Inside Elland Road: Defensive solidity is vital for Leeds Utd
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."
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