Leeds United manager Daniel Farke has had enough of the scrutiny towards American midfielder Brenden Aaronson.
Aaronson is still seeking his first goal contribution of the 2025-26 English Premier League season after helping the Lilywhites earn promotion back to the top flight last spring. The U.S. men’s national team midfielder has struggled to deliver in the final third so far this season, logging six appearances to date.
Despite scoring a career-best nine goals in the EFL Championship last season, many Leeds United fans have questioned Aaronson’s abilities, wondering if he truly still has a place in the squad against tougher opposition.
Farke, who has worked with Aaronson since 2023, admits that the 24-year-old needs to make better final-third decisions, but also believes the criticism from fans won’t help him improve.
“It’s important to not put too much weight on his shoulders,” Farke said about Aaronson to reporters. “Sometimes the feeling with Brenden is that we are a bit over-critical in public. We know Brenden has challenges in his offensive game in terms of decision-making, being a bit clearer and more straight-forward. This is something we speak a lot about.
“It’s not like I press a button and do my magic and he’s a completely different player,” Farke added. “In training we bring him more into positions where he has to take decisions. It’s not like he is not willing to score or not highly motivated. Sometimes because he is so on it he is perhaps losing a bit of his calmness. But it’s not helpful if everyone is always criticizing him.”
Aaronson logged his longest outing this season in Leeds’ 3-1 road league victory over Wolves last Saturday. Whether or not he remains in the starting lineup for this weekend’s showdown with Bournemouth remains to be seen, but one thing for sure is, it doesn’t look like Farke will be giving up on Aaronson anytime soon.
anyone see him play today? excellent shift, in the middle of many chances including a goal, worked his tail off of course. got a nice ovation when subbed off
Rarely has needing your Dad to tell the boys to stop bullying strengthened ones standing. Some things you kind of have to handle on your own. There’s a fair share of Leeds fans who are bitter to the core- will never be won over. Offering something beyond the effort merchant we all know he is would go a long way. It did last year to an extent, but many weren’t convinced he could do it at the next level. That’s a legitimate concern. Sprinkle in a some breaking passes, an occasional assist, a few PL goals and those open to supporting him will.
hey rico po, I agree with you. have you seen any games because he does offer more, just not those assist and goal stats. he has had chances I have seen to do that too. but he’s been more than an effort merchant, it’s the final 3rd specifically so far his nemesis, a little hyper back in the EPL, my take, but he hasn’t proven to himself he can yet. he’s a better player than he was the last time he was here imho, so can he make a play or two in the final 3rd this weekend to add to the rest of his game? I hope so, we’ll see hopefully. I’ve been following Bournemouth this season too
Farke: Sometimes because he is so on it he is perhaps losing a bit of his calmness.
Wow, do I get this. This is how I tend to learn a new skill. I take things in very literally and then try to implement them. In sports this looked like me being slow and clumsy as I tried to implement something new. I would be thinking so hard about doing the thing exactly the way the coach wanted me to do it that it would result in some pretty funny looking mechanical and robotic attempts. Once I managed to stopped thinking so hard about it or even after I gave up trying then results would come. I need to relax and get out of my head. I was just a lot slower to get there than the natural athletes.
Farke saying this tells me that maybe, just maybe, he actually CAN get Brendon to level up. If BA keeps getting minutes I bet he finds his stride before Boxing Day.
we’ll see, and I hope so. I’m a big BA fan, but I just don’t know that the EPL is a good fit for him. he’s best underneath a dynamic striker who moves around well imho, like Rodrigo was, they played great together, but the insane physical pounding, idk. have not seen every game this season but the ones I have it’s not like he was bad or even close to the worst player out there, and does some good things too, but the $$$ spent and the expectations with it, and leaving, the fans target him and I get it of course. Lot to overcome there in that equation for him, he’ll certainly need Farke’s support, needs a breakout game to chill the flames and earn some confidence. hope so and we’ll see
Add me to those hope so too. He’s been a family favorite ever since while watching a Spanish language broadcast the announcer called him “brendan RRRUSSELLLLL aaronson” – really stressing the Russell. Since we don’t speak Spanish it really stood out. That is always how we refer to him ever since. The kids always want him playing for the USMNT so that means I do too.
BA, Get out of your head! (if Betinho’s idea is correct).
Always been easy for English fanbase to overly criticise American players, but yes he needs to be more decisive at times, and quite frankly he wastes to much energy at times.
I don’t under4stand. He is a midfielder, not a striker. Even if he is an attacking midfielder, they don’t normally score in bunches. There are m,any things a midfielder can do besides score. Is he breaking up passes, in good positions on defense and offense, completing passes, etc., etc.? Guys like Johnny Cardoso, Luca De La Torre, and Wes McKennie aren’t scorers or even strictly defensive mids like Tyler Adams is, but they still provide value in other ways. When I was a midfielder I rarely ever shot, but often set up other people. You can’t really judge a player unless you view videos where you focus on the individual player.
Gary,
Brendan has mostly played as #10 or as a winger positions that are asked to score he isn’t playing as an 8 or a 6. Weston, Tyler, Cardoso have generally played deeper, Luca’s played a variety of roles. The big reason is he was their second most expensive signing in the Marsch era and he’s never lived up to the money. He’s also the highest profile player to leave after relegation and then come back. Harrison came back this season and is pretty well disliked as well. If he helps them stay up, he’ll win a few fans back, but not all will forgive him running for greener pastures after relegation.
Leeds fans are full of it, and let’s be honest, they’ve never really forgiven him for leaving 2 seasons ago for the Bundesliga. Willy Gnonto isn’t scoring goals that I’ve seen at this level, and Brenden had more goals than him in the Championship last season if I remember correctly, yet WG doesn’t get any criticism, neither does Dan James for that matter…..but I digress!
Ronniet,
BA cost Leeds 32 million,
Dan James cost Leeds 29.5 million
Gnoto cost Leeds 4.5 million
Fans don’t need a logical reason to hate a player; but if you do need a logical reason, return on investment is a good one.
James scored and assisted more than BA last year, Gnoto and BA were even on 9 last year. BA also only had 2g 0a in the 2025 portion of last season. When your starting #10 who played almost every minute goes half a season with 2g 0a fans have something to gripe about.