Leeds United's full-time dressing room message as Farke analyses 'punishment' for danger he saw coming — YEP 1/3/25
By Graham Smyth
Leeds United boss Daniel Farke believes a 1-1 draw with West
Bromwich Albion will be a beneficial 'punishment' for his players.
The Whites followed up late wins against top four sides
Sunderland and Sheffield United with a point against the sixth-placed Baggies
to stretch their unbeaten run to 17 games. Having started on the front foot and
gone into an early lead through Junior Firpo's second headed goal in as many
games, Farke could sense his team were seeking too much enjoyment and playing
'posing' passes rather than the simple options so he knew there was real peril
of an equaliser. It duly arrived when Darnell Furlong was left unmarked to
produce the season's first headed goal against the Whites.
Speaking to his players in the dressing room straight after
the game Farke addressed how costly it can be if they do not stay 100 per cent
focused, but he was more pleased to do so after a draw than he would have been
had they lost the game.
"I've addressed it straight away in the dressing room
that you take also the experience," he said. "We spoke a lot even
before this game that it's important that we start on the front foot. But to be
honest, I'm not sure how often it was since I took over the regime, but the
feeling is, whenever we go and lead, we never lose the game. And normally we
always win it. And if you just have this experience and how costly it could be
sometimes, once you lead and you allow yourself to give two per cent less
concentration and less focus, if you never feel the punishment, then it's more
like, yeah, the manager can speak about it we'll do it anyway, we can also live
with 98 per cent. So this is quite a good experience, I rather have the
experience with the outcome of a draw instead of a loss. So for that, we take
the positives also out of this game, and it was still something we have
addressed, that if we will be in a similar situation again during the season,
and we go and lead and find it easy, don't underestimate a situation, because
in one second in the game of football, the momentum can change a lot."
Farke insisted he was not frustrated with the performance
because Leeds did start well and then having lost momentum, won it back and
created chances to win it in the second half, but the German admitted to a
measure of disappointment.
"Obviously we're used to winning games, especially home
games and of course we want to win so of course you're a bit
disappointed," he said. "But sometimes you have to live with a draw.
I was a bit nervous after many emotional games, big wins and a quick turnaround
if we would be on it. From the first second we were, scored a fantastic goal
and had good situations to bury the game. The second danger was lurking a
little bit. You have to invest so much and be at your best in recent games, then
sun is shining, everyone in a good mood and you score early and think thank God
it's an easier game. We allowed ourselves to enjoy ourselves a bit, went for
the most complicated pass, went into duels and invested just 98 per cent and
then a good side like West Brom is able to get a foot back into the door. Of
course it was a bit lucky they equalised out of a set-piece with a great
header, but you could see it coming. We didn't fight with the knife between the
teeth, concentrated to be there with a tidy pass. We played a bit
overconfident. By doing this we lost a bit the dominance and control and they
probably deserved to equalise."