Wayne Rooney has voiced his fears for Leeds United after their crushing 3-1 defeat to Nottingham Forest left them teetering dangerously close to the relegation zone. The East Midlands side mounted an impressive comeback to beat Daniel Farke's men at the City Ground on Sunday afternoon.
Lukas Nmecha had given the visitors an early advantage within the first quarter of an hour, but their lead proved short-lived as Ibrahim Sangare levelled matters just minutes later. Leeds managed to hold firm until Morgan Gibbs-White turned the match on its head midway through the second period with Elliot Anderson converting from the penalty spot late on to seal Forest's victory.
Following West Ham's triumph over Burnley at the weekend, just one point now separates the Whites from the dreaded bottom three. Speaking on Match of the Day, Rooney admitted his worries about Leeds potentially facing the drop.
The Manchester United legend said: "For Leeds, I think it's a bit of a concern. I think all they can keep doing is keep trying to create chances and hope that the forwards will convert them, but I also think at both ends of the pitch, defensively, they're conceding too many goals as well."
Rooney added: "I think they're in a bad moment, and I'm sure they'll be working on it and trying to get out of it." Following the international break, Leeds are set to face four of the current top eight teams, before ending December with matches against Brentford, Crystal Palace, and Sunderland.
Under-fire manager Farke, reflecting on the Forest defeat, expressed his disappointment: "It's quite normal you're disappointed and angry after a loss, as we all are overall. "Small details are always decisive for the outcome of the game. There were a few details where we were not good enough.
"After a really good start - we had addressed this, we wanted to start better and we went in the lead - we should do more than to give this away so cheaply. We should have been more on it, more pressure on the ball, in the duel, gave it too cheap away. The second decisive moment of the game was the 2-1.
"Big mistake of the referee, the only one in the stadium who saw the foul on [Anton] Stach was a foul against him. They put the ball long, score a goal out of this. I would have preferred to play out of the rules. But self critical, second ball when the ball comes in, we should have marked the striker better."