15 matches was for Leeds United's opponents.
Everything about the creation of Koki Saito's opener for Queens Park Rangers on Saturday summed up the American's shortcomings and strengths on the field. Aaronson was alive to the threat from out wide, intercepted the pass on the edge of his 18-yard box, then lost all composure and simply teed the ball up for Saito to curl home the first goal of a 2-2 draw (the sequence is cued up in the video below).
It may well prove to be the watershed moment in Aaronson's season. The 24-year-old midfielder had never been hooked as early as half-time before in the current campaign, but after what happened at the weekend, he began the second half at Loftus Road sitting behind Daniel Farke in the dugout.
United States national team head coach Mauricio Pochettino's decision to overlook him for their two games in this international break may be a blessing in disguise for Aaronson. A fortnight away from the heat of public opinion could be the ideal reset he needs ahead of a decisive eight games with Leeds that he can still impact. Will that be as a substitute, however? Aaronson has started 36 consecutive Championship matches since August, but Farke may be at a tipping point with his preferred No 10.
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Aaronson is one of Leeds' four most attacking players and has played a lion's share of the minutes for a team who are top of the table and have scored 35 goals in 16 matches since Boxing Day, yet he has finished or created only two of them. Even with his admirable work rate and determination, that's a disappointing return for somebody playing his position for such a goal-laden side.
Scoring stats aside, when you are part of a footballing machine that goes 17 league matches unbeaten from December to March, there is some immunity to rotation. However, Leeds have taken five points from the available 12 in their past four Championship games and Aaronson has to be the first of that very productive front four on the chopping block.
What helped the team's cause, though not Aaronson's individually, was his replacement Wilfried Gnonto's performance against QPR.
Before Farke settled into his preferred XI at the start of the winter, there was a period where the 21-year-old Italian looked like a makeshift solution playing behind striker Joel Piroe as a No 10. The manager has, though, consistently talked up the importance of Aaronson's running and how that compensates for his team-mates.
The implication is Gnonto does not cover the same amount of ground and, as a result, that weakens the team.
It's a very small sample size of 45 minutes at Loftus Road, but Gnonto's impact after coming on for Aaronson was instantaneous and intoxicating as he delivered the attacking verve Leeds fans have been craving for weeks from that central pocket. Afterwards, Farke conceded he had been tempted to start Gnonto in Aaronson's place.
That tipping point is close.
'It's a bit difficult for him because he's naturally not a central player,' Farke said of Gnonto. 'He's more of a winger and we have our in-form wingers with Daniel James and Manor Solomon. In his position, it's tough for him.
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'Although I like him so much and he delivers relentless work, also in training, to improve, and had also some good cameos when he came in, he has perhaps not convinced at No 10. We've played him one or two times already there, and Millwall in the cup was not the best outcome, but the feeling is he's also learning a bit more to create a good situation in the centre.
'This was what he did in the second half (on Saturday), perhaps not with his pressing load, but he played a decisive pass before we equalised. He was involved in this goal and it was a good performance.'
Gnonto, as Farke says, has played less than one per cent of his league minutes as Leeds' No 10. The conclusions we can draw are scant, but the nuts and bolts are there for the manager to work with, especially if he recalls Ilia Gruev to play as a more vigilant defensive midfielder in the pivot behind.
Of the data we have access to, Gnonto has shown an eye for a pass when playing off the right flank. His preferred passing zones congregate down that channel. As he's right-footed, this may not be a huge surprise, but it shows that when playing through the centre and off his preferred foot, the ability to find that pass is there.
Against QPR at the weekend, Gnonto's single biggest impact came with his penetrating ball through the lines that took four defenders out and put James in for what became the equaliser at 2-2.
There were other really telling contributions from him in that channel, too.
On two occasions, virtually back to back, Gnonto found Jayden Bogle in space on the touchline down Leeds' right. The right-back then delivered a pair of wicked crosses, which should have been buried by team-mates in the six-yard box.
It wasn't just his passing that caught the eye in west London. Gnonto's attacking instincts, as someone who began their career as a striker, will ask questions in behind defences, too. On more than one occasion, he offered a passing option to team-mates in a tightly congested penalty area.
Below, you can see Solomon driving inside from the left as Gnonto, starting centrally, runs into the channel ahead of him. This movement creates more space for the Israeli and offers him a dangerous route into the QPR box.
We then had Gnonto showing his flair.
Here, the forward takes the ball in with his back to goal, drawing defenders and playing a back-heel pass into Junior Firpo's path for a low cross that should have, again, been buried by Leeds attackers running in on goal.
Pressing and work rate have been highlighted by Farke as the key facets of Aaronson's game. However, both were also on show from Gnonto in Saturday's second half.
In this next shot, we can see him beginning his press from a long way back to force goalkeeper Paul Nardi into a hurried, aerial pass that Firpo would eventually collect in the Leeds half.
In the same passage of play below, we see how impressive Gnonto is at receiving the ball in tight spaces, which is, of course, the norm in that No 10 slot. Ao Tanaka feeds a pass to his team-mate, Gnonto takes it in stride and draws defenders to him.
Gnonto offers a threat on the move (only Solomon can beat his 4.3 take-ons per 90 minutes for Leeds this season), which means opponents' defensive shapes will be disrupted in their attempts to close him down, which then creates space for his team-mates.
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Here, he takes the ball, dribbles, gets crowded out by four defenders, but, crucially, does not turn possession over. He passes back to Joe Rothwell and then, as the next Leeds wave threatens to break down, it is Gnonto who puts a foot in on the 6ft 2in Michael Frey to ensure his team retain the ball.
In another phase, a perhaps underestimated element of Gnonto's game is shown: his strength when in possession. He may be just 5ft 7in, but he is stocky and hard to knock over or bully off the ball.
Jack Colback, QPR's resident midfield disruptor, goes shoulder-to-shoulder with Gnonto in our next screengrab but fails to knock him off the ball. The Leeds man retains possession, holds off Colback's challenge and gets the ball safely to Rothwell to start a new phase of play.
It's unfair to ignore the good work Aaronson still brings to the table.
The below series of images, also from Saturday's match, underline just how relentless he is in hassling and harrying to try to win the ball back for his team. First, he gets after Lucas Andersen…
… then he pushes on to Kenneth Paal, who has just received the retreating Andersen's hurried pass.
Paal then has no option, under pressure from the American, but to play back even further to Morgan Fox. The centre-back then feels the same heat as Aaronson keeps on chasing.
However, Aaronson's own attacking play had less of an impact on the match. There are game-state factors that can impact this, such as the overall performance of Leeds' team or the greater freshness in QPR legs with the home side having played a day earlier in midweek, which meant he dropped deeper than Gnonto often had to once he came on.
However, an example of the frustration Aaronson can prompt with his choices in the final third is shown below.
He has possession in a dangerous position on the edge of the QPR penalty area. Rather than play the simple through ball the underlapping James evidently wants, Aaronson tries a more difficult cross. Piroe is on the far side of the goal, surrounded by defenders. The attempted scoop to reach him does not even beat the first blocker.
Again, it's a small sample size, but there is evidence of what Gnonto can bring to this position for Leeds.
Aaronson may yet have his moments off the bench, if Farke does take him out of the firing line, but a home game against 16th-placed Swansea City next up a week on Saturday, a fixture Leeds should expect to dominate, may be the perfect time to give the Italian a go from the start.