Daniel Farke makes Leeds United fan dedication after 'risky' decision pays off with 'poetry' — YEP 29/12/24

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By Graham Smyth

Daniel Farke saluted his side’s ‘poetic’ winner as Leeds United went top of the Championship by two points with a 1-0 win over Derby County.

Leeds squandered a host of golden chances to win a second away trip on the bounce, with Brenden Aaronson, Mateo Joseph, Largie Ramazani and Daniel James all guilty of profligacy. But a beautifully-worked and patient passing move eventually broke down a stubborn Derby defence and Joel Piroe slid the ball through for Aaronson to win the game.

“In the second half my feeling was we missed too many chances to win such an away game,” said Farke. “Even before the goal we had situations with Mateo, Largie, Brenden, Joe Rodon with a free header. But then we scored for me the goal of the season, unbelievable. I put it straight away into my poetry album and this on such a difficult pitch. A perfect team move, Brenden with a perfect calm finish.”

Piroe was one of two substitutes involved in the winner, having received the ball from Manor Solomon. Both could have expected to start the game, along with Daniel James but Farke made a quartet of changes to his side in what he admitted was a risky decision.

“Of course it was risky,” he said. “If I would have known that the game plan worked exactly in this way it wouldn't have been risky. We were hoping the new lads would make sure that Derby has to work a lot, then the lads who were on fire could finish the game. That it comes 100 per cent to reality you never have a guarantee and all credit goes to how the players executed. We're playing four games in 10 days, the lads were just in bed on Friday morning at 3am or something like this. You have to use the squad a bit. Normally four changes is a lot of rotation and sometimes it doesn't pay off in a perfect way, today it did. Sometimes fortune favours the brave, that's the mantra for today.”

Leapfrogging Sheffield United, who were held by West Bromwich Albion earlier in the day, allowed Leeds to finish 2024 on top of the table but that position’s importance is more for the fans than for Farke. He said: “It's not that important where you are after 24 game days but I'm happy for our supporters. They had difficult years on Premier League level, fighting and suffering relegation. Ninety points last season but heartbreak at Wembley. We had to rebuild again, lost many of our key players but to be there with this young, new, exciting group in such a good position and to show such consistency in more or less all topics is amazing. That we're rewarded with top spot is great but more important is the points tally. Fifty-one points is an amazing effort, credit to everyone involved. But we need to keep going.”

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