Daniel Farke has come under fire for his role in Leeds United’s 1-0 defeat away at Millwall in the Championship.
Though it was only Leeds‘ second defeat of the season and first on the road, Farke is always going to face the brunt of the criticism when things don’t go right due to the pressure of winning promotion.
Leeds dominated three-quarters of the ball at the Den and yet aside from a quick five-minute spell in the first half, created virtually nothing for goalkeeper Lukas Jensen to have to do.
Attacking trio Wilfried Gnonto, Dan James and Joel Piroe were all poor, though the latter’s performance should not come as much of a surprise given away matches like that have been a struggle for him throughout his time at Leeds.
Leeds fans are frustrated at Farke’s persistence with Piroe, who somehow played the full 90 minutes despite touching the ball just 27 times. Incredibly, he was the only Leeds outfielder to have less than 50.
- READ MORE: Neil Harris shares what he honestly thinks about Leeds United after Millwall’s win at the Den
Jon Newsome baffled by Farke’s Leeds substitution
Farke’s substitutions have become a point of criticism for him throughout his reign at Leeds, particularly in matches where they are trailing.
The Leeds boss waited until the 70th minute to make his first change as Manor Solomon was brought on in place of Joe Rothwell.
In fairness to Solomon, he actually looked pretty dangerous in comparison to Gnonto and James, but it was the change to the system that really baffled pundit Jon Newsome on BBC Radio Leeds.
In taking Rothwell off, it saw Brenden Aaronson drop into a position where he was picking the ball up in much deeper areas, which simply isn’t his game.
Newsome admitted it was something he ‘really didn’t understand’ during the game and so wasn’t surprised it didn’t pay off.
He said: “I think we said it in commentary, Popey said it himself, I reiterated it. It was a bit of a head-scratcher, is how we explained it. I don’t feel Manor Solomon has offered a lot so far, I think on his debut he looked a real handful, and we all went, ‘wow, I think we’ve got a player’.
“I think he has been disappointing since. To then take Rothwell out of the fray and stick Aaronson into the middle of the park, yeah I didn’t get it. I really didn’t understand it, didn’t understand why he would do that. I don’t know, you’ll have to ask Daniel Farke.”
Farke explains his choice of subs in Leeds loss
Farke was asked to explain his substitutions in his post-match press conference and explained part of the reason for taking Rothwell off was to ease his load.
However, his main reasoning behind the decisions was to get ‘bodies closer to the box’, which unfortunately for him, never looked like working.
He said: “Played a 4-1-4-1. Two midfielders to build up the game initially. Wanted bodies closer to the box. Became a transition game. Wasn’t sure if Joe [Rothwell] could cope with the last 20 minutes after his recent load. Took the risk with one holding midfielder.
“Changed the base formation to 3-5-2 eventually. Did not need to change the rhythm, but after 75 minutes you want all the scorers on the pitch. We took this risk.”
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