Fans calling for Farke's head after another poor defeat
Monday, 10th Nov 2025 11:01 by Tim Whelan
Leeds were second best to Nottingham Forest for almost the whole of yesterday's crucial game, and now the knives are out for our manager on social media.
Farke made two changes for to his starting line-up, with Stach coming back in place of Tanaka, perhaps because he expected a Sean Dyche side to give us a physical battle. The other saw Nmencha coming in for Calvert-Lewin. Which I assumed was down to the former Everton man's lack of goals, but turned out to be due to the fact he hadn't been able to train all week.
But if the change of striker had been tactical it would have looked like a good move on 13 minutes, when the German drilled a great finish into the far corner of the net, after Okafor had won the ball and Aaronson played it on. That gave us the most enjoyable two minutes of the afternoon, before our lead was snuffed out by a quick Forest equaliser.
Earlier Perri had reacted well to keep out a deflected shot that would have been disallowed anyway, but he was found wanting when it really mattered. Our keeper failed to hold onto a shot from Ndoye, and more importantly he palmed the ball straight into the path of Sangare, who accepted the invitation to hammer the ball past him into the net.
The rest of the first half saw plenty of effort from both sides but little creativity, and in all honesty I was starting to find it a little bit dull. We hadn't threatened apart from our goal, though you could say it made a pleasant change from making chances but missing them all.
As usual it was the opposing manager who was first to go to his bench in an effort to break the deadlock, and Forest began to look far more threatening after the three changes he made in the 59th minute. Farke has been pilloried for not reacting far sooner than he did, but it looked like he was content to play for a draw, so he left things as they were while the scores were level.
But if that was the plan, it would have helped if our strapping central defenders had been able to concentrate on doing the basics, such as marking. Instead the allowed Gibbs-White to find plenty of space to get on the end of a 67th minute cross and nod Forest in front.
Now Farke went to the opposite extreme and made too many changes, as he went into his 'throw all the forwards on and hope for the best' mode. We did start too look a lot livler up front, but the substitution that came back to haunt Farke was the unnecessary Harrison for Gudmundsson.
James was closet with a curling shot that produced a fine save from Sels, but Calvert-Lewin missed a couple of chances when he really should have scored. He sent one header wide, and another came off his shoulder and was easily gathered by the Forest keeper.
I have occasionally wondered if Harrison would be adequate as a full back, and the answer to that question came as the game went into it's 90th minute. No, he wouldn't. Having been left flailing while Hutchinson ran past him, he clumsily brought the edge of the area.
VAR confirmed that the contact was at least on the line, which counts as part of the area, and Anderson made no mistake with spot kick. We were never going to score twice in the five minutes added on, so that was that.After the game Farke told the BBC "Football games on this level are decided with small details".
"We have to make sure we are more switched on. We know our home form is always important. We could have made our life easier with some away points but it is how it is. I did expect a tricky period. We have conceded too many goals in the last two away games."
None of which has satisfied a fan base who were reaching for their keyboards as soon as the final whistle went. Complaining about his late substitutions, generally negative approach and persistence with Aaronson even when our proper wingers are back to full fitness.
Across all the media I've looked at fans are calling for his dismissal, and he's not even getting a free pass on our poor summer recruitment, with fans saying he must have signed off on the players we signed.
Some of the criticism stems from the fact we lost to a side below us in the table, but to be fair, Forest's squad is a long way better than one of the worst three in the division, and now that Dyche is getting a tune out of them they will most likely be out of trouble by the end of the season.
But if they are to climb above us that will drop us deeper into trouble, and we needed a result from this game before the horrible run of fixtures we now have before Christmas. Will Farke still be in charge for those matches, or will the board listen to the fans and make a change during the international break?
_Reuters_
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