Danke Farke as Leeds United move closer to PL survival but weak Nottingham Forest in serious trouble | OneFootball

Leeds United emerged from this ‘must not lose’ match against Nottingham Forest as comprehensive winners and took a major step towards securing Premier League survival.

Speaking pre-match, head coach Daniel Farke insisted his side only needed 12 points from their remaining 14 Premier League games to avoid relegation and to be honest, they may not even need 38 points to get over the line.

And with the mindset of just less than a point a game required to survive set internally, it would have been somewhat understandable had Leeds played within themselves and settled for another valuable draw on Friday night.

But this is a proper Leeds United side and they go about things differently. Instead, they made a statement by overpowering and comprehensively beating a direct relegation rival.

Farke has gone from being at risk of losing his job in the summer to being an early-season firm sack race favourite to now being on track to be a Premier League manager of the season candidate; he deserves a lot of credit for Leeds United’s growth this season.

Leeds have rarely looked back since switching to a wing-back system that is perfectly suited to this squad, and they have also massively increased their intensity in and out of possession, thus making life uncomfortable for their opponents as a bare minimum in matches.

The West Yorkshire side have come unstuck against certain sides with superior quality, but Forest, especially with some absent key players, are far from that.

Morgan Gibbs-White intimated before the game that he and Forest’s players were relishing the prospect of dealing with the “beautiful” Elland Road atmosphere under the lights, but the reality was very different; they were eaten alive.

With Friday’s emphatic 3-1 victory, Leeds have now won all five of their night Premier League matches on home turf this season, and these victories will ultimately play a pivotal role in them staying up.

Forest built a bit of confidence in a positive ten-minute spell, and Igor Jesus, as he does when he’s not playing in the Europa League, spurned a couple of chances to break the deadlock.

Before that, it was one-way traffic in Leeds United’s favour, and it was clear that there was only going to be one side winning this game from the moment Jayden Bogle broke the deadlock.

Leeds United’s attacking output has increased tenfold while using this system, with Gabriel Gudmundsson causing havoc from the left before Ilia Gruev’s brilliant long pass found right wing-back Bogle, following his well-timed run, to open the scoring.

Also, with James Justin as a right centre-back, Leeds can double up on that side and with Bogle’s opener giving the hosts the impetus to put Forest to the sword, the former Leicester City man advanced to create his side’s second goal for Noah Okafor mere minutes after their opener.

One of the biggest clichés in football is that a 2-0 lead is the most dangerous in football, but Leeds United’s advantage was rarely threatened, and it was game over when Dominic Calvert-Lewin broke his brief three-game goal drought to make it 3-0 shortly after the interval.

Leeds started the second half as brightly as the first and pinned Forest’s weak defence inside their own 18-yard box, with Gruev given all the time in the world to take a few touches before picking out Calvert-Lewin, who cleverly converted with his chest to reach double-figures for Premier League goals this season.

So, what could easily have been an incredibly tense evening for both sets of supporters, it proved the opposite for Leeds, while Forest will watch on nervously as 18th-placed West Ham looks to close to within three points of safety when they visit Burnley on Saturday.

With the injuries to Matz Sels, Murillo and Neco Williams forcing Sean Dyche to select a makeshift and far more fragile backline, Forest were always likely to be there for the taking for Leeds in their current form and at their beloved ground.

The resoluteness that’s usually a hallmark of a Dyche side was non-existent. They were also toothless in attack, with his pre-match assertion that his team had made “progress” during his reign currently difficult to justify.

At the moment, there looks to be very little between this Forest side and a resurgent West Ham in the fight to avoid finishing in the final relegation place.