There is something in the air on these February nights under the lights at Elland Road with Daniel Farke. Leicester City in 2024. Sunderland in 2025. Nottingham Forest in 2026.
More often than not, Leeds United stand up to be counted when the chips are down under their German manager as a run-in comes into view. He called it a “winning mentality” when he was asked about it in his post-match press conference.
If anyone epitomised that ability to impress under pressure during Leeds’ 3-1 win over Forest on Friday night, it was Ilia Gruev. The Bulgarian, generally considered a six-out-of-10 water carrier in this Leeds team, morphed into, in Farke’s words, a Hristo Stoichkov-Lothar Matthaus hybrid.
While those of you born after 1993 are scrambling to Google who Farke was referencing, let’s reflect on the 25-year-old’s piece de resistance. Gruev was the architect behind a goal so clinically executed it seemed to happen in slow motion, as everyone waited for a flag that never waved, mesmerised by the space and composure Jayden Bogle found behind enemy lines.
It began before United’s No 44 had even received the ball. Farke would later reveal, during his press conference, that this was a move they had practised in training.
“It’s exactly what we’ve worked on during this week,” he said. “We had a few processes where we thought, ‘OK, we have to be flexible against Nottingham. Sean Dyche sides are always so complicated to open, complicated to create chances against, and we wanted to play different processes’.
“One was Ilia a bit more in the left half-space, to initiate our attacks from there, but also to use passes without pace over the last row, which gives time for running in behind. We didn’t want just a typical striker run.
“We wanted (runs) from other positions, and we’ve pushed our wing-backs with this.”
In the above image, note Bogle’s position. His goalscoring run starts here, in his own half, before Pascal Struijk has even passed to Gruev. Admittedly, it’s a general jog forward to begin with, but within four strides, he accelerates with purpose. He knows what’s coming.
The left flank was a nightmarish wasteland for Forest throughout the first half. Gabriel Gudmundsson, one of United’s chief tormentors this season, repeatedly skewered Nicolas Dominguez and Zach Abbott with his pace and dribbling ability.
Above, you can see the space he creates for Gruev in keeping his width, ensuring Dominguez, Forest’s de facto right-winger, has to drop off for fear of allowing the Swede a clear run into space down the touchline. Gruev has carried the ball unchecked to the halfway line, in the half-space Farke mentioned, and by the time he actually strikes the ball, Bogle has run away from left-back Ola Aina and ghosted in behind centre-back Morato.
It’s hard to do the quality of Gruev’s pass justice in still images. The above picture shows the first time the ball bounces. The midfielder has played it with pinpoint accuracy to the edge of the Forest area and sliced the ball with enough of his boot to ensure it stays low as it bounces.
By this point, everyone in Elland Road is waiting for the offside flag and cannot believe how easily and directly Bogle has been released into a one-vs-one scenario with Forest goalkeeper Stefan Ortega. The unchecked nature of the right-back’s run to goal harked back to Stuart Dallas’ exquisite lope from deep at Stoke City in August 2019, when Pablo Hernandez was the architect of a similarly simple move.
The finish, left-footed, is Bogle’s first touch since the ball left Gruev’s boot. It’s an unerring shot as he slots past Ortega. His first look, like everyone else’s, is towards the assistant referee. The flag stayed down, and belief surged around the ground it would stand.
“We have played exactly the process in training, showed similar scenes and spoke about this, but if it then works like a best practice scene in training and we got a goal out of this, all credit goes to the players,” said Farke of the goal. “It’s up to them to bring it under pressure, under these circumstances.
“As a manager, you are very happy because it’s a sign, sometimes, they even listen to what you want them to do.”
Gruev listened, and Farke will be pleased he did not listen to the pre-match clamour in some quarters for the Bulgarian to be dropped.
Anton Stach was out with a hip injury, which could have given Leeds the chance to mix up their midfield. Instead of bringing in the more progressive Sean Longstaff and Ao Tanaka, Farke stuck with Gruev. At the time, it felt underwhelming.
This was a match Leeds needed to win, to attack, but, instead, Farke had kept with his two defensive midfielders. He felt replacing Stach, a defensively minded midfielder, with Noah Okafor, a winger/striker, sufficiently tipped the scales towards having-a-go territory.
Gruev would help to mitigate the loss of Stach’s defensive reliability, while Okafor was unleashed to attack alongside Dominic Calvert-Lewin. But Gruev did so much more.
“He’s so reliable,” said Farke. “You always get a seven out of 10. Today, it was pretty close to a 10 out of 10. We wanted to use the left half-space with his left foot, to explore the weaknesses we have seen in how to open Nottingham.
Bogle celebrates his opening goal for Leeds (Michael Regan/Getty Images)
“Ilia, with his left foot, was a good choice, and we encouraged him to play more forward-thinking passes from this position, but especially (I picked him) because he trained really, really well in the last week.
“He was a mix of Stoichkov and Matthaus. He was, defensive-wise, everywhere, won each and every duel. He played the key passes, offensive-wise, with a genius left foot and two assists. Many key passes. He was outstanding today.”
Aside from the fleeting high of a 25-yard free kick in a 2024 Championship play-off semi-final, Gruev has previously done little to dispel doubts about his attacking proficiency. He’s played his part undoubtedly and been a warrior in the trenches for Leeds, but his limitations mean he’s always one of the first players fans consider switching out.
He answered those critics on Friday night, just as the calls for the axe to fall on him grew louder and louder. He stepped up. Leeds stepped up.