said he had seen this game as a \u201850-50\u2019 tie<\/a> given Derby\u2019s performances against top Championship sides at home this season amid United\u2019s mass rotation.<\/p>\nAmong those to impress in the second half were Wilfried Gnonto, due to his goal, and fellow scorer James Justin, who Farke seemed to suggest might well be ahead of Jayden Bogle in the right-back pecking order. At the very least he\u2019s challenging him.<\/p>\n
Piroe also bounced back from his first half penalty miss decently too, with a lovely dummy for the equalsier beofre his shot led to Ao Tanaka tucking in the rebound.<\/p>\n
Sunday was all about doing the job and the players on the pitch did that. Whether any have given Farke food for thought about his starting XI, that\u2019s not so obvious.<\/p>\n
Goalkeeper reality<\/p>\n
One of the talking points from Sunday was always going to be about Karl Darlow given Farke\u2019s open criticism of Lucas Perri in the last two games. Though, Derby\u2019s Championship status meant there was only so much that could be deduced from the match.<\/p>\n
Darlow did not cover himself in glory for Derby\u2019s opener. Yes, the goal was a first-time snapshot but a goalkeeper of his ilk should have been able to get a stronger hand to it.<\/p>\n
Otherwise, his distribution was sound, at one stage dissecting the centre-backs with a pass into midfield. And there was no sense of panic when crosses came in or the ball was passed back. But this was hardly going to be a day to dictate Farke\u2019s mind.<\/p>\n
There are several reasons why Perri is still expected to start against Fulham next weekend, not least due to not losing face over summer recruitment efforts. But the noise will only grow should Perri continue to be shaky.<\/p>\n
No Harry Gray<\/p>\n
Among those not at Pride Park was Harry Gray, who could leave on loan this window if a suitable offer comes in for both player and club. His involvement for the Under-21s against Reading on Saturday already revealed Farke\u2019s squad decision.<\/p>\n
Many supporters had wanted, and some expected, the 17-year-old to make his second competitive senior appearance. If not now, then it is hard to see when Gray will get onto the first team pitch this season barring drawing Macclesfield in the next round.<\/p>\n
He has made two senior matchday squads this campaign but both circumstances – losing against Sheffield Wednesday in the League Cup and en route to Leeds\u2019 only Premier League away win at Wolves – were not conducive for him coming onto the field.<\/p>\n
Today would have been a good shop window for potential loan clubs, amid his good academy form. But maybe it shows the reality of the gap he still has to bridge to get to where many expect him to reach.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sunday will have done little to sway Daniel Farke’s mind on several aspects of his Leeds United team…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":690712,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,1385,50902,393,97,4884,1860,24464,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-690711","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-daniel-farke","10":"tag-derby-county-fc","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-fa-cup","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-leeds","15":"tag-leeds-united-fc","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115881290246679574","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690711","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=690711"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/690711\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/690712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=690711"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=690711"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=690711"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Leeds](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/0_GettyImages-2255152771.jpg\")
<\/p>\n