'Absolute baller' - Leeds United trio's brilliant response to Ao Tanaka's 3-word Millwall message

Ao Tanaka received plenty of love from his Leeds United teammates following Wednesday’s 2-0 win at home to Millwall.

The Japanese international fired home goal number two at Elland Road as Leeds bounced back from defeat at Portsmouth to reclaim top spot in the Championship. An early Jake Cooper own-goal sent Daniel Farke’s side ahead but despite a dominant performance, particularly after half-time, the relief of a second would not come.

That was until five minutes before the end as Tanaka strode forward from midfield to meet Junior Firpo’s cutback, with the 26-year-old arrowing a perfect finish past flying Millwall bodies and into the top corner. The £3million summer signing ran over towards the substitutes bench to celebrate with his team, with the ensuing pile-on hilariously leaving his face covered in the white paint from the touchline.

Tanaka’s Instagram post

Tanaka posted a number of pictures of himself and Leeds teammates celebrating the goal via Instagram on Thursday morning, with a simple but telling message. He wrote: “Just keep pushing”.

And a number of other Leeds stars were in the comments heaping praise on their midfield teammate. Firpo, who bagged a ninth league assist of the season thanks to Tanaka’s finish, wrote: “You’re welcome. Absolute baller [fire emoji]”. Jayden Bogle simply wrote: “Player”. Skipper on the night Pascal Struijk was also in the comments, recreating what is becoming one of the best chants Elland Road has to offer. He wrote: “Tudududu Tanaka”.

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Predictably, the comments were also full of Leeds fans heaping praise on a player who is quickly becoming an Elland Road favourite, with that late goal capping off another excellent individual performance. Tanaka’s £3m price-tag continues to prove an absolute snip and the Japan international will be delighted to bounce back from a rare poor performance at Portsmouth last weekend.

Farke’s Tanaka delight

That goal took Tanaka on to four for the season, with Leeds getting exactly what they wanted from the former Fortuna Dusseldorf man. Part of the decision to cash in on Glen Kamara last summer was his lack of attacking threat and in Tanaka and Joe Rothwell, Farke certainly has that.

"First of all I was happy Ao scores, first time in a while," the Leeds boss said following Wednesday’s win. "Just at 1-0 anything can happen and at 2-0 we more or less buried the game, it was a big relief. An excellent performance. We were quite respectful, we haven't lost many games but when there is a little set-back we've always answered straight away, I love that.

“The game after a loss is always difficult, you can have 17 games unbeaten but if you lose one it does something with the confidence and rhythm. You have to get the momentum back. Millwall always show resilience and try to go for it. First half it was important we return back to our best defending. We didn't allow them one chance, one half chance perhaps with Cooper from a set-piece."