Leeds 1-2 Aston Villa ANALYSIS: Why Daniel Farke's future at Elland Road feels distinctly ominous after another defeat - and the lesson he must learn to save his job

The man who had tried his hardest to foster a siege mentality found himself under siege as he solemnly trudged alone in the rain.

‘Us against the world,’ had been Daniel Farke’s message to Leeds United’s crowd ahead of game that carried huge personal significance but, after two quite magnificent goals from Morgan Rogers, you couldn’t help but feel it was now a case of ‘him against them’ for the embattled manager.

You can sense when the walls are closing in and while it would be wrong to say the enmity towards him is universal, the chants from The Kop End of 'make a sub!' and 'you don’t know what you’re doing!' was like a Roman emperor turning down his thumb, sanctioning the end for a gladiator.

Can Farke survive? This was defeat number five in the last six Premier League games and for someone who found clouds gathering above him in the summer before a ball had even been kicked, it feels distinctly ominous. When the locals make up their mind, they don’t tend to be turned.

‘This is a question I am not worried about,’ Farke replied, when asked if he had heard the singing. ‘If you cannot handle the heat, you do not become manager of Leeds United. We have a passionate fanbase and I do not want to change this, ever. I feel (frustrated) exactly like them.’

Quite how the board and the ownership group feel, with Leeds limping into three fixtures against Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool, remains to be seen but you have to admire Farke, whose resilience and determination to keep putting one foot in front of the other won’t be shaken.

If you look closely, you can understand why. Occasionally you watch a team fresh out of the Championship and their deficiencies are glaring but Leeds don’t make you think they are a boat spluttering along with a hole in its hull. They are, simply, a little naive and lack a little quality.

‘Our problem is that we cannot expect to score three or four goals all the time to win a game,’ Farke bemoaned and you could understand his frustration. On another day, Leeds get through the first 15 minutes of the second half with a clean sheet and chisel out a win.

To think it had all started with such promise. Elland Road remains one of the country’s most atmospheric venues, the kind of place that shakes when the locals are in the mood, and they did their level best to unhinge Villa. It all seemed to be working, too.

There they were, seven minutes in, and a looping free-kick from Sean Longstaff arrived at the back post, Gabriel Gudmundsson kept it alive and Emi Martinez looked like he was trying to play beach volleyball as he tried to clear his lines under pressure from Anton Stach.

Some still want to trumpet the idea Martinez is the best goalkeeper in the division but his leaps are as theatrical as a dancer in the Royal Ballet and he was deservedly punished for this indecision, as Ezri Konsa’s clearance cannoned into Lukas Nmecha and bounced back into the net.

Fortunately, Martinez atoned late in the game with a fine stop from a Pascal Struijk header but, in this moment, Lucas Digne flung his arms up in the air in disgust and Unai Emery had the confused look of a man who had been asked to solve long multiplication without a calculator.

The only number that mattered to Farke, though, was the one on the scoreboard. Protecting it – and adding to it – was going to be laced with difficulties but, for 45 minutes, they did it with conviction. Whatever you want to say about the manager’s situation, his players remain invested in his methods.

If they weren’t, Jayden Bogle wouldn’t have made the kind of challenge on Emi Buendia that sounded like a cannon being fired or Gudmundsson wouldn’t have ran 70 yards like a bullet train, speeding towards goal, knocking claret-and-blue obstacles out of his way.

The lesson from this encounter, however, is that the established teams will leap back off the floor if you don’t put them out for the count. Emery, a force of nature, has totally transformed Villa’s campaign and has chivvied all his difference-makers back to form.

His switch at half-time, in which he introduced Donyell Malen for the ineffective Buendia, was transformative as, suddenly, there was pace all over the pitch and Leeds were pulled into the areas they didn’t want to be; 126 seconds after the restart the landscaped changed.

What a way they did it. Malen’s cross, having been found by Matty Cash, was adroitly steered in by Rogers from an absurdly tight angle. This was the kind of finish by a man who knows he is one of his country’s finest performers, full of improvisation and wit.

‘Always he plays well,’ said Emery, never a man who gives a compliment easily. ‘He does his task and he is versatile across different positions. He showed that he is angry to score. Being angry he scored two goals, focusing on how he could get numbers. He did it, helping the team.’

And how. The first was a masterpiece, the second was sumptuous – a free-kick that dipped and dived and sped into Leeds’s net, having the same effect as a right hook that lands square on the jaw. Try as they might, Leeds could not recover. Whether Farke can climb off the canvas remains to be seen.