Farke expected a ‘bumpy start’ at Leeds – but could it have gone much better so far? — The Athletic 12/11/23
By Phil Hay
“I’m realistic to know it will be tough. (The fans) are not
dreamers. They know we have to achieve this step by step. It’s not just coming
to us. I expect perhaps a little bit of a bumpy start. Within this period, we
need even bigger unity and togetherness in the club than we ever had in order
to keep the train going.”
The unveiling of managers at Leeds United, that
new-broom-in-front-of-the-media ritual, never follows an exact template.
It could be Dennis Wise, dripping in Chelsea and mob-handed
with Ken Bates, Gustavo Poyet and Gwyn Williams behind him. Or David Hockaday
in the shadow of Massimo Cellino, unable to get a word in edgeways. Or Marcelo
Bielsa, with the stamina to talk for an hour and more. Or Gary McAllister, who
simply didn’t bother.
Daniel Farke kept his introduction at the low-key end of the
scale in July, tucked away in a lounge on floor four of Elland Road’s East
Stand, with no live broadcast and just a small collection of journalists
present. As a method of managing hype, the limited exposure did the trick; so
did Farke’s rhetoric, walking the line and realising that over-promising on
impact would be worse than gently under-selling events to come.
There was plenty said in half an hour of conversation but
nothing more prophetic than the quote at the beginning of this piece, the
little warning that the crowd at Leeds might have to continue hating football a
little longer before they learned to love it again.
A line like that tests the restraint of a fanbase, to be
told that for a while yet this cargo ship will be like the Ever Given in the
Suez Canal a couple of years ago. No one is digging it out of the silt
overnight.
But there was some carrot with the stick; the reassurance
that through a bit of patience, the closing of the transfer window and some
time to remaster the basics of operating like a club with a brain, life would
come good.
And here Leeds are, with order restored, margins in their
favour and the last international break before the long slog to the middle of
March giving them cause to smile.
The greed of football would rather have top two, the spots
that bring automatic promotion, than top three in the Championship table. The
greed of football would rather not have the nervousness that stalked the latter
stages of Saturday’s 2-1 home win against Plymouth Argyle. But from the end of
August onwards, could it really have been a whole lot better than this? At the
outset, could Farke have asked for more?
He found himself talking pre-match about the Championship’s
manager of the month award and the fact he never received it in his time at
Norwich City, their two EFL titles under him notwithstanding.
Farke’s mind failed him because he did win it, once, in
November 2018, but he is putting himself in the reckoning again and, for all
the strings Leeds have to their bow, nothing is more compelling than their
efficiency: eight games at Elland Road without defeat and 18 points taken from
them; seven wins from nine fixtures and six in the past seven; points coming at
pretty much two a game, goals conceded at just one a game and the gap to the
very top of the division down to eight points.
He was asked to make a comparison with his Norwich teams,
and they are easy enough to draw. “I’d be concerned if you couldn’t see my
handwriting on it,” Farke replied, without pretending the situations were
identical.
We keep building😁💙💛 see
you all after the break pic.twitter.com/iuVYTPmH3K
— Ethan Ampadu (@ethanamp26) November 11, 2023
Leeds are not exactly new to the concept of allowing a
manager to know what he is going to get from them week-to-week.
Last season, it was a relatively safe bet that the average
game would deliver sleepless nights to Jesse Marsch, Javi Gracia and Sam
Allardyce. But Farke has reached the point now where, in large parts, Leeds are
reassuringly predictable at a stage of the football year where stamina is
everything and consistent quality is all a coach wants.
His side have a small tendency to blow cold from nowhere,
and it happened again in the second half yesterday, but until they let Plymouth
back into the game, conceding from 2-0 up with six minutes left, they had the
guise of the confident marathon runner, bedding in for part of the race no one
really remembers.
Plymouth made the long trip up from Devon to Yorkshire with
a plan — and a sensible one at that. The problem with visiting Elland Road
since the end of September’s international break is that, to dredge up one of
boxing’s more famous sayings, everyone has a plan until they get punched in the
face. Or everyone has a plan until mistakes in their own half or around their
own box sell organisation and discipline down the river.
Kaine Kesler-Hayden was hustled out of a clearance in the
21st minute and Dan James banged the loose ball in. Crysencio Summerville and
Joel Piroe came at Plymouth’s defence with turnover possession seven minutes
later and the latter tucked a shot away.
This is how to keep a season ticking over, with victories in
the bread-and-butter fixtures that every promoted side without fail takes
advantage of routinely.
Plymouth, though, were brave and game and, according to
their manager Steven Schumacher, should have had a penalty for a tackle by
Ethan Ampadu before half-time. Leeds fumbled in search of a third, lining their
visitors up repeatedly before shooting the gun into their own foot.
Ben Waine then pulled one back at the end of a delicious
cross and this was how it used to be at Elland Road, a pitch loaded with
tripwires which should have been defused earlier. “I have to praise us after
(Plymouth’s) goal,” Farke said, “because we didn’t give away one more chance.”
This match had worried him beforehand, he said, because the
acclaim for the performance at Leicester a week earlier had been weighty, and
Leeds, quite honestly, are only just reacquainting themselves with the feeling
of having nice things said about them.
“I take these three points all day long,” Farke said,
admitting that he wondered if a sucker-punch was in Saturday morning’s post.
If this is what he saw a bumpy start leading to, Elland Road
can take plenty more of it.
