Daniel Farke can’t stand by Brenden Aaronson at Leeds United after what happened vs Aston Villa
Brenden Aaronson had a day to forget for Leeds United against Aston Villa on Sunday.
Leeds fell to a 2-1 defeat against Villa at Elland Road as Unai Emery’s side came back from behind to secure victory.
Lukas Nmecha scored a controversial opener against Villa, but a Morgan Rogers brace cancelled out his first-half strike.
The Whites also saw a Dominic Calvert-Lewin goal ruled out for handball, as they so nearly levelled terms despite a generally blunt attacking performance.
Daniel Farke has come under fire for his lack of progress, with Aaronson particularly frustrating to watch in West Yorkshire.
Leeds United were poor going forward vs Aston Villa
Lucas Perri came under fire against Villa as he allowed Rogers’ free kick to sail in despite the ball looking very central to the goal.
The Brazilian did manage to make two saves on the day, so it isn’t entirely fair to blame the keeper for the result.
Instead, Farke should look towards his team selection and his forward line in what was a largely quiet showing from the likes of Aaronson, Okafor and Nmecha.
The additions of Dan James, Calvert-Lewin, Joel Piroe and Wilfried Gnonto arguably came too late as they weren’t able to have the desired impact.
Leeds created more expected goals than Villa, with 1.79 compared to 1.58, but that only shows Leeds’ downfall in front of goal.
The Whites missed two big chances, with nine of their 14 shots flying wide of Emi Martinez’s goal for the away side.
That wasn’t helped by the performance of Aaronson, who was left on the field for far too long after a shoddy performance in LS11.
Brenden Aaronson was shocking vs Aston Villa
The America international contributed three of those previously mentioned shots, but only 33 per cent of those found the target.
Aaronson failed to create a chance from attacking midfield and only managed to take a touch every two minutes on average against the Villans.
He isn’t helped by the fact that he maintained a dribble success rate of just 20 per cent, while also being caught offside once and dispossessed twice.
Villa seemingly saw him as a weakness in the centre of the pitch, something which saw him lose eight ground duels on the day, a shocking record for a midfielder.
Looking ahead to massive games against Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea, it would make little sense for Farke to stand by the attacker.
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