In his post-match interviews Daniel Farke was keen to say how pleased he was with the performance after this defeat by Aston Villa, but performances alone won’t keep us in the Premier League.
After our recent run of poor results there were more than a few of our fans who thought the board ought to have made a change during the international break, and the pressure on the manager went up another notch on Saturday. The new improved versions of West Ham and Forest ensured that for the first time this season we started a game inside the bottom three.
Farke made just the one change to his starting eleven, with Struijk recalled to restore the left/right combination in central defence, after Bijol had looked rather pedestrian as we conceded six goals in the two games he had played. Aaronson kept his place ahead of the now fit James, with Gnonto also on the bench.
Leeds began at a furious pace, and went in front after only 8 minutes. Longstaff swung a free kick into the area which eluded everyone until Gudmonsson’s touch at the far post sent the ball looping high in the air. Stach got to it first, and it came off his back, before Nmecha got in the way of a goal line clearance and it bounced off him into the net.
The goal had to survive a VAR check, but that Gudmonsson had just been onside when he played the ball back across goal. (It bugs me that players stand in an offside position just before a free kick is taken, but this time we got away with it). And Stach was rightly ruled not to have fouled Martinez, after he had been under the ball first, and the keeper had come out to challenge him.
But in the process Stach had been knocked on the head, and 15 minutes later he decided he was still feeling a bit groggy, so he was replaced by Tanaka in a concussion substitution. Ao was busy as usual and neat in everything he did, but unwisely launched into a dangerous tackle and earned himself a yellow card.
There were quite a few meaty tackles going on during this phase of the game, and Villa were struggling to live with our physical approach, but all our efforts produced only one more outstanding chance, when a corner came back out to Aaronson.
The American did well to keep his shot down and drill it through the only gap available between all the players in front of him. But Martínez was able to make the save and to avoid spilling the ball, with Struijk waiting to pounce if he had done. And as we approached half time there were signs that Villa were getting back into the game.
Cash sent a shot just wide, and Watkins went even closer with a curling effort from about 25 years, which thankfully didn’t bend quite enough. But Villa really picked up after the break, when Emery assessed what he needed to change and brought on two substitutes, one of whom was involved in their equaliser, which came only two minutes after the restart.
Maatsen got to the byline and Rogers evaded three defenders to get to his cross, managing the deft left foot flick he needed even though Bogle was holding onto him. And from that moment on Villa started to dominate and we began to run out of puff, perhaps because of the amount of effort we put into the first half.
We were still trying to get forward to get back in front, but I thought Okafor was trying to be too clever a few times instead of playing a simple early pass, when he’d been getting little change out of Cash for most of the game. The crowd started to beg Farke to put some fresh legs onto the field, and one fan was frustrated enough to get over and offer his thoughts from the touchline before being hauled away.
But as usual Farke waited until 71 minutes before making a change, and even then one of the players removed was Tanaka, who had been a sub himself. I thought that could only be because he had been booked, and indeed it was later confirmed that the fourth official had told Farke that one more mistimed challenge would see him sent off. And four minutes later Villa were in front.
A dangerous break was stopped by a last ditch trip from Struijk, at the expense of a booking and a free kick in a dangerous position. It was one of those where there didn’t seem to be enough distance to get the ball over the wall and down again, but Rogers stepped up to do exactly that, managing to pinpoint the gap between the heads of Rodon and Struijk, while Perri never moved.
Cue much debate over whether to blame the wall or the keeper, but Rogers ran over to thank their Rick Wakeman lookalike set piece coach, presumably for some advice on how to deliver such a precise finish. In the other dugout, Farke decided it was time to throw on all his attacking players and hope for the best, but we nearly managed an immediate equaliser before they got on the field.
James sprinted down the right and seemed to have drilled the ball across The face of goal into the far corner, but VAR revealed that the final touch was actually off Calvert-Lewin’s hand, so our hopes were dashed. Even if DCL had kept his hand out of the way and let it bounce in off his body, he might have been offside anyway.
In the final few minutes Longstaff’s free kick found Struijk, but Martinez got down to turn his header round the post, but five minutes injury time weren’t enough to grab an equaliser, and this match proved to be another where the performance deserved a better result than we actually got. (See also Fulham, Burnley, Bournemouth and Spurs).
Clearly the team spirit is still there, which Farke was keen to emphasise when he spke to Match of the Day "Performance-wise, we've turned back to what we want to be. We dominated many periods against a very good side. We should've taken some points from this game. We are not back to our best; we can still improve, but at the end, we are just disappointed we did not get any points.
"To concede two goals is not good. As good as we are attacking down the left side at the moment, we concede too many goals. We concede so quickly straight after the restart. "Over the course of 38 games, you have ups and downs. It happens sometimes at this level. At the moment, we are in a period where things are going against us”.
"Of course, the fans are unhappy and disappointed once we lose games. I don't want them to have a different reaction. I want them to feel like the world is falling apart when we lose a game; otherwise, you can't be a Leeds United supporter. I'm just fully focused on the performance. If we perform like this today, we'll win many more points."
But winning the battle in midfield only gets you so far, it doesn’t translate into points if you have problems at both ends of the field, and it’s points that will determine our fate. And since the game it’s hard to find any fans on social media who think he is the man to get us those points. Some ask if there is anyone available who would do any better, but others respond that he’s taking us down anyway, so we might as well make a change anyway.
Farke himself still seems unconcerned about his job. "It’s not a topic I think one second about. Since I walked into this club, I’ve always said in every press conference, if you can’t handle the heat, don’t become a manager of Leeds United.” But despite this brave front, he must be starting to wonder how long he’s got left in the Elland Road dugout.
We’re now below his much-vaunted target of one point per game, which might not be enough to keep us up this season anyway. And with the difficult run of fixtures that start next Saturday, will the board decide to pull the trigger before the January transfer window?