How Leeds United play: Transitions, narrow wingers and plenty of back-post crosses

New York Times

3 days ago

This is part of a series from The Athletic breaking down the tactical approach of Premier League teams for the 2025-26 season. You can also read about Arsenal's approach.
One of the toughest aspects of transitioning from the Championship to the Premier League is balancing the attacking approach that brought promotion with the required caution against stronger opponents.
Last season, Leeds United won the Championship with a ball-dominant style but adapting that approach against Premier League teams who control possession, press high and are lethal on the break is harder than it sounds.
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Daniel Farke's side are not going to transform completely. 'We spoke about the way we want to play, how we want to approach the season and how we are not going to change our approach,' Wilfried Gnonto told The Athletic last month.
'The level is high, but we want to be aggressive, we want to be dictating games. Hopefully, that's what is going to happen. When you play against top teams, it's not always going to be possible, but it's good to have this type of approach and mentality.'
The 4-3-3 adopted in pre-season is a slight change from Leeds' regular 4-2-3-1, resulting in tweaks to the build-up and defensive shape, and extra physicality in midfield. Yet Farke's team haven't moved away from the attacking and defensive principles that led them back to the Premier League.
In the Championship, Leeds built up in a 3-1 shape, with one of the two deeper midfielders dropping into the first line to help progress the ball to the wide areas where Farke's side mainly focused their attacks.
In front of them, full-backs pushed forward to support the front four, who were usually in narrow positions, apart from Daniel James, who had the freedom to stick to the touchline to exploit his one-v-one abilities (below).
The narrow front three behind Joel Piroe or Mateo Joseph allowed Leeds to attack multiple vertical channels, with the full-backs, Jayden Bogle and Junior Firpo, who has since left, supporting them, as seen in the below example from October's 2-0 victory against Sheffield United.
Firpo and Bogle often occupied the width as the wingers roamed inside, but Leeds' approach was flexible, allowing the full-backs to interchange positions with the narrow forwards.
When they operated more centrally, Brenden Aaronson, Manor Solomon and James helped knit together passing combinations in the final third.
In this example, in the 2-0 win at Stoke City in December, Aaronson, Solomon and left-back Sam Byram are overloading the opponent's right centre-back and wing-back.
Solomon's movement prevents Ben Wilmot from tracking Aaronson as Joe Rothwell finds the United States forward between the lines.
Aaronson then immediately puts Piroe through on goal, before the centre-forward tries to round the goalkeeper and strikes the ball into the back of the net.
In another example, from the 1-0 victory against Derby County three days later, Solomon attracts the opposing centre-back as Aaronson dashes forward when Byram plays the ball to Leeds' left-winger.
Aaronson then continues his movement to attack the space between the centre-backs, while Solomon's pass to Piroe grabs their attention.
Leeds' centre-forward then threads the ball through the defence…
… to find the third-man run of Aaronson, who slots the ball into the bottom corner to score the winner.
Piroe's link-up play is instrumental to Leeds' attacking combinations. The Dutch forward regularly drops into midfield to aid these moves, either by dragging centre-backs out of position or linking the play.
The heatmap of the open-play passes he received in the Championship last season shows an inclination to roam towards the right side of the pitch.
Towards that side, James' inside dribbles and his team-mates' off-ball movement are the initiating moves that allow Leeds to combine and play through the opponent, as illustrated in Piroe's offside 'goal' against Millwall in March.
Even if Piroe isn't central to the move, Leeds' right-sided combinations were an essential part of their attack in 2024-25. Starting as an attacking midfielder, Aaronson would roam to the right to help Bogle and James, who smartly positioned themselves to enable these combinations.
Their first-minute goal in the 2-0 win against Norwich City in January is an example of Leeds' right flank operating fluently.
The dynamics of Leeds' attack are interlinked. The narrow positioning of the wingers plays an important role in attacking the wide areas while placing them in threatening positions to attack the crosses.
In this example, from the 1-0 win against Oxford United in April, it's the usual approach from Farke's side with a 3-1 build-up shape, narrow forwards and Bogle in an advanced position.
As Joe Rodon searches for a passing option, Piroe drops deeper…
… and Gnonto's similar action means that Oxford's left-back and centre-back are stretched and dragged out of position. Meanwhile, Bogle complements that with a run behind the defence, which is found by Rodon.
The right-back then plays the ball across goal, and Solomon's initial narrow position makes him a goalscoring option at the back post.
Another feature of Leeds' attack is their focus on crosses towards the back post, which is helped by the narrow positioning of the forwards — such as in the above example — or the full-backs' dashes into the half-space when the wingers stay wide.
Last season, Leeds scored 15 goals from crosses towards the back post, which was the second-most in the Championship after Coventry City (16). Meanwhile, an accumulated 13.1 expected goals (xG) — which was the highest in the division — from 39 chances shows that they were creating high-quality opportunities from these situations.
The profiles of Leeds' wingers and Aaronson suit the Premier League's transitional nature, as their pace and one-v-one ability make them threatening in these situations. Additionally, Leeds are expected to have less possession this season, which adds to the importance of their transitional threat once they win the ball.
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The data illustrates their focus on getting it forward. 'Direct attacks' are defined as possessions that start in a team's own half and result in a shot or a touch inside the opposition penalty area within 15 seconds — in other words, a counter-attack.
Leeds' rate of 2.8 direct attacks per 90 minutes in the Championship last season was level with Middlesbrough as the joint third-highest in the league, behind Sunderland (3.3) and Watford (3.1).
Plenty of these attacking transitions originated from the midfield's ability to win possession and play the ball forward. Rothwell, Ethan Ampadu, Ilia Gruev and Ao Tanaka protected the space in front of the back four and consistently broke the opponent's attacks.
The deeper midfield duo had another role that helped Leeds' defence. One of the centre midfielders would drop to defend the area between the full-back and centre-backs, keeping the rest of the defensive line compact, while his partner protected the area in front of them.
Tanaka's out-of-possession role in midfield was instrumental in Leeds' promotion. Last season, his 4.8 'true' interceptions — denoting interceptions plus blocked passes — per 1,000 opponent touches was the fourth-highest in the Championship among all defensive and central midfielders who played at least 900 minutes.
The Japan midfielder is adept at sweeping up the ball in midfield, whether counter-pressing to regain possession after Leeds lose it or hoovering up loose balls in that area. His rate of 11.1 ball recoveries per 1,000 opponent touches was the fifth-highest in the same pool of midfielders.
Defensively, Leeds conceded the second-fewest goals (30) in the 2024-25 Championship after Burnley's extraordinary total of 16. However, they conceded the lowest non-penalty xG per game in the division (0.6).
Considering the amount of time they will be defending in the Premier League, building on that defensive solidity will be important. Improving their set pieces could be crucial, too.
Across the last two Premier League seasons, all six promoted teams have been relegated. Leeds' mission is to buck that trend.
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