Leeds United among likely PL bottom three as £37.5m Nottm Forest star highlights key difference | OneFootball

£37.5m summer signing Omari Hutchinson proved the difference for Nottingham Forest in their six-pointer against Leeds United, who are in big, big trouble…

Leeds United were five points clear of Nottingham Forest before the relegation six-pointer at the City Ground, but the reality of the differing quality between the two sides was evident during Sunday’s match.

Daniel Farke, like the other promoted managers, has pragmatically made alterations to Leeds United‘s set-up to adapt to the Premier League and give his side a greater chance of survival, with it hoped that the strong foundation of a solid defence can lead them to safety.

But you need more than that if you are going to survive in the Premier League, and at the moment, Leeds United are sorely lacking in the attacking half.

It was Leeds United who took the lead against Forest, with summer signing Lukas Nmecha breaking the deadlock after 13 minutes against the run of play.

It was a great finish from the edge of the penalty area by Nmecha as Leeds were clinical with their first and only shot before half-time, but this chance was forged by hard work rather than a creative spark.

Fellow summer signing Noah Okafor did well to pressurise Nicolo Savona and punish the defender’s sloppiness, snatching the ball and passing it onto Brendan Aaronson to assist the goal scorer.

But the visitors otherwise offered nothing in attack, with their insistence on going long to Nmecha certainly an interesting call. The forward was bullied on the ground and in the air by Murillo and Nikola Milenkovic, and spent most of his time on the floor.

Nmecha can only be partly to blame for this; his teammates did not play to his strengths, and he was feeding off scraps with support around him severely lacking.

On the bench for Leeds United were Dominic Calvert-Lewin, who was only fit enough to be a substitute and cannot be relied on consistently, and Joel Piroe, who has proven not to be good enough for this level following promotion. So, they risk slipping into an irreparable position in the relegation fight if they do not make up for their insufficient summer transfer business in the winter.

Still, Leeds United would have been confident of taking away all three points from the City Ground as they have never lost a league game under Farke after scoring first, with their grit and heart a feather in their cap.

Therefore, they would have been extremely disappointed to give up their lead only two minutes after Nmecha found the net.

Forest did not let their heads go down after falling behind and came straight back at Leeds, with Ibrahim Sangare netting in his first start under Sean Dyche.

Leeds summer signing Lucas Perri has generally been really good for the West Yorkshire outfit this season and he made a couple of good saves here, but he needed to do better with the Forest goal as he could only parry Igor Jesus’ cross, which was calmly passed into the net by Sangare.

Forest kept their foot on the accelerator after netting their equaliser and had ten shots in the opening half, which is a new season record for the relegation candidate.

In the second half, Forest’s momentum waned as the game became flat and the two sides struggled to create any notable chances, though the host’s extra quality off the bench made a decisive difference.

Without Chris Wood, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Ola Aina, Douglas Luiz and Oleksandr Zinchenko, Dyche had a “threadbare squad” to face Leeds, but he still had the luxury of bringing on Hutchinson, Taiwo Awoniyi and Ryan Yates with 20 minutes remaining.

And £37.5m substitute Hutchinson provided the spark craved by Forest, patiently dribbling inside and finding Morgan Gibbs-White with a precise cross from the right flank, which was headed home into the bottom corner with 23 minutes remaining.

Leeds responded by making an inferior triple change, with Calvert-Lewin, Piroe and Daniel James coming on before Jack Harrison and Pascal Struijk were later introduced.

These switches helped Leeds huff and puff more than they had in a good five-minute spell, but they were picked off as Hutchinson helped to seal the victory by getting on the wrong side of Harrison to win a penalty, which was emphatically converted by Elliot Anderson.

Dyche said pre-match that he and his staff are “learning about the players as quickly as we can” and they have “still got good players to come back fit as well”, with the intensity and doggedness inserted by their third permanent boss of the season and the quality of their deep squad a huge advantage in the relegation dogfight.

That was a huge win for Forest, which was their first in the league since August, and it was a chastening one for Leeds United.

This weekend has provided a clear indication of the trajectory of the relegation race, with Leeds and Burnley’s similar attacking problems making them the likeliest to go down alongside Wolves, while Forest and West Ham have far more about them in forward areas and a proven Premier League firefighter in the dugout to guide them to safety.