Leeds United boss Daniel Farke explains big post-win declaration and substitution decision difficulty — YEP 17/1/26

By Graham Smyth

The Leeds United manager saw his side win late on against Fulham on Saturday.

Leeds United boss Daniel Farke declared the win over Fulham the Whites' best of the Premier League season so far after late injury blows before the game.

Leeds were well worth the victory, even if it took stoppage time to secure it. They created enough chances to win the game but were wasteful in both halves. Brenden Aaronson squandered a one-on-one with the keeper in a first half that saw Leeds put pressure on for a spell, sandwiched by two more even periods. In the second half only one side looked likely to create anything and it was the hosts. Gabriel Gudmundsson shot wide from a great position, Dominic Calvert-Lewin did too but Leeds persisted. Farke went for it with an attacking double change and one of the men he brought on grabbed the winner. Ethan Ampadu's cross was volleyed home by Lukas Nmecha to send Elland Road into raptures.

The context around the game, including the loss of Anton Stach and Jaka Bijol to injury, gave Farke reason to hold this win right up there against any other in the campaign.

"Out of many reasons," he said. "Of course, first home game against Everton is massive or a win against big names. Today we faced an in-form Fulham side delivering results after results. We fully deserved it, we didn't give one good chance away, we stayed relentless to the end, we delivered a clean sheet at home, the first since August I think. Late heartbreak against Newcastle and then today we were there with a late goal. We lost the first fixture in a similar way. After sucker punches, difficult decisions, two of our key players, Jaka and Anton in the last session were there with injuries, where the expectations are a bit higher at home against Fulham, to deliver, when other results perhaps don't go in your favour, it's a great feeling, great mentality and self belief. Fantastic day."

Farke admitted he had to think carefully about going too offensive with his second half changes, but deep down he wanted to send a message about Leeds' intentions.

"I was hoping [the win was there for the taking] but it was difficult," he said. "Normally clean sheet and draw against Fulham is also not a bad result. Ilia's [Gruev] defensive awareness was crucial today. Jayden [Bogle] interpreted his role in a really good way, first game back after injury. To take them off and bring another striker on and a creative midfield player, I had my doubts. It was quite risky. But the gut feeling is we wanted to go for it and to send the message, although we have missed chances, we will be rock solid and we'll score this goal we need. That Lukas is in the spotlight and scored in a fantastic manner is fantastic."

The Leeds boss was visibly frustrated with the officiating during the game and was most animated when Harry Wilson hacked down Gudmundsson to intentionally foil a dangerous Leeds counter. But it was an incident in the first half that irked him most.

"It was a tactical foul but it's not that he's scared to injure someone but I'm not the type of manager who asks for red cards after a game, especially not about such a talented player like Harry Wilson," he said.

"I was a bit more annoyed with the scene with Ethan, he misjudged the situation with the referee [to get a yellow for throwing the ball away] and Lukic intentionally played the ball away on a yellow card [but didn't get a second one]. There was a lack of consistency. This was a bit more annoying."