Farke must axe 4/10 Leeds star with fewer touches than Darlow

Leeds United fans must dread the business end of any season with the Whites now out of the coveted top two positions in the Championship, as just six games of the regular campaign remain.

Indeed, last season saw this exact same doomed scenario play out as Daniel Farke’s men had to settle for a place in the second tier play-offs, with a 1-1 draw away at Luton Town on Saturday lunchtime meaning Burnley leapfrogged the underperformers to the very top of the division.

There is still time to salvage some pride and points, but Farke will be scratching his head as to what side he should play moving forward, having boldly axed both Illan Meslier and Brenden Aaronson for the trip to Kenilworth Road.

Farke’s bold team selection vs Luton

Both Meslier and Aaronson being dropped for the same game shows off how irked the German is by Leeds’ notable dip in form, with the Frenchman starting 39 of his team’s clashes this season in the Championship, alongside his American counterpart only missing three games from the start.

Those rash alterations didn’t pay off against the Hatters, unfortunately, with stand-in goalkeeper Karl Darlow unable to keep a clean sheet in place of Meslier, after Isaiah Jones was left unmarked to tap home this early first-half strike.

Moreover, Leeds’ overall attacking game wasn’t enhanced by Aaronson sitting out, with the likes of Joel Piroe unable to fire a single shot on the Luton goal, away from Daniel James thankfully thundering home the away side’s equaliser.

But, it was Aaronson’s direct replacement on the day in Wilfried Gnonto that looked way off the pace away from mentions of the misfiring Dutchman, with the Italian perhaps one who could face the boot in a similar manner in crunch clashes to come.

Why Farke could now drop 4/10 Leeds star

Despite only starting 21 of his 37 Championship appearances this season, Gnonto has managed to regularly provide the goods for his promotion-chasing outfit.

The explosive 21-year-old attacker has helped himself to a sizeable 11 goal contributions from those limited starts, but the often electric number 29 was largely anonymous on the road on Saturday, leading to Farke’s men looking rather limp when marauding forward.

Gnonto’s performance in numbers
Stat	Gnonto
Minutes played	63
Goals scored	0
Assists	0
Touches	23
Accurate passes	13/15 (87%)
Shots	0
Accurate crosses	0/1
Accurate long balls	0/1
Successful dribbles	0
Total duels won	4/8
Stats by Sofascore

Shockingly, Gnonto would end up amassing fewer touches during the contest than back-up shot-stopper Darlow, with the former FC Zurich forward managing just 23 touches of the ball next to the Welshman’s 38.

On top of that – much like the heavily criticised Piroe – Gnonto would also fail to register any meaningful effort on Thomas Kaminski’s net, alongside failing to register a single accurate cross, long ball or dribble to further reinforce his passenger-like offering.

He could well find he’s out of his manager’s starting XI when Leeds face off against play-off chasing Middlesbrough this mid-week, with Aaronson perhaps in line to return to the first-team fold subsequently.

Handed a low 4/10 rating post-match by Leeds Live journalist Isaac Johnson, Gnonto was just unable to grab the contest by the scruff of its neck, as yet another poor result was tallied up next to Leeds’ name to damage their automatic promotion bid even more.

It’s up to Farke now to inspire his bruised troops to leap back into those golden top two positions, with more fearless alterations potentially needing to be made to try and get a tune out of his low-on-confidence side.