Daniel Farke answers rotation question with Ethan Ampadu claim - YEP 22/9/23
Leeds United end a busy week with the visit of Watford to Elland Road on Saturday
By Ben McKenna
Leeds United manager Daniel Farke is not concerned by the
current demands placed on defensive midfielder Ethan Ampadu but insists he will
always aim to lighten the player’s workload when required.
The 23-year-old, who joined Leeds from Chelsea for an
undisclosed on a four-year deal in July, has played every minute of the club’s
Championship campaign so far.
He suffered a dead leg in the 3-0 win at Millwall which made
him a doubt for the midweek visit to Hull City. However, he came through the
injury scare and played the full game as Leeds drew 0-0 in East Yorkshire on
Wednesday.
Asked if he will continue select Ampadu as the games come
thick and fast, Farke stressed the midfielder is a player who can handle the
workload but insists he will never put a player’s long-term fitness at risk.
“I always have an eye on each of my players. So when I got
the feeling okay there is a player who needs a bit of protection or needs
sometimes also a rest, I will do this,” he said ahead of Saturday’s visit of
Watford.
“But Ethan is also blessed with a good body, with good
endurance, and also the ability to recover pretty quick. It’s not just a gut
feeling.
“So the experience and the gut feeling of coaches is quite
important, but we also are pretty careful with our sport science, with our
physios, with our doctors.
“If something flares up and also like the objective datas,
if he’s ready and recovered, we are quite careful. We wouldn’t take any risk.
Certainly, that’s never a guarantee that there is no injury in football, but at
the moment the good thing is for him, he has played also in the past many games
so he’s in a good rhythm.
“He had a good pre-season and for that it’s a bit easier for
him to handle the load than for example, a player like Sam Byram who has hardly
played games in the last two years so, or sometimes even a player who is a bit
older, who needs a bit more time to recover.
“He’s also a good age and young, and Welsh, that helps as
well, to recover. So, again, we will be we will be careful, but he should be
alright.”
