'Self-criticism' all Leeds United manager Daniel Farke can guarantee ahead of decisive weekend — Yorkshire Post 30/4/24
Daniel Farke is unable to give any guarantees to Leeds United's supporters about what they will see on Saturday, but the manager has promised plenty of soul-searching on his part before then.
By Stuart Rayner
Quite what Leeds will be facing at home to Southampton will
be spelt out on Tuesday night, when Ipswich Town are at Coventry City.
A point against the FA Cup semi-finalists will take the
Tractor Boys into the final weekend of the season in the second automatic
promotion place, knowing a win at home to already-relegated Huddersfield Town
will see them follow Leicester City into the Premier League.
Lose, and Leeds will simply have to match Ipswich's weekend
result to go up.
But confidence was shaken by a desperately poor performance
in their last match, a 4-0 defeat at Queens Park Rangers. It was a display
Leeds fans arguably have not seen under Farke and will not want to again, least
of all on Saturday.
"You can never give guarantees in football," he
said. "I can't guarantee we'll finish with 93 points and hammer
Southampton 5-0 because Southampton are a really good side.
"What I can assure people is we will talk about it and
be self-critical."
Farke has had his fair share of criticism from angst-ridden
Leeds fans since the Loftus Road defeat. His failure to make changes until the
63rd minute despite admitting his side could not do the basics at all in the
first 20 fed into the critique that he is too slow to change course when things
are not going to plan.
He also questioned whether he should have introduced more
experience in the absence of Patrick Bamford, with a bruised knee.
"Especially sometimes in the crunch periods of the
season it's beneficial to have a bit of experience on the pitch and many
players who have perhaps delivered in similar situations,” he argued.
"We had quite a bit of experience on the bench. Perhaps
it was possible to bring Liam Cooper on."
