Leeds United break poorly timed for Daniel Farke as he denies Whites mental struggle — YEP 10/11/25
By Graham Smyth
The international break has not come at a good time for
Leeds United.
A pair of damaging defeats left Daniel Farke facing
difficult questions and criticism over Leeds' defensive lapses and lack of
creativity, prior to the two-week rest from Premier League football. Sunday's
3-1 loss at Nottingham Forest followed the 3-0 defeat at Brighton and in both
games they gave runners the freedom of the area to score soft goals. And while
both Brighton and Forest boast greater depth than Leeds in terms of individual
quality and attacking firepower, the Whites didn't play well enough in possession
to cause enough problems and create good enough chances. Lukas Nmecha's lovely
finish opened the scoring at the City Ground but it was a rare moment of joy
for a team that had more possession than their hosts in each game and created
an Expected Goals of just 1.15 across both fixtures.
Farke facing criticism
Back-to-back defeats can come as no real surprise for a team
that played in the Championship last season but it is the manner of those
losses that has cranked up the volume on the noise around Farke's suitability
for the job and this squad's ability to stay in the division. As he has pointed
out, Leeds have a point-per-game average and they have not yet fallen into the
drop zone. But there were angry gestures in the away end at full-time and
sections of the fanbase expected to wake up to a photo of a corner flag and a
club statement on Monday morning.
Even if 49ers Enterprises are not minded to make a change
right now, the international hiatus will provide them with thinking time as
they consider what recent performances and results might mean for the club’s
survival bid and how much weight to attach to current fan sentiment. Regardless
of how reactive some supporters might be to individual results, there were
grumbles about the performance in the second half of the win over West Ham and
Farke has never really managed to shake off the critics who emerged in his
first season in charge at Elland Road. Away form had already been under
scrutiny before the Forest game fuelled the fire.
Needless to say, a two-week break from club football is not
what Farke needs right now, for a number of reasons. Firstly it creates a void
that will be filled with a results-fueled narrative and a discussion of his job
status. Secondly, there is no immediate chance to rectify the poor displays
that Leeds delivered at Brighton and Forest. And thirdly, right when he most
needs to be working on the training ground with his squad he will lose many of
them to national team duties. Three of Sunday's back four, half of his central
midfield options and two of his right wingers will be away from Thorp Arch
until the back end of next week.
Although Farke denies that Leeds are in need of a break,
mentally, he admits he would much rather have his players at Thorp Arch to work
on what they need to improve.
"I don't think we are mentally struggling," he
said. "If the outside world is panicking and mentally struggling after
everything is a bit closer [to the drop zone] we can't influence it, but we are
quite calm within the group that we wouldn't need a mental break right now. I
would prefer to be able to be on the training pitch, even tomorrow [Monday] to
work a bit more on the topic. So we're not spot on in the last two day games,
but right now many important players for us have international duties, we have just
a small group around at least until the middle or the end of next week. This is
just reality, and we know the situation we adapt to."
Three break benefits
The benefits of the break for Farke include a further
fortnight for Willy Gnonto to work on his fitness. The manager said it was
decided not to risk the Italian international winger for the Forest game,
despite him being back in team training for two weeks. He also plans to work on
details that have not been given as much focus due to fixtures and finally,
once the internationals return, do whatever he can to shore them up defensively
for the Aston Villa clash.
"It gives time to work a bit more with players who are
just back after injury," he said. "Gives a bit more time for Dominic
Calvert-Lewin to be back, two more weeks for Willy Gnonto which is beneficial,
and time to work then sometimes on a few details where normally you don't have
that much time for. This is quite good. We'll just have the whole team back
together in the middle and at the end of next week, and then we can work on
what's also crucial to return back to our defensive stability, because last two
games we've conceded three goals and that's not good enough."
