West Brom v Leeds United: Daniel Farke press conference on team news, full backs and young star — YEP 28/12/23

Leeds United face a swift return to action after Boxing Day’s disappointment at Deepdale with Friday night’s trip to West Brom, ahead of which boss Daniel Farke has held his pre-match press conference.

By Lee Sobot

Leeds lined up for Boxing Day’s lunchtime kick-off at Deepdale sat third and just seven points adrift of the division’s second automatic promotion place occupied by Ipswich Town. Leeds, though, suffered a 2-1 reverse which led to the Whites dropping down to fourth place after a fresh boost for promotion rivals Southampton who walloped Swansea City 5-0 at St Mary’s.

The win put the Saints three points ahead of fourth-placed Leeds who are now eight points behind second-placed Ipswich Town who left it late to bag a 1-1 draw from Boxing Day’s late game at home to leaders Leicester City who are now 14 points ahead of the Whites.

For Leeds, a Friday night trip to fifth-placed West Brom is next on the agenda as the Whites face a side just one position and six points below them in the table. West Brom held Leeds to a 1-1 draw in the reverse fixture at Elland Road which represented the third game of the new Championship season back in August.

Leeds will also be without goalkeeper Illan Meslier who now serves a three-match ban for his straight red card picked up in Boxing Day’s defeat at Preston.

Farke held his pre-match press conference for the West Brom contest after defeat at Deepdale but under a 12.30pm Thursday embargo and here is every word from United’s German boss including team news plus thoughts on Mateo Joseph, Patrick Bamford, his fullbacks and Whites warning about the task ahead at The Hawthorns.

Looking ahead to WBA, are you confident anyone will come back into the mix?

Farke: "Yes, I think first of all we had Sam Byram back with us today, he just trained with us yesterday and I just had him on the team sheet for 10 or 15 minutes. He will have two more days training and is then fully available for this game. That’s good. All the others will be a bit difficult because Luke (Ayling) is struggling with knee problems at the moment so I am not sure he will make it. Also (Jamie) Shackleton it is too soon, he’s not been in training so we’ll see how he develops."

Do you look at your full backs as being different in what they offer you?

Farke: "Yes. They are different. Died Spence is an offensive minded full-back, Archie Gray can do more or less both, is good on the ball and used to playing under pressure. (Junior) Firpo is left-footed and experienced, sadly out such a long time with injuries and not in a rhythm, Sam Byram we don’t have to talk about him, I think an outstanding season and the most consistent in my team so far.”

West Brom as an opposition - Do you look at them and think it is really important what you do with your full backs?

Farke: “Yes. Definitely. It’s important to be there on the full back positions spot on. Djed in the last game v Ipswich was brilliant, today I would label his performance solid. Archie was brilliant in recent weeks, today yes he was involved in the goal, you can’t hide behind this fact but it’s not like after this one scene after many good ones you lose the trust. He’s still in a good position but it’s also a good feeling to have Sam Byram back and also Firpo is on the way to collect some minutes to be back in his best rhythm. It’s good to have them both."

Mateo Joseph came on ahead of Patrick Bamford, was that a reward for the progress he’s made in a short space of time?

Farke: “There are no gifts and no coincidences. I got the feeling in underload I wanted to play with two strikers and strikers who are capable to work a lot and run a lot. This is what Mateo always offers because he has good endurance and physicality. He was involved in the penalty also when he kept the ball to Daniel James, he’s then under pressure can keep the ball, he’s showed this in away games like Blackburn and I like what he shows when I bring him in. His workload in the last game was well, I like his training and he’s on a good path, it was not a decision against Patrick, it was more for Mateo and he deserves it.”

They’ve always responded after a defeat this season for you, haven’t they?

Farke: “Yes, but sadly that is not a guarantee that we will go on like this. It gives a good feeling yes, but it will be a difficult away ground at West Brom and yes we have to be at our best to win the points.”

Is there anything you’d change from the earlier game this season against WBA, that you’ve seen from your team that you’d like to exploit better than they did in August?

Farke: “We will see. We are different sides with different players involved in this game, who are not even involved right now. So, it will be a different game, they’ve also grown as a team and we will spend two days now analysing them more. There will be similarities to the first game but there are different bits we will speak about and I think it will be such a long time ago, and many different players involved, it will be a big game, yes.”

Given how frustrated you were in attack today, will you send a message to the players with changes at The Hawthorns?

Farke: “Not so much a message. More like the general approach, we had games where we had changes in the offensive positions, it was at Stoke and we had the same problems. We were not able to invest more movements and keep the ball in difficult circumstances. It has not as much to do with the players, who are on the pitch, it was more the mentality how to go into this game. I want to see a different behaviour and approach in this game.”