Daniel Farke has just made the same Leeds United mistake as last season and he’s not even realised

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Leeds United are playing with fire as they threaten to throw away promotion once again and Daniel Farke hasn’t noticed he’s burning.

It’s hardly been a month since Leeds United celebrated wildly after defeating Sheffield United late on at Bramall Lane, with the Championship title in their grasp.

But how quickly the tables can turn and how suddenly morale can plummet through the floor. Leeds have won just one of their last five matches and Saturday’s draw with Swansea City is highly concerning.

Even after an international break to refresh and taking the lead after 40 seconds, Daniel Farke’s side put in a terrible display against the Swans.

It looked as if Willy Gnonto’s late strike may have salvaged the three points but a 96th-minute equaliser meant the game finished all square.

Position	Team	Played MP	Won W	Drawn D	Lost L	For GF	Against GA	Diff GD	Points Pts
1	Sheff UtdSheffield Utd	39	26	7	6	56	29	27	83
2	LeedsLeeds	39	23	12	4	78	27	51	81
3	BurnleyBurnley	39	22	15	2	53	11	42	81

Now Leeds have slipped down the table to second, level on points with Burnley, and with the Blades two clear at the top.

Furious Leeds fans were baying for blood at full-time, but Farke remained a calm figure and didn’t dig out his players. It’s a stance that didn’t serve him well last year and could prove costly again.

Daniel Farke is repeating himself and it could be costly

The draw felt so sickening as every Leeds fan immediately suffered harsh flashbacks to last season’s agonising collapse.

Leeds were on course to finish in the top two but a shocking 4-0 defeat to QPR in the penultimate game opened the door for Ipswich Town to beat them to it.

After that loss, Farke remained composed and defended his players. He said: “We were far from our best possible performance but I’m not tempted to hammer the boys today.

“We’re playing a fantastic season. Was 90 points after 45 games, it was a difficult day today. First 20 minutes were not good enough and our defensive behavior with the set pieces was not good enough.

“We’re not happy at all, that’s for sure, but if something comes togther then you lose the game and today we have to accept we lost the game with such a score line.”

While an admirable stance, Farke did not get the desired result from publicly backing his players.

Leeds lost their final match against Southampton, dropping them into the play-offs, and though they improved to get past Norwich City, they were defeated again by the Saints at Wembley.

Now, nearly a year later and after another terrible result that risks missing out on automatic promotion, Farke has maintained the same approach.

Speaking after Saturday’s draw, Farke said when asked about Illan Meslier’s spot in the team: “It’s not the time after a game to speak about such a topic. He will suffer more than anyone after this.

“He does not need a manager on his back with comments about him. Everyone has seen what has happened. We win, lose and draw together.”

Farke’s stance on Meslier applied to the whole team as he once again avoided criticising his players, which might have the same result as last year.

Farke needs to change his approach at Leeds United

Farke defending his players after QPR was admirable, and we don’t know how much he might have stuck the boot in behind closed doors, but it’s an approach that clearly didn’t work given the results that followed.

It’s also infuriating for supporters when the manager doesn’t call a spade a spade and justifiably call out a poor performance and weak mentality when it rears its ugly head once again.

Farke needs to change his approach, with the Premier League and his employment in the balance.

He might not want to be overly critical in front the media but there have to be some significant changes to a starting XI that has run out of steam.

Meslier’s constant and costly mistakes make it look like he wants to stay in the Championship and it’s untenable for him to stay in goal.

Elsewhere, Brenden Aaronson, Manor Solomon and even Joel Piroe have not been performing well enough for weeks.

Farke has to change his approach and start challenging the players rather than backing them without exception, or history shows Leeds will be condemned to another year in the second tier.