Arne Slot’s Liverpool misery deepens as Ao Tanaka delivers again for spirited Leeds | OneFootball

It was a pivotal week for a manager who required results to quell talk about his position. He got two goals in swift succession, a show of spirit in a comeback and late drama to leave his side celebrating. For much of an astonishing second half, it felt like that would be Arne Slot. Instead, it was Daniel Farke.

Leeds conjured not one fightback but two, gave a third supposed superpower a scare in the last eight days and underlined that they have the right man in the dugout. Liverpool? Gifted goals, seemingly set for victory at first 2-0 and 3-2, they instead illustrated their defensive shortcomings. “There's a sense of disbelief,” said Slot. “We're the only ones to blame. To go away with a 3-3, I don't think that's what we deserved.” And if that is a bit contradictory, if Liverpool think they merit more than they are getting, they continue to hinder their own efforts.

They have at least gone three league games unbeaten, which would scarcely have sounded an achievement until they lost six out of seven, but on a day when they could have ended up fifth in the standings – which may have refuted the truism that the league table never lies – they demonstrated their failings and their fallibility.

They were the team who scored late and crucially at the start of the season. Yet it was Ao Tanaka, with a 96th-minute leveller, who had the final say. While Liverpool lost 2-0 leads in August and September, they tended to end up triumphant. And if it appeared that would be the case again when Dominik Szoboszlai restored their advantage, Leeds had other ideas. “Nobody gives up,” said Tanka. So he showed.

open image in gallery

Leeds United's Ao Tanaka scores their dramatic third goal (Action Images/Reuters)

open image in gallery

Leeds fans celebrate as Tanaka slides after scoring (AFP/Getty)

Meanwhile, Liverpool can crack when pressure is applied. Consider the Leeds goals. Slot did. “We have conceded from the same pattern,” he lamented. There was, he rued, a VAR intervention, which led to Leeds’ first. But there was also Ibrahima Konate’s latest blunder. “He has been a bit too much on the crime scene,” said his manager. Anton Stach’s equaliser was, in Slot’s words, “the first chance from football for them”. Tanaka’s goal stemmed from a corner. “I don’t think there is any team in the world that can be in a higher league position if you concede 10 set-piece [goals],” said Slot.

Konate had slid in needlessly on the replacement Wilfried Gnonto when he only needed to shepherd the ball out for a goal kick. “It was a tackle made from effort,” said Slot. Dominic Calvert-Lewin converted the penalty; in scoring for a third straight league game, he accomplished something he last did in 2020 at Everton.

Then Brenden Aaronson was allowed to surge into the Liverpool box and find Anton Stach. Liverpool had plenty of players near him, but none stopping him as he lifted a shot beyond Alisson. Then Stach’s corner may have been handled by Ryan Gravenberch; otherwise it travelled unimpeded to Tanaka at the far post to fire in. This time, there was no Federico Chiesa to make a crucial goal-line clearance.

The super-subs this time were in the white of Leeds. While Slot had overlooked Mohamed Salah and sent on Wataru Endo to try and see out victory, the catalytic cameo from a Japanese was Tanaka’s. All three Leeds goals involved at least one replacement, whether Gnonto or Aaronson or Tanaka. After his spectacular goal against Chelsea, the midfielder has had quite a week.

So have Leeds. Beaten in injury-time by Manchester City last Saturday, United could enjoy the late drama this time. It has been a remarkable two-and-a-half games from them: from the turnaround after Farke’s half-time changes at the Etihad to the demolition of Chelsea to this. While he ended up jettisoning the 5-3-2 he introduced at City, his favoured 4-3-3 produced three goals.

For Liverpool, the concession of three felt all the worse as this was a team selected with solidity in mind. Which, by the chaos of the end, they completely lacked. He had opted for the formula that worked well at West Ham and less successfully against Sunderland. It didn’t against Leeds: Liverpool had too little creativity in an uneventful first half, when Curtis Jones hit the bar but precious little else happened. They had too little sturdiness in the second half. “We have hardly conceded a chance and concede three goals,” claimed Slot.

open image in gallery

Mohamed Salah arrives at Elland Road (Action Images/Reuters)

open image in gallery

Hugo Ekitike puts Liverpool in front at Elland Road (Danny Lawson/PA)

The dividend they reaped from Slot’s selection came with Dominik Szoboszlai goal from the right flank, as Mohamed Salah’s station on the bench felt ever more of a permanent shift in the pecking order. Hugo Ekitike, brought in as Alexander Isak was rested, struck twice in three minutes, seeming the match-winner until Liverpool conceded two in six.

Initially, he got too little service from his teammates. So an opponent accidentally obliged, Joe Rodon providing a defence-splitting pass for Ekitike to deliver his first goal in nine games. A second was also gifted by Leeds, Gabriel Gudmundsson losing the ball to Conor Bradley, whose cross was finished by the Frenchman. “Two mistakes where we assisted their goals,” said Farke. Liverpool’s third was their classiest. Szoboszlai ran on to Gravenberch’s pass, aided by an Alexis Mac Allister dummy, and slid a shot past Lucas Perri.

Game over? Not with this Leeds side. “We had the ground rocking like no other ground in world football,” said Farke. “Crazy, another magical night here at Elland Road.” But for Slot, it became a miserable night.