Leeds United beat Everton in brilliant tactical display marred by VAR howler | OneFootball

Leeds United fans can be proud of their first performance against Everton, with the best compliment you could give the Lilywhites being that they made the Toffees look like the newly promoted side. Elland Road was boisterous, as expected, and Daniel Farke’s side was tactically spot-on against a David Moyes-led team that struggled to gain any sort of feasible momentum throughout the opening 45.

The First Half: A Tactical View as Leeds United Shines Bright

LEEDS, ENGLAND – AUGUST 18: Ethan Ampadu of Leeds United heads the ball alongside teammate Joe Rodon during the Premier League match between Leeds United and Everton at Elland Road on August 18, 2025 in Leeds, England. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)

Leeds lined up in a 4-3-3 on paper, which quickly became a 2-3-5 when they were in possession, at least for the majority of the first half. Ethan Ampadu was the link man and ran most of the game between the lines, forcing Everton into what looked like an early tactical switch, as the 4-2-3-1 they began the game with slowly became what looked like a 4-1-4-1 or a 4-4-2, with Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall trying to push on to the Welshman to try and limit his effectiveness.

At times, Leeds would switch to a 3-1-6, with Ao Tanaka or Ampadu dropping into a back three and pushing midfielders and full-backs further up the pitch to try and overload Everton’s back four. Willy Gnonto inverting centrally from wide at times created some interesting overload opportunities for Gabriel Gudmondson, which the home side unfortunately was unable to take advantage of. Gnonto was also always looking for underlapping opportunities throughout the first 45, which will be something to watch out for as the season goes on under Farke.

Everton tried to build in a 4-2-4/4-2-1-3 at times when they had the ball, but Leeds’ aggressive press stopped them from building any sort of momentum during the game. At times they tried to build through Beto dropping deep, who would look to play a bounce pass, but nothing good came of the attempts. Leeds forced the away side long more often than not, which almost always resulted in the second ball being picked up by the Lilywhites, who would then kick-start another attack going the other way.

One area Moyes’s side looked to exploit was Leeds’s left-hand side, with Carlos Alcaraz inverting and Jake O’Brien pushing high when his side had the ball. The plan aimed to make use of the space vacated by Leeds down the left-hand channel due to the awareness of Alcaraz and his presence, but O’Brien, who is not a full-back by trade, failed to take any sort of advantage of the situation. Everton’s midfield two have been quite static in comparison to Leeds’s proactive midfield duo of Tanaka and Anton Stach, who have buzzed around and made impressive third-man runs off the ball, which has at times proved impossible to deal with for Everton.

Second Half: A Tactical View

LEEDS, ENGLAND – AUGUST 18: Jack Grealish of Everton looks on during the Premier League match between Leeds United and Everton at Elland Road on August 18, 2025 in Leeds, England. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)

The start of the second half took on a very different shape for Everton, who were a lot braver in position and more clever tactically. As spoken about in the first half, Ethan Ampadu ran the game, with the away side not being able to get close to him when Leeds had the ball. Moyes very quickly rectified this in the second half, as they switched the press a bit more early on, going to a near 4-3-1-2, with Tim Iroegbunam near enough man-marking the number six. Kieran Dewsbury-Hall dropped back a bit deeper, with Iroegbunam leading the press this half instead, which gave Everton that bit more energy, which stopped Leeds from being so effective in possession.

The Everton right-hand side again became important in this half but was utilized that bit better. O’Brien began to push even higher in possession, with their 4-2-1-3 initial press near enough becoming a 3-2-5 with the Irishman pushing forward as a full wing-back. At times during the half, Everton switched between playing out from the back from kick-outs and going long and wide to O’Brien as an outball, which at times gave Leeds something new to think about, which caused confusion for the home side.

Moyes’s decision to push higher on Leeds stopped them from playing for the majority of the half, and what turned into a 4-2-3-1 press full-time nullified the home side’s play for nearly the entire second half.

It wasn’t to be in the end, however, as another abhorrent VAR decision stole Everton of a well-earned point away at a team who will take points off a number of teams this season.

VAR NEEDS TO BE STRONGER

The message from the PGMOL is that it’s a penalty when the player makes their body frame bigger by using their arms. James Tarkowski puts his hands down by his side, behind his back, and still gets a penalty against him. The start of the season has been really poor for the referees, with Altay Bayindir’s situation yesterday accompanied by Matheus Cunha being tackled by William Saliba in the box and it not even being checked. Liverpool also had a situation with Marcos Senesi on opening day. The refereeing simply has to be better this coming season in the best league in the world, as managers and players cannot be working for an entire week to have all their hard work ruined by incompetence at the highest level.

Ao Tanaka. A truly beautiful performance by the Leeds midfielder, who has well and truly announced himself to the Premier League in the absolute best way possible. A tenacious but silky smooth player in the middle of the park, who oozed class throughout the 90 minutes alongside his brilliant midfield partner Ethan Ampadu.