The emotional swing of the Leeds United fanbase has rarely been far from Daniel Farke’s press conference observations. From the moment he arrived in July 2023, he acknowledged there was no middle ground when it came to the club’s followers.
In his eyes, it’s feast or famine on the terraces. He was only half-joking when, earlier this season, he said one win can have the supporters dreaming of Europe while one loss has them fearing a slide into League One. He’s also said, on more than one occasion, that this emotion is what makes the Leeds fans second to none. It’s why, in his words, you want to work for a club like United. It’s an asset to be harnessed.
So, as expected in the aftermath of Sunday’s 3-1 defeat by Nottingham Forest, the mood of the supporters was put to Farke.
“The fanbase of Leeds United is very emotional,” he said. “Everyone was, after every loss on Championship level, doubting we would go out of this league — and we won the league with 100 points, (nearly) 100 goals and the best season in (the club’s) history.
“This is what always happens after a loss or a poor run of results. Everyone has the right to be a bit critical because, in the last two away games, we’ve conceded too many goals.
“I wouldn’t say we gave too many chances away, but it’s a fact that we have conceded, in both away games, three goals. We could have made our life easier with some points in these away games, that’s for sure.”
Leeds won the Championship in comprehensive style last season (Harry Trump/Getty Images)
Whether Farke is right or wrong, some fans are unlikely to be best pleased about being told how emotional they are having watched their team concede three goals for the second away game in a row. It’s now one win in six, and the quick succession of two meek performances is what’s hitting morale harder than anything else up to now.
Beating Aston Villa at Elland Road on November 23 will steady the heart as everyone holds their collective breath on the Manchester City-Chelsea-Liverpool triple-header across seven days after that. For now, though, there is angst.
Historically, when the German has referenced these emotions after the first defeat in 12 Championship games, there’s been a belief to know the squad’s probably strong enough to come good again. Now, though, with defeats piling up and the relegation zone closing in for the first time, there’s not quite the same inherent resolve in the stands that this squad can turn it around. Yet.
Again, whether you think Farke is fair or misguided in his assessment, it’s plain to see why he’s doing it and what he’s trying to achieve. He’s trying to calm everyone down, but it may not work.
As chairman Paraag Marathe said in his summer backing of Farke as manager, his calmness is his superpower. Farke tries to keep everyone around the club on an even keel with his comments in the media.
“If I’m honest, I didn’t expect, before the season started and also how the transfer window turned out, it would be an easy, smooth ride through the whole season and we are never in danger,” Farke said in his post-match press conference.
“I judge our season so far: we have 11 games, we have 11 points, it’s a point average we need to stay in this league. We were not on one game day under the line, so never in the relegation zone. This is also good.”
Fans will, understandably, pick holes in this logic. No right-minded Leeds supporter would have expected a mid-table cruise this year or being fourth after 11 games, but Sunderland show a vision of how it’s possible to take points from the established order.
More specifically on this weekend, there will be questions again about how Farke managed the match. Across two years of almost unfettered success in the second tier, there were very few sticks the manager was beaten with — but substitutions, the personnel and timing of them, were one of the more frequent.
On Sunday, as Sean Dyche changed the flow of the match with three replacements in the 59th minute, Farke watched on until the 74th minute, five minutes after Forest’s second goal, before turning to his bench. While Leeds were failing to test Matz Sels, Farke felt the flow of the game was suiting his side at 1-1, particularly as Forest grew more and more desperate to score, opening themselves up to counter-attacks.
The decision to put winger Jack Harrison at left-back, where Omari Hutchinson was beginning to run the game, was also odd. Yes, Harrison is more offensive than Gabriel Gudmundsson, but the Swede generated arguably the best United attack of the second half with his own drive to the home box.
The ongoing preference for Brenden Aaronson over Daniel James is irking some corners of the fanbase, too. The latter offered more in his 20 minutes than the former did in 74 on Sunday. Wilfried Gnonto, one of the few attacking players in the squad capable of beating a defender, was also kept out of the squad despite completing two weeks of full training prior to kick-off.
Farke hopes another two weeks of training during the international break will serve the Italian well for when the Premier League reconvenes. He will need him against Villa, which is virtually a must-win fixture if the manager hopes to preserve squad and fan morale through the hornet’s nest at the end of the month.
“Right now, it’s all a bit tighter, but it’s nothing like we are panicking about what the outside world is thinking,” he said. “We can’t influence that. We are quite calm. We know what we have to do better, especially to return back to our clean-sheet behaviour.”