Farke provides candid take on Pochettino’s approach to Aaronson in Mexico clash

Brenden Aaronson stayed with the U.S. men’s national team for both friendlies during this FIFA international window. On Saturday, the 23-year-old made his first two starts under new manager Mauricio Pochettino.

Aaronson played 78 minutes in the 2-0 win over Panama this past weekend, registering two shots and one key pass. He also had 27 touches and completed 14 of his 16 passes, achieving an 88 percent pass completion rate. The midfielder struggled to win his duels, winning only two of eight.

In the second friendly which was a 2-0 loss to Mexico, Aaronson played 90 minutes, making 60 touches with three key passes. He also completed 20 of 30 passes for 67 percent completion percentage while winning eight of 15 ground duels.

Ahead of the anticipated clash against Sheffield United, Leeds manager Daniel Farke spoke about whether Aaronson will be fit to play 90 minutes and noted that he wasn’t happy with Mauricio Pochettino playing the Leeds standout the entire game against Mexico.

“Of course I would have wished that he [Aaronson] did not play 90 minutes,” Farke said (h/t LeedsUnited.News). “But what can we do, we adapt to the situation. It’s the right of the national country to play him as much as they want.

“For Mauricio [Pochettino] it’s his first international break, although it was just a friendly it was an important game they wanted to win. It’s also a sign of trust that we’ve done something right and Brenden has done something right that he wanted him to play the whole 93 minutes.

“I also totally understand every manager in his first days in charge to be there with the best possible results. A bit selfish for us, I would have wished less minutes and less load. The good thing with Brenden is he’s on a top fitness level and pretty sure we can involve him on Friday.

“The question is how long. We make a late decision in these terms once he’s back and we’ve assessed him. No accusations, every coach wants to be successful. More credit to our work that he has this role, it says a lot about his development.”