Daniel Farke on derby 'fireworks' and welfare of star men after half-time reports — YEP 28/10/23
Leeds United boss Daniel Farke saw something close to perfection in his side’s ‘electrifying offensive fireworks’ en route to a 4-1 derby win over Huddersfield Town.
By Graham Smyth
Farke’s men roared into a 4-0 lead in a scintillating first
half, the gulf in class between the hosts and their visitors made abundantly
clear as Daniel James and Crysencio Summerville scored twice each. Georginio
Rutter was involved in so much of the Whites’ best work and the back four were
rarely troubled – Joe Rodon providing one vital intervention to halt
Huddersfield’s most promising chance.
The second half was a more underwhelming affair with the
game won and Huddersfield sitting deep to try and stem the tide, but the
Terriers did at least spoil the clean sheet with Michał Helik’s goal.
Farke stopped short of describing the first half performance
as perfection but admitted it was not far off: “First of all I think you could
see how much it meant to our players to win the local derby and show a reaction
to a disappointing result at Stoke, we did it in a perfect manner. It was an
electrifying first half, we were all over them. It was not perfect, I got the
feeling we don't make enough out of our dominance but if you're 4-0 up at
half-time you can't complain too much.
"We allowed them a bit too much to cross into our box
and once or twice they were in behind our backs, sometimes we played with a bit
too much altruism but I didn't want to stop my lads in the first half. There
were situations and periods where our game management could be a bit better but
there were spells when you could say this was best practice. The fourth goal
felt like 500 passes, we were so calm to exhaust them with our possession and
then to find the right moment to speed up the game, with a perfect give and go
with Rutter and Byram. There were spells when it came pretty close to our ideal
picture. We're pretty pleased with this result and performance.”
On the more sedate second half showing, Farke pointed to the
importance of managing minutes for key players and felt the toll of a hectic
week came into play: “Third game in seven days, one day less to recover, the
players were back in the early hours of Thursday morning, it’s always difficult
with a Saturday early kick-off. We wanted to be smarter in our game management
in the second half. We wanted to control the game a bit more. We did this with
80 per cent possession in the second half. Sadly we didn't have this energy to
attack the same any more. It was also due to managing the minutes.
"But the electrifying offensive firework was also good
for the confidence. The next two days is also important after a busy schedule,
especially for our international players, to allow them to enjoy this feeling a
little bit. The next game [Leicester away] will be a different game, needing
different solutions.”
Farke rang the changes after the midweek loss at Stoke City,
bringing James, Summerville, Glen Kamara and Jamie Shackleton into the side.
Archie Gray was given a rest, Shackleton slotting in at right-back, and Ilia
Gruev, Jaidon Anthony and Willy Gnonto all dropped back onto the bench.
Summerville repaid his manager with a stunning attacking display but he, like
Joe Rodon, was protected in the second half.
"Cree and Sam were reporting minor muscle problems at
half-time, we didn't want to take any risks,” he said.
"Joe Rodon felt something in his hamstring, not an
injury, but I had to take him out. Joe didn't want to risk anything, I don't
think it's a major injury. We'll calm the load a bit and we have a bit more
time until we play on Friday evening. All three of them, Sam, Cree and Joe will
all hopefully be available. I'm quietly confident.”