Soccer news: Potential candidates to replace Leeds manager Daniel Farke
Sports News Blitz writer George Dempsey takes a look at the leading candidates for Leeds United’s next manager, but not before a brief detour into the emotional carnage that is supporting them.
There’s something unique about the way football elicits a rainbow of emotions, like despair, dread, resignation, frustration, misery, numbness, self-loathing, and heartbreaking fatalism.
There’s also a lot of hatred. Supporting Leeds, hatred is everywhere.
We hate Scum (Manchester United) because they are our bitter rivals. The rivalry with the Sheffield clubs is healthy. Chelsea, who are 200 miles away, will not be getting a Christmas card.
Galatasaray borders another continent, but for obvious historical reasons, a pure hatred has been passed down through generations.
On the other hand, you’ve got the teams that hate Leeds United. That’s just about everyone, but hardly any of it makes sense.
Tune into any random match on Sky Sports, and you might hear a chorus of ‘we all hate Leeds scum.’ Typically, by lower-league teams we’ve forgotten about.
These days, the phrase ‘Dirty Leeds’ - something which originated in the 1970s - is bandied about by children who weren’t even soon-to-be wasted sperm when Billy Bremner was still alive.
Above all, though, I f**king hate Leeds. And I really hate Daniel Farke.
Leeds need to sack Daniel Farke yesterday
It might sound like a strong statement to those on the outside. The 49ers should have booted him out the second Leeds were promoted, which isn’t me just being reactionary.
Farke has amassed 37 points from 61 Premier League matches. Norwich were dreadful, but this Leeds team is nowhere near that bad.
At Elland Road this season, Leeds have led Villa 1-0 at half-time, West Ham 2-0, were level at one apiece with Tottenham and Bournemouth, and held Newcastle and Everton to 0-0.
In those 45 minutes, those six teams were held to a combined 2xG. On the other hand, Leeds created 5.46xG, scoring five games, and gave away one big chance.
Farke deserves credit for getting the structure right early in games, but as we see every season, even League One sides can frustrate Premier League teams for 45 minutes.
The issue is everything that happens after the break.
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Daniel Farke has zero game management skills
Sunday was the same story again. Unai Emery introduced Donyell Malen, explained the decision perfectly afterwards, and Villa scored within seconds.
The match was still there to be won, yet Farke hesitated with changes despite several players running out of gas. When he finally acted, he took off AO Tanaka, Leeds’ most technical midfielder (who he never plays), and the only one with fresh legs.
The wall and Lucas Perri can be questioned, but by then Leeds had already lost control, dropped deeper, and allowed the game to drift away.
The decision to sit on his hands for 70 minutes at Forest was unforgivable. Having sustained a tough opening 15 minutes, all of the hosts' best play and chances came after Omari Hutchinson was introduced on the hour mark.
His extra yard of pace against a tiring full-back helped Forest to a 2-1 lead. Farke then waited another seven minutes to make his first change, introducing a winger at full-back. That winger gave away a penalty.
You may argue that Premier League teams just have more quality, but effort alone is enough to negate that for at least 45 minutes most weeks.
Just bringing on Dan James and Willy Gnonto allows Leeds to get 20 yards higher up the pitch and still press the ball in a meaningful way late in games.
Leeds fans will tell you that plan B is to throw five people up front and hope for the best. Very rarely, across 2.5 years in charge, did Farke make an isolated, tactical change that worked.
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Who will replace Daniel Farke as Leeds United manager?
Honestly, I’m sick of seeing people say, ‘There’s no one available’ on X. Or responding with ‘Go on then, who would you pick?’
Firstly, football exists outside of the Premier League. Ange Postecoglou, Brendan Rodgers, and Gary O’Neil are not the only managers available to hire. Secondly, I’m not paid six figures to pick Leeds’ next manager.
Despite receiving criticism as England manager, Gareth Southgate’s teams were defensively sound. More importantly, he showed the ability to be flexible depending on the opponent.
Being conservative and pragmatic is questionable with players like Harry Kane, Bukayo Saka, Cole Palmer, etc, but it might be the only approach Leeds can take.
Thiago Motta knows a thing or two about defending and averaged 1.68 points across 119 games in charge of Bologna and Juventus in Italy.
As a disciple of Marcelo Bielsa, his intensity, robust defensive structure, and focus on winning midfield battles (traits Leeds already have) are a perfect match.
Beyond that, his similarly fluent ideas about what to do with the ball might just be the bit of invention that’s missing from Farke’s predictably slow build-up play.
Marco Rose is another name that bookies have thrown into the mix, and despite the hesitance to employ another Red Bull manager, he’s worthy of consideration.
The Red Bull philosophy has developed since its early style of play, which Leeds fans know as ‘penis ball’.
Rather than being a used car salesman who just reads from the manual and tries to blind you with kindness, Rose has engaged his brain to come up with much more sensible iterations.
Across nearly 400 games as a manager, Rose has consistently averaged close to two points per game. That’s been underpinned by high pressure, leading to direct and counter-attacking play.
Unlike Marsch, Rose has deployed a very adaptable 4-4-2. He’s even trotted out three-at-the-back and played with traditional wingers.
He allows his teams to play wider than the Red Bull blueprint. His preference for hitting the strikers quickly makes the most of Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Lukas Nmecha.
Juventus fans were unconvinced by Igor Tudor because he didn’t win enough games relative to their expectations. Our expectations are simply not to go down.
He’s a no-nonsense man who demands 110%, an intense work rate in a man-to-man system, as well as bravery, courage, and creativity on the ball. Sound familiar?
Not only that, he’s quite impartial to playing three centre-backs, which is something Farke refuses to try despite Leeds leaking goals for fun on the road.
As much as Ange and O’Neil are horrific suggestions, Brendan Rodgers is not. It might not sound exciting, but how can we possibly turn our noses up at a man who has managed over 800 games in England and spent plenty of years at Liverpool and Celtic?
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