Neil Atkinson’s post-match review for The Anfield Wrap after Leeds United 3 Liverpool 3 in the 2025-2026 Premier League at Elland Road…
IT WAS AGONY. Because to win there is ecstasy.
Elland Road is a thing and always, always, always fuck Elland Road.
I have a complicated relationship with Elland Road and was genuinely gutted not to be there today, even now allowing for the result. My greatest praise possible for Leeds United is that they are pretty much the realest football club in the country which isn’t in the north west. They may not be Everton, they may not be Manchester United but they are made of grit and fibre. They take some digesting. They happen to you in a way most clubs don’t.
My sheer desire to say “fuck Leeds United” comes first and foremost from a place of knowing that Leeds United are always a live proposition.
Fuck Leeds United.
And Liverpool almost did. Liverpool did everything that you should do to undo all of the power of Elland Road. First-half Liverpool were much the better side without scoring. Liverpool should be the better side: budgets are real. And there they were: The Reds.
If, in a season like the last two or 21/22 or 19/20 Liverpool put that sort of first-half in, then you hit half-time with an attitude of certainty. Of “we’ll have too much for these”. Of “they’ll give us one”. You see the first-half as swagger, not as insecurity.
Today, when half-time hits, the fear is “we’ve been on top there and not scored”. The fear is “we’ll shoot ourselves in the foot”.
And then the second-half. Liverpool get given a cheap one. Liverpool have too much. Liverpool resplendent, Leeds demoralised and the scoreline is 0-2 and that is richly deserved in all directions. The better side, cruising to victory and then there are two sets of changes.
What’s important here is the order of events: Leeds’s are first. Leeds go from 3-5-2 – a formation Liverpool have hated for four seasons by the way – to 4-2-3-1 and then Liverpool make their changes. Nobody thought Conor Bradley had 90 minutes. But Florian Wirtz had been excellent.
It is possible these factors had little to do with what comes next. Possible, but verging on “unlikely”. Because suddenly Leeds have a ton of width and Liverpool look surprised, look stretched and then the centre-back gives the penalty away.
It’s so expensive. It’s so irresponsible. The biggest issue with Ibou Konate this season is that had Ibou had a dreadful injury a week before the season began and then Giovanni Leoni come in and literally played the same games, literally the same performances, you’d be justified in saying “he’s raw, but my god when it settles, what a player he will be.” Konate is 25. This is it. This is being the player you need to be. We’ve been watching his highs and his lows. We’ve had four and a half seasons now.
If Konate was a left-winger it would be fine. Not fine. It would be tremendous because the highs are spectacular. You can be a mercurial attacker; in fact it isn’t a bad thing. But no one should want to be the Luis Garcia, the Rayan Cherki, the Matt Le Tissier of centre-half. That is being a failure for all of those players’ current or possible successes.
Suddenly we are surrounded by Elland Road. I wasn’t there but Christ I have been there and when there is Elland Road in your ears, eyes and bellybutton it takes some getting rid of. You have to respect this however much you want to tell them to fuck the fuck off. Because they are real and this is why you get to 0-2 without much event. This is what winning looks like.
Liverpool went from winners to losers. Fast. The knife to the kidneys. What a knife.
Nobody is good between 1-2 and 2-2. Nobody. Everybody should be disappointed with themselves. It goes 2-2 and then Liverpool are simply about the result again and to be fair they show some bollocks. They fancy it because they don’t fancy Leeds. They don’t fancy Elland Road.
I adored Liverpool’s third. I adored it because I am all about Liverpudlian swagger and am all about West Yorkshire cultural shortcomings. Listen: This shit is real for me. You can have your own view but fuck Henry Moore and fuck Keith Waterhouse. We can give Alan Bennett a cuddle and I adore Cinerama and the bits of Wedding Present that sound like Cinerama but Liverpool’s third was a massive “fuck off” to the Kaiser Chiefs and Mel B. Liverpool’s third was the best thing that had ever happened to me in my whole fucking worthless life. Liverpool’s third was taking off tight shoes.
And then Liverpool can’t defend a corner. Fuck off, Liverpool.
What we lose is the excellence. Conor Bradley, Florian Wirtz, Curtis Jones, Milos Kerkez, Dominik Szoboszlai and especially Hugo Ekitike all play ever so well. Bradley is so progressive. Wirtz looks a superstar. Jones is a workhorse demanding the ball. Always running, always in space. Kerkez is simply a really good fullback. Szoboszlai would have been worthy of scoring the winner and does so with the sort of laid back brio one only gets from computer game or cartoon character footballers.
And Ekitike, my god. A Liverpool number nine for me is constantly involved. He is a chameleon, whatever any given game demands, able to demonstrate and today Ekitike is precisely that. He loves it to feet, loves joining in midfield, loves finding a teammate and turning and going. He is the game’s best performer.
Listen – the game is this. The world is obsessed with our game, our moments, our rivalries. I am always happy to be reductive. The world is obsessed with Liverpool playing Leeds. These cunts we came up against today were obsessed with their Harvey Nicks when they had nothing else to offer. These wanted to be the London of the North and they can fuck off with that.
But they showed so much bollocks, tons of fight and we shouldn’t be surprised. We shouldn’t be surprised. I love and I hate the metropolis that is Leeds, Leeds, Leeds. But their football team broke their backs and Liverpool shouldn’t have been surprised. Liverpool should have had their substitutions meet fire with fire because the good people of West Yorkshire have fire in abundance.
They are my type of people.
They can go fuck themselves.
Liverpool 3 Leeds United 3. It has to be better. Better for the league table. Better for the moment. Better for our collective mental health. But better because the sheer fucking job is to be better than them. This day. That day. Next week.
Beating them is a matter of respect and maybe, just maybe today Liverpool didn’t show enough respect.
I wish I was going out in Leeds tonight. I hope I never go back.
All my love
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