{"id":557127,"date":"2025-11-08T11:18:21","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T11:18:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/557127\/"},"modified":"2025-11-08T11:18:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T11:18:21","slug":"paul-merson-has-noticed-something-worrying-for-daniel-farke-ahead-of-crucial-leeds-united-fixture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/557127\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Merson has noticed something ‘worrying’ for Daniel Farke ahead of crucial Leeds United fixture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Paul Merson believes Leeds United are in a \u201cworrying\u201d position as they prepare to face Nottingham Forest in the Premier League. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Leeds United head into their fixture against Nottingham Forest<\/a> four points clear of the relegation zone and five points clear of their opponents, who are in 19th place. <\/p>\n

However, since appointing Sean Dyche as manager<\/a>, Forest have shown signs of finding their feet, having drawn with Manchester United in their last Premier League<\/a> game. <\/p>\n

Daniel Farke<\/a> has a relatively clean bill of health heading into the game, although Dominic Calvert-Lewin faces a race to be fit<\/a> as he recovers from injury. <\/p>\n

Now, Paul Merson<\/a> has delivered a pessimistic view of Leeds\u2019 hopes of picking up a win, as he backed Forest to claw their way out of trouble under Dyche. <\/p>\n

\"PaulPhoto by James Gill \u2013 Danehouse\/Getty ImagesPaul Merson delivers Nottingham Forest vs Leeds United prediction<\/p>\n

Speaking to Sportskeeda<\/a>, Merson backed the home side to secure a comfortable 2-0 victory, despite Forest\u2019s growing injury list. <\/p>\n

According to Merson, Leeds\u2019 worrying away form will count against them, as the Whites and fellow relegation rivals Burnley begin to look nervously over their shoulders at the bottom three. <\/p>\n

Merson said: \u201cThis is a huge game. If Nottingham Forest win, they are just two points behind Leeds United and one behind Burnley. When you look at it that way, you\u2019d have to start worrying about the two newly-promoted teams. <\/p>\n

MORE LEEDS UNITED STORIES<\/p>\n

\u201cLeeds haven\u2019t been good away from home, except for that win against Wolves. I know they have had to play some tough fixtures on the road, but still.<\/p>\n

Sean Dyche will play his football only one way, and that could actually be the best possible thing for Forest. Defensively, we know how strong they were last season. Dyche is proven, he won\u2019t listen to the crowd, and he will get the job done. <\/p>\n

Before concluding: \u201cI don\u2019t see any problem with Forest here. Fully expect them to win and draw everyone else back into a hotly contested relegation battle. 2-0.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DanielPhoto by Ryan Pierse\/Getty ImagesLeeds United and Nottingham Forest are two of the Premier League\u2019s worst in front of goal<\/p>\n

Games between two teams battling against relegation are often cagey affairs, and the Opta<\/a> statistics from Leeds and Forest\u2019s seasons to date show that these two teams have a problem in front of goal. <\/p>\n

With both Leeds striker Dominic Calvert-Lewin<\/a> and his Nottingham Forest counterpart, Chris Wood, doubtful for the game, whichever team holds their nerve in the final third could secure the three points.<\/p>\n

After 10 games, Forest have the second-worst goals v expected goals differential in the competition, having scored 4.42 goals fewer than expected. Leeds are hot on their heels in third, with a differential of -3.38. <\/p>\n\nMetric<\/td>\nLeeds<\/td>\nNottm Forest<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nGoals<\/td>\n9<\/td>\n7<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nExpected Goals<\/td>\n12.38<\/td>\n11.42<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nxG Differential<\/td>\n-3.38<\/td>\n-4.42<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nShots<\/td>\n122<\/td>\n117<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nShots on Target<\/td>\n35<\/td>\n37<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\nConversion rate<\/td>\n7.38%<\/td>\n5.98%<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Forest also have the worst shot conversion rate in the Premier League at just 5.98%. Leeds also rank third by this metric, with a conversion rate of 7.38%.<\/p>\n

Based on these pre-game stats, the game could feature a lot of missed chances. However, sometimes the stats are wrong, and Leeds can find their groove in front of goal; they could leave Nottingham with a first top-flight win since the Don Revie era<\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Merson believes Leeds United are in a \u201cworrying\u201d position as they prepare to face Nottingham Forest in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":557128,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,393,4884,1860,9683,101,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-557127","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-leeds","12":"tag-paul-merson","13":"tag-premier-league","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115513807015135028","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=557127"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/557127\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/557128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=557127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=557127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=557127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}