Daniel Farke proud of mentality of his players as Leeds United make it seven unbeaten with Manchester United draw
Daniel Farke was happy to take a point, but believed his Leeds United side could have had all three in their first game of 2026 at home to hated rivals Manchester United.
A more low key meeting of the two teams than usual ended with honours even at 1-1 as Leeds made it seven games unbeaten – all against sides in the top half of the league – and inched eight points clear of the bottom three.
Brenden Aaronson put the Whites ahead in the second half, but they only held onto the lead for three minutes in a game that proved fairly even.
"First of all I have to say I'm proud of my lads," said manager Farke.
"It was tricky circumstances, we had to go over the line two-and-a-half days ago at Liverpool. Several key players out, not available.
“People tell you how big it is (playing Manchester United), lots of expectation. I'm very proud of the mentality of my players to show resilience.
“For Seb, JJ and Ilia it was not possible to start today but they had to start today, no-one was available in their positions and they showed another good performance again.
“It was probably not our best, but we found a way to be competitive. Our defensive behaviour was spot on.
“We came close to winning it after a well taken goal. There's a light disappointment we didn't take all three. The equaliser was of course very unnecessary.
“This says a lot if you're seven games unbeaten and are disappointed with just a draw against Man United with many missing. The feeling was there to win this game. I'm not over the moon with the result but with the mentality of my lads."
Farke was unhappy with the way his team conceded the equaliser.
He added: "It's disappointing. Normally I don't like to speak about individual mistakes, it was obvious Lucas took the wrong decision and came off his line. It's probably not even a chance, he's running away from goal. Jaka and Seb were with him. He opened the goal.
“Otherwise we probably would have won it because we didn't allow much more than this situation. You have to take decisions in the game, this was probably a wrong one.
“We win, lose and draw together. He was there with a good save in the first half. It's a split-second decision."
The game took some time to come to life although an early headed effort from Manuel Ugarte looped over for the visitors and Dominic Calvert-Lewin shot over following a smart break by Leeds.
Diogo Dalot sent a shot over in a crowded box after the Whites struggled to clear a corner and Aaronson's great run ended with him shooting weakly wide from the edge of the box. It was even stuff despite the places between the teams in the Premier League table.
It was Leeds who came closest to a goal in the first half when Calvert-Lewin met Anton Stach's cross with a superb glancing header only to see the ball come back off the post with visitors keeper Senne Lammens only able to watch and hope.
But towards the end of the half there was more threat at the other end as Leny Yoro saw his header tipped over by Lucas Perri, Matheus Cunha volleyed over and Patrick Dorgu's shot from the edge of the box went wide to the relief of home fans.
The second half brought more goalmouth action with Gabriel Gudmundsson's angled shot having to be well saved by Lammens after the home left-back had followed up his own long throw that had not been cleared.
Ugarte shot wide at the other end before the moment the Whites had been waiting for arrived just past the hour mark. Aaronson chased a loose ball and took advantage of hesitant defending to get clean through then finished brilliantly to open the scoring.
Reds boss Ruben Amorim responded by abandoning his team's back three system and the response was immediate as they equalised.
They had tried to get in behind the home backline all game and finally played the right pass as Cunha raced through. Keeper Perri could maybe have done better to get closer to the through ball or stayed on his line and was left stranded as the expensive Manchester signing rolled the ball past him into the net.
Now it was Leeds' turn to respond and it needed a fine save from Lammens to deny Noah Okafor after his overhead kick sent the ball towards the corner of the net.
Benjamin Sesko put a good chance wide for the visitors and Cunha came close to his second with a shot that clipped the outside of the post.
However, Leeds came up with a big finish after attacking changes were made and substitute Joel Piroe came agonisingly close to winning it with a chip that Lammens could only watch as it nestled on top of the net instead of inside it.
Further good moves were thwarted as Lukas Nmecha did not make the most of a superb pass from Ao Tanaka, another Piroe effort was blocked and Stach smacked a volley wide from 25 yards out.
(Aaronson 62)
Manchester United 1
(Cunha 65)
Sunday, January 4, 2026
Premier League
Attendance: 36,909
Leeds: Perri; Bornauw (Gnonto 80), Bijol, Struijk; Justin, Gruev (Tanaka 80), Stach, Aaronson (Piroe 87), Gudmundsson; Okafor (Nmecha 75), Calvert-Lewin.
Man Utd: Lammens; Heaven, Yoro (Zirkzee 63), Martinez; Dalot, Casemiro, Ugarte, Shaw; Dorgu, Cunha; Sesko.
Referee: Jarred Gillett.