Leeds United vs Preston North End: Daniel Farke on Pascal Struijk, injuries, transfers and weekend preview — YEP 19/1/24

Leeds United manager Daniel Farke faces the media this afternoon ahead of the Whites' encounter with Preston North End at Elland Road this weekend.

By Joe Donnohue

It's a Sunday lunchtime kick-off for Leeds this weekend, which means a Friday afternoon press conference appointment with Farke. The boss has plenty on his plate this month with January incomings and outgoings to assess, key team selection decisions, injuries to contend with and much more.

Follow everything he has to say this afternoon from 1:30pm when his press conference is scheduled to get underway. Text updates filtering in here.

Leeds United vs Preston North End: Daniel Farke's pre-match press conference

Farke on possibility of keeping Joe Rodon

Behind the scenes we are working. We are more than happy with Joe. You see him growing into this club more into a leader role. You see how much it means to him to defend this white shirt. I think he is happy to be here and be an important part. He was crucial to our really good performances and development during the season. We would like him to stay for a bit longer, it's not an urgent topic, he will stay with us 'til the end of the season. We have a few other things to concentrate on before we plan for the summer. Joe is in our plans for sure, he is not our player yet, we are a bit depending on what the other parties say about this topic. We try behind the scenes with this stuff. You know how much I value Joe and his importance for us as a team.

Farke on dealing with Liam Millar again

It's never easy to defend him, if it's Archie or any of our full-back options, they have delivered against top players. Archie has never disappointed me, even against the best wingers in the league, against Ipswich, away to Leicester, Mavididi kept him quiet. There were a few games he struggled and it was always after a busy schedule. The way Archie plays with lots of intensity, he covers along with Ilia Gruev high intensity running. Stoke he was there with two days between the games. Norwich game, one day back in training after international break. Sometimes you must not forget he is a 17 y/o guy who adapts to play on this level with his physicality. We had a normal week. All my players are recovered. We're not concerned at all.

Farke on Byram

It's good for Sam to have a full training week, to build this resilience of his body, back to the behaviour of the first month of the season when he was able to handle the load. I think we have to be able to be careful with him.

Farke on young players coming through

Yes we always have an eye on what happens in our youth level. We are also close connected with all the youth coaches. For me it's not every day work but my assistant coaches are in touch. In January it's a little bit tricky, you have to be concentrated a bit on the market. Maybe from the beginning of February, who can be involved next pre-season or perhaps next months, training sessions or if they develop in the proper way, the gameday squads.

Farke on team news

Sam Byram is fully available for the next game. Liam Cooper is a topic for the game on Sunday, maybe not for 90 mins but we'll see. Big progress with Pascal Struijk but he's not back in team training yet. He's definitely out for Sunday and I don't expect him to return on Wednesday or Saturday. Willy Gnonto is sadly a major doubt, he has some problems with his hip flexor. He was not able to train these past days. It's a major doubt if he makes it into the matchday squad.

Farke on Archie's game and his renewal

First of all I trusted him to play. In this business, all clubs speak as youth as the future but quite often it's only once every seven, eight, nine years you get the chance. It's all or nothing, it's about everything, to trust them and bring them on the pitch, sometimes leaving experienced players out. All the credit goes to Archie and his development. I love to work with players and especially young players, I know I have a reputation for bringing many players through. All we can do is working on their positioning, their habits, passing, what we can do is bring them close to the door and to back them and trust them. It's totally up to the player to step through the door. It's all Archie Gray and his family who gave him his values, they have to be praised. Such a humble and professional and focused work ethic, this is crucial to make the next step. He's still the first guy to pick up the cones and the goals after training. I love this mentality. All the praise goes to Archie, it's a joy to work with this young lad. I'll keep the pressure high on him to improve him, because he still has to learn a lot - he's on a terrific path.

Farke on this group getting automatic promotion

We're in a good position at the moment, we didn't win it in the lottery. If you are sitting in such a good position you can keep going. It's not like we've lost one of our key players in the offense with lots of goals or defensive regulars like Joe Rodon or Archie Gray who've played lots of games. We will see but at the moment we are concentrated on trying to create the best possible squad for the upcoming months. We keep going when this January window is going and see what we've got.

Farke on incomings, or lack thereof

Not a concern. We know we have a quality group. We know we could do with some defensive additions. I'm not too concerned because in the last weeks, it was a chance for other players to step up, like Junior Firpo. I think you see him growing from game-to-game, or Ilia Gruev who was fantastic last two games. I won't lie, a few additions in defence would be ideal. We won't do business out of panicked reasons. It has to make sense for us. We're working a lot to make something happen in the background. If not, we go with what we've got.

Farke on January window

January is always a bit complicated. The players currently playing are not available or you have to pay crazy money. The financial rules we have to accept this. To sign a player in January without pre-season or friendlies and hasn't played six months, it's not necessarily they improve us. I'm always careful to speak about it too much. The group before this window was not too big and we have given two defensive minded players away. We have also the topic of Cresswell as well which will be decided in the next two weeks. We are not too big in numbers in defensive positions and we're fully aware of this.

Farke on what he expects from Preston

It's always a brave side. I expect they want to be the first to travel away with three points from Elland Road. We need to make sure this doesn't happen. It's never a guarantee that the next game is successful, we have to be on it. In the end, each home win always starts with putting a shift in and being clinical to use the chances.

Farke on Boxing Day Preston defeat

I wouldn't over-interpret it. When you have such a tight schedule, not all the things go in your favour. Sometimes perhaps a draw but also you can lose games. We had to play underload for the whole second half. We equalised, went for the winner, sometimes it comes together, in the 90th minute they put a wonderstrike in the top corner and you lose the game.

Farke on preparations for Preston

We had a bit more time between the games, we allowed the players at the beginning of the week a few days off. Obviously we do this in a good mood and with confidence.