12:00, 21 Dec 2025<\/p>\n
![\"Daniel](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_GettyImages-2252871175.jpg\")
Daniel Farke greets fans as he arrives at Elland Road on Saturday(Image: Ed Sykes\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Three weeks ago, Leeds United\u2019s survival prospects looked bleak.<\/p>\n
Three weeks ago, Daniel Farke was seemingly on the brink of losing his job and probably any chances of managing in the Premier League again. But three weeks ago, there was an epiphany at the Etihad.<\/p>\n
There are sliding-door moments in every season and Farke<\/a>\u2019s came just in the nick of time. Many fans had called for the three-at-the-back formation for a while. After a spirited comeback and narrow, late loss to Manchester City in the second half, Farke insisted that it just wasn\u2019t “that easy\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s not like Playstation,\u201d he said. Whatever the case, Leeds<\/a> fans are enjoying themselves again<\/a> after toying with Crystal Palace. Farke has cracked the code. For now, anyway.<\/p>\n The season is not even half way and there is still a long way to go. United sat 13th in the 2022\/23 campaign but ended it being relegated. Teams will figure out how best to circumnavigate Farke\u2019s wing-back system in time, or try to, and new challenges will crop up.<\/p>\n But for now, Leeds and Farke can be allowed to relax in some Christmas cheer. He could well have been sitting on his sofa looking for his next job on the big day but he is instead looking to size up his next victim, with his team six points above the drop zone.<\/p>\n They say black cats denote bad luck but Sunderland are riding high this season. Yet they will be hampered by their six player exits due to AFCON and so there is opportunity there. And with United\u2019s current form, anything is possible.<\/p>\n Huge credit has to go to Farke for this turnaround. Chairman Paraag Marathe says the German’s calm-headed nature is very much his \u201csuperpower\u201d and that has proven to be true. There have been on-pitch wobbles but Farke has shown no cracks in his resilience off it.<\/p>\n And what\u2019s more, he has firmly answered critics. The 49-year-old had been accused of being too rigid – something he always refuted – but either way, his formation change has combatted that claim.<\/p>\n Farke has also eaten into his trend of waiting too long to make substitutes. Jaka Bijol and Dominic Calvert-Lewin changed the game from half-time at Man City.<\/p>\n Noah Okafor made the goal that saw Leeds go 3-1 up against Chelsesa. Brenden Aaronson, Wilfried Gnonto and Ao Tanaka inspired the double comeback against Liverpool. Gnonto also provided the assist for the equaliser at Brentford.<\/p>\n There was all the while the understandable overarching theory that Farke was too good for the Championship but not cut out for the Premier League, and that looked to be true up until the Man City trip. He is also going some way to dissolving that accusation too.<\/p>\n Towards the end of last season, the first chants of Daniel Farke were heard from the terraces. Some would later chant \u201cmake a sub\u201d at him during the defeat to Aston Villa. The lack of reaction amid empty seats at full-time was more worrying.<\/p>\n Now, all are staying behind the join in with the three arm-raise cheers after full-time again. This is a results-based game and given the “emotion” of the fan base – as Farke describes it – with relegation on the line, this is understandable, natural and fine.<\/p>\n Hard-working supporters that spend their hard-earned cash during a hard financial climate, and they have that right to vent whatever they wish to. It is up to the millionaire gladiators to impress the mere mortals.<\/p>\n These last three weeks have twisted that kaleidoscope into a new, more beautiful pattern than the grim outlook that once was – from thumbs down to thumbs up. Simply put, faith in Farke is back.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It’s been quite a few weeks for Daniel’s Farke’s fortunes – and future Isaac Johnson Leeds United reporter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":646504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,1385,393,4884,1860,24464,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-646503","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-daniel-farke","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-leeds","13":"tag-leeds-united-fc","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115758317897096328","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646503","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=646503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/646503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/646504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=646503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=646503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=646503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Dominic](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/0_GettyImages-2252890584.jpg\")
Dominic Calvert-Lewin embraces Daniel Farke(Image: Shaun Botterill\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n