Leeds United reunions, Farke's complaints, Ayling's intervention and off-camera Sunderland moments

NOW AND THEN - Current Leeds United man Georginio Rutter up against former Whites youngster Niall Huggins, who alongside Jack Clarke enjoyed a win over his former side. Pic: Bruce RollinsonNOW AND THEN - Current Leeds United man Georginio Rutter up against former Whites youngster Niall Huggins, who alongside Jack Clarke enjoyed a win over his former side. Pic: Bruce Rollinson
NOW AND THEN - Current Leeds United man Georginio Rutter up against former Whites youngster Niall Huggins, who alongside Jack Clarke enjoyed a win over his former side. Pic: Bruce Rollinson
Leeds United suffered their first defeat in eight outings at Sunderland on Tuesday night with an uncharacteristically tame offensive display being punished by a single goal.

Jobe Bellingham was quickest to react to a surprise ball in the box, beating Illan Meslier and winning it for the managerless Black Cats, but the big disappointment for the Whites was how little they created. Sunderland interim manager Mike Dodds was able to provoke a disciplined defensive performance from his side and they stopped an in-form Leeds attack from combining effectively in and around the area. Here's the YEP take.

Good day: Jack Clarke and Niall Huggins

Getting one over on a former club, regardless of what players will say publicly, has to feel good. The duo played full parts in the victory for Sunderland, Clarke giving Archie Gray a tough time and Huggins sticking to his defensive duties manfully. Both dug in as the pressure came on late in the game. They each shared a few moments with ex-colleagues at full-time and there have been no gloating but this one will have meant something different to other Sunderland wins this season.

Bad day: Georginio Rutter

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Leeds' frontman always puts a shift in, always presses defenders and the goalkeeper and always tries to make things happen but he was forcing it at times against Sunderland. He wasn't the only one but this will definitely go down as an off day for Rutter, who couldn't make the ball stick in the final third or turn his possession into chances. We saw only a couple of glimpses of his skill on the ball. It wasn't a Rutter problem that Leeds were facing, it was collective, but he did struggle.

Daniel Farke

Sunderland threw up a wall whenever Leeds were in possession, retreating to cover space and refusing to engage with the Whites' centre-backs or Illan Meslier for the most part. That meant Leeds had to try and play through congested areas and were stifled for the vast majority of the contest. Farke was unable to fix it, even with his changes from the bench. His talk of Sunderland parking the bus, the pitch being heavy and a possible red card that never came, all smacked of complaining about things outside Leeds' control when ordinarily he isn't one for excuses. He did not make mention of the penalty Sunderland could have had or how they created the better chances in the game, making Meslier the busier of the two goalkeepers. This was an off night, when his plan did not work as it has done so well recently. One to bounce back from and learn from.

Off-camera momentsSpence and Summerville having a chat on the pitch during the warm-up, as outfield players broke off into their respective on-field partnerships, signalling that the Spurs loanee would indeed be filling in at left-back. Mateo Joseph's unsuccessful nutmeg attempt on fitness coach Tom Robinson. Klaesson and former Leeds goalkeeping coach Barcherini, now head of keeping at Sunderland, catching up at the end of the warm-ups. Farke fuming as Rutter failed to control a pass from Piroe with Leeds on the break. Summerville hopping mad in frustration as he begged for team-mates to speed up the attacking play. Ayling trying to rally the troops from the touchline after Leeds went a goal behind, attempting to intervene as his team-mates made their way back to halfway with vocal encouragement and applause. Struijk leading a delegation to complain to referee Dean Whitestone at full-time and then, realising that they had the official surrounded, pushing his team-mates back so he alone could speak. Rutter catching up with Adil Aouchiche, with whom he played 31 times together across four different French international age groups.

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