'Annoying even for me' - Daniel Farke admits 'polarising' Brendan Aaronson is too 'hectic' as USMNT star continues to face abuse from Leeds fans

With the second most goal-shy attack in the Premier League through 12 games, Leeds aren't scoring enough to get the points they need to be higher up the table. Aaronson has featured in all of those fixtures, starting nine of them, supposedly as a chief source of creativity from the right.

The American has contributed one goal and one assist and is frustrating fans, many of whom have openly let him know about it. Even Farke admitted he understood it because of inconsistencies in performances, but is also keen to point out that the criticism is "more than unfair".

He said after Leeds' 2-1 defeat against Aston Villa on Sunday: "I have to say Brenden is a player who polarizes and can be annoying even for me. Sometimes he’s not clear enough and can be a bit hectic. But I have to say what we're doing in criticizing this young man - then we don't have to do all these mental health awareness days.

"He represents so many skills we want to stand for as Leeds United. He works his socks off, gives everything, is relentless and leaves his heart on the pitch. It's more than unfair at the moment. In the last three performances he was always there covering 13 kilometers per game. Why we're looking so solid on our right side - with all respect to Jayden [Bogle] - Brenden is so crucial to protect him."

Farke went on to address concern about the kind of impact that persistent criticism and abuse could ultimately have on Aaronson.

"I'm just worried how we are as a society, with social media stuff, how we are as human beings," he said. "You just see the negative comments. If you see 5,000 negative comments about yourself as a 25-year-old guy, you think the whole world is on your shoulders.

"I could make my life easy and also slam him and then everyone would say, 'Yes, Daniel, tell him, great, we don’t like him anyway.’ But I protect human beings. This is what I do. I work with human beings, I don't work with robots. I also see what this lad is doing. And he is always a fantastic team-mate. He works his socks off.

"We feel better if we can put our anger just on other human beings. I don't like it. And when everyone is on his back, for such a young lad, is it really like how we want to treat human beings in our society? At least I don't want to treat them [like that].

"So we can criticize them, and we can think, 'Okay, you should not play football games' - whatever. But also, come on, watch, judge his performances, be at least a little bit fair. And if you don't want to do this in terms of relationship, come on, be a bit respectful with a young lad of 25-years-old. And then, otherwise, we don't have to have all this mental health awareness days, and we can put it into the bin."

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Farke also staunchly defended Aaronson back in September. "It's important to not put too much weight on his shoulders. Sometimes the feeling with Brenden is that we are a bit over-critical in public,” the Leeds boss said at the time. "We know Brenden has challenges in his offensive game in terms of decision-making, being a bit clearer and more straightforward. 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. 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."

It's more promising for Aaronson that his two Premier League goal contributions so far this season have both come within the last four games. Sadly for an already struggling Leeds, things aren't about to get any easier, with Manchester City away on Saturday, followed by visits of Chelsea and Liverpool.

To avoid another relegation back to the Championship, they need to start picking up points fast.