'Two decades' - Daniel Farke on Leicester City, Ipswich Town and topic Leeds United must address — YEP 24/10/23
Daniel Farke has provided his assessment of Leeds United's start to the season with a Championship prediction and declaration of a key topic his Whites must address.
By Lee Sobot
Farke's side began the new campaign with a haul of just two
points from their first three games but Saturday's 3-2 win at Norwich City lifted
Leeds into third place following a run of 20 points from the club's last nine.
Leeds now have four points more than Farke's title-winning Norwich City side
had at the corresponding stage of the 2018-19 Championship season and just one
point less than Marcelo Bielsa's second-tier winning Whites side had after 12
games of the 2019-20 campaign.
Farke's team have lost just one of their last ten league
games yet are still six points adrift of the automatic promotion places in
which leaders Leicester City and second-placed Ipswich Town are setting a hot
pace. The Foxes have dropped just three points all season via September's 1-0
defeat at home to Hull City whilst an Ipswich side who have a game in hand are
only five points short of a perfect start.
But Leeds are now leading the chase ahead of Wednesday
night's hosting of Stoke City, before which Farke has admitted that this
season's Championship could be one of the strongest for two decades. Farke,
though, insists that his side are not "obsessing" over the
Championship table and instead focusing on the "contents" of the team
with being more clinical in front of goal top of the list.
Despite the impressive start made by both Ipswich and
Leicester, the Whites boss also does not expect anything to be decided quickly
when it comes to the race for promotion from the 2023-24 campaign.
"If I'm honest, I don't pay too much attention at the
moment to the league table, if you’re position three, four, five
whatever," Farke told the YEP at Tuesday's pre-match press conference.
"Obviously, I like much more to be in third position than in the 23rd,
that's definitely, definitely a fact.
"But for me at the moment it’s just important to
stabilise the club more and more and also to create a winning mentality and
also to show good performances and obviously also to grind out results. If you
do this, then you're automatically in a good position in the table.
"But for me it's more important that in many, many
topics we have improved and also stabilised so we have consistency in our
results. We are already there with many, many clean sheets. We showed some
really good performances, we create many chances, I like that we are able to
bring in a tight lead over the finish line and in several games, I like that we
had many clean sheets.
"I like that we are also capable to keep our nerve once
we are a bit under pressure like at Norwich, once we are back that we are
capable to turn the game. This is all a sign of a winning mentality. I think
there's one topic we want to improve on and this is definitely the efficiency
in using our chances because we create so many big chances. I think there are
also some statistics that in a fair and normal table and a table that is based
on performances and on expected goals we would be even better. So this is
definitely one topic."
Farke added: "We're not too much concentrating we want
to improve our position on the table, we are more concentrating on the contents
and what we definitely want and need to improve is the effectiveness of using
the chances because you can't always turn a game like we did at Norwich.
"Normally, the first half and the chances that we have created
during the first half (at Norwich) should be enough in order to score one, two,
perhaps even three goals and this definitely a topic we are concentrated on.
It's not like we are addicted and praying ‘come on let's climb the table, let's
climb the table. No, we are concentrated on what we can influence and what we
have to improve and this is definitely a topic. We need to be a bit
better."
Double-promotion winning boss Farke is chasing a third
passage to the Premier League with Leeds having twice taken Norwich up in the
ultimate style of champions. The German's title-winning 2018-19 Canaries side
had 18 points after 12 games of the season, at which point they sat eighth, six
points behind second-placed West Brom and seven adrift of leaders Sheffield United.
Two years later, his 2020-21 champions had already amassed
24 points after 12 games played, a haul which had Norwich sat top of the pile.
But this season's early leaders Leicester have bagged an incredible 33 points
from their opening dozen games, leaving them five points ahead of Ipswich who
have taken 28 points from just 11 games played.
Pressed on the pace being set by the Foxes and Tractor Boys,
Farke admitted: "Both with unbelievable points tallies. Also big names in
this league. Yes, I know that we are also a big name, so Southampton is and I
think the quality during this season is on a really, really good level.
"We have many teams who are capable to fight for
promotion - some smaller clubs, some bigger clubs, we've played on the last
weekend also a club who wants to finish in the top six, perhaps even in the top
two. I think there are many, many competitors with all the respect. I get the
feeling in recent years sometimes this league was then quite, quite often
decided relatively soon. I don’t expect this during this year.
"I think the quality and the standards and the numbers
of competitors for the top positions are very, very high this season. I think
this is definitely one of the strongest and most difficult seasons in the last
two decades.