Hull City v Leeds United: 'Brutal honesty' underpinning Leeds's turnaround under the impressive Daniel Farke - Yorkshire Post 20/9/23
SUCCESSFUL modern-day managers possess old-school traits in their lockers.
By Leon Wobschall
Which brings us nicely to Daniel Farke, with the Leeds
United chief earning growing amounts of respect with the club's supporters not
just with each passing game at the minute, but also press conference.
Leeds visit Yorkshire rivals Hull City on Wednesday night,
where they are seeking to register a third successive away league win for the
first time since the end of their promotion season in 2019-20.
The German's grounded demeanour is also resonating with his
public - and more importantly with his players.
In terms of Farke's predecessors, Sam Allardyce chose to try
and take the pressure off his players in his short stint in charge.
Jesse Marsch, by contrast, was relentlessly positive and
glass is half-full whatever the situation. As for Javi Gracia? well no-one
quite knew.
Farke, for his part, is not interested in psychology. Just
plain old-fashioned honesty, even if it is 'brutal' at times.
Early days it may be, but his words are being listened to.
Those Leeds players scarred by last season's relegation are formulating a
response.
Farke said: "It's quite normal that after relegation,
there's a bit of hangover and not everyone is there with full confidence and
there's some question marks in the head.
"Especially as they had to deal with a lot of criticism
and also after relegation, it's a bit deserved. You cannot hide and must be
open, self-critical and take it on the chin and that is quite important.
"There is one solution and it's not like I come in with
an arm around the shoulder and talk to them and everything is fine. Hard work
is always the solution to gain fitness and make sure you gain confidence.
"There have been many discussions. But I don't try to
play some psychological games. It's always important to be unbelievably honest
and sometimes also to show brutal honesty and say: 'okay, this are areas we
have to improve'.
"But it's also to give them trust and also some backing
as we must not forget these are also some unbelievably young players. Some are
just one or two years older than teenagers."
After two demanding road trips, Leeds - with two days less
to prepare than their opponents - face arguably their hardest examination so
far against an upwardly-mobile Hull side who have been beaten just once at
league level on home soil since last November.
City have also not seen their colours lowered in the
Championship since the opening day.
On Hull, who have not beaten Leeds in East Yorkshire since
December 2012, the former Norwich City manager added: "I think it will be
a different game in comparison to Millwall.
"Hull are definitely a different side from the way they
play. I rate the work of Liam Rosenior very much and I liked his thoughts about
football and man-management in general.
"It's a really good possession side who ask questions,
especially with their quality in possession. Against the ball, I think we have
to be unbelievably strong, but then also to make sure our quality with the ball
and in possession still shines.
"It's a tough place and a complicated task, like each
and every Championship game.”
Farke says that Patrick Bamford's return to first-team
training is a 'major boost' for the club - but confirmed that he will not be
involved at Hull.
Bamford is yet to feature this season due to a hamstring
injury, but returned to training on Monday.
United are likely to err on the side of caution with the
forward this week and he is also unlikely to feature in Saturday's home match
with Watford as he continues to work on his fitness.
Farke expects midfielder Ethan Ampadu to be fit for the
Tigers' trip and to shrug off a knock picked up in Sunday's fine success at
Millwall.