Leeds United boss Daniel Farke reveals referee unhappiness and attitude to Brentford draw — YEP 14/12/25

By Graham Smyth

The Leeds United boss gave his thoughts on a hard-earned 1-1 draw at Brentford on Sunday.

Leeds United boss Daniel Farke was caught between his belief that they should have beaten Brentford and seeing the value in a point.

The Bees have compiled a fantastic record at the Gtech Community Stadium this season, beating teams higher up the table and scoring plenty of goals along the way. Aston Villa, Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea have all failed to win at Brentford, so a 1-1 draw was a result many Whites supporters would have settled for prior to kick-off.

But the way the game went and the chances his side created left Farke feeling like they could have gone back up the road with all three.

"I'm still a bit in between, I thought we should have won this game," he said. "It was tight overall but in the crucial statistics, big chances, in possession we were dominating. I wanted to go for it and win it after the late equaliser. It's a really valuable point on the road, they have an amazing home record - we're the first side in ages to travel away with a point. It's a good and valuable point, coming back with a late equaliser from a losing position. The feeling was we could have won it. I think a tight first half, I liked the outcome, we didn't allow chances and had probably the better chances but I felt we could have been braver in the pressing and in possession.

"The second half we were excellent, brought the game into their half and pushed to go into the lead. One situation can change the world, didn't clear the ball proper and Henderson was there. Looks like he would have missed it and we scored half an own goal. Sometimes you can't explain how you're 1-0 down. I have to praise our lads, we showed the belief to keep going. Really good cross from Willy [Gnonto] and a finish from Dominic [Calvert-Lewin]. The boys have done really, really well, but it feels a bit like they could have rewarded themselves today even with three points. So for that, happy with the point, happy with the performance, happy with many, many things, but still a bit greedy anyhow - I love to win a lot more than draw."

One of the details that Farke was unhappy with in the first half and sought to change at the break was how often they went backwards to Lucas Perri instead of trying to bypass the Brentford press. He also wanted them to be braver in their pressing. What annoyed him most about his team's performance was the defending for the Brentford goal, but that paled in comparison to his unhappiness with referee John Brooks, who handed the Bees a penalty in the first half only for VAR to rule it out for offside.

"We haven't allowed any chances other than the gift the referee wanted to present Brentford and we were relying on a 1cm offside from VAR," he said. "I'm always on the side of the referee, I know John Brooks wanted to be there with his best decisions. Today I don't like the level of consistency. We have the toughest league, then we give such a soft penalty away without even thinking about it. Even when you cross your fingers for Brentford, you see the ball goes six yards over the offensive player, he can't reach it and just goes down. Then we have to wait for five minutes for VAR to rule it out with a 1cm VAR. The same player in the 95th minute, when Joe Rodon is blocked away and you say 'come on play on' and you can concede. I want to see how we would talk about it had we lost from the penalty or this decision. I'm not annoyed with my players, but today as much as I like John normally, he's an excellent referee, the level of consistency was not spot on."