Daniel Farke reveals dressing room response to Huddersfield Town draw — YEP 2/3/24

Daniel Farke says he will have to lift his Leeds United side after a 1-1 draw at 10-man Huddersfield Town that felt in the dressing room afterwards like a heavy defeat.

By Graham Smyth

The Whites missed a golden chance inside four minutes to turn the game in their favour, Glen Kamara opting to pass instead of shoot when well placed and Crysencio Summerville failing to find the net from an equally promising position. From then on the first half was a frustrating affair, Huddersfield’s physicality and frequent injury stoppages for both sets of players spoiling any chance of a spectacle. And when Michal Helik scrambled home in the first of nine injury time minutes, after Illan Meslier had saved Matty Pearson’s header, it looked like one of those days for the Whites.

But the sending off of Jonathan Hogg, who caught Junior Firpo with a flailing arm to earn a second yellow, gave Leeds renewed hope and though they made heavy weather of their attacking play for much of the second half, Patrick Bamford eventually levelled on 67 minutes. Try as they might, however, Leeds could not find a second. The closest they came was a curling effort from an off-the-boil Sumerville that clipped the post. The draw brought to an end Leeds’ nine-game winning run but they remain unbeaten in the league in 2024.

“I need to lift the mood a bit because it was really quiet in the dressing room and it looked a bit like a loss,” said Farke. “It's a sign of how far we've come. It felt like we'd lost the game 5-0, but I like this attitute and ambition. I didn't expect 22 wins in a row, it's never that easy. We're not so much used to it, we didn't have too many draws but it's important to value that one point is sometimes a good point. Sometimes one or two points can make a difference. Don't underestimate that you stay unbeaten and came back from a losing position. I'm not dancing on the table, that's for sure, I would not even had we won it, my players maybe, but we take this one point.”

Farke was complimentary as he highlighted the ways in which Huddersfield made life difficult for Leeds and had no real complaints over the physicality dished out to his team in the first half. Instead he felt his team could have attacked with more composure.

“It’s disappointing in the way we have to accept we're not there with a 10th win in a row, just 28 points from the last 10 games,” he said. “To speak about a disappointing day shows our ambition. Obviously we wanted to win this game. We had a massive chance with Glen Kamara or Cree Summerville, normally it must be 1-0, we know if we go in the lead it's difficult to win points against us. They played with a knife between their teeth, credit to them, you can see they're a side that fights against relegation, tactical fouls, many yellow cards, lots of injury time. More or less every goal kick lasted two minutes. If the ball is just 18 minutes in play it's also difficult to creat chances. We were a bit slow in the head attacking. I was not happy with the yellow-red card because I thought they would park the bus even a bit more. They did brilliantly you have to say. We found the situation to equalise, but quick turnaround for us, the pitch was difficult and always stop and go, I think we created situations but you have to use them to score the second. Rutter's header completely free, Cree Summerville normally scores eight out of 10 in this situation but hits the post. We didn't score the second and then we have to accept we were not at our best as a group today. If you don't win you have to make sure you don't lose it. When you know how the Championship is, sometimes you have to say we take the point and that could prove pretty valuable at the end of the season.”

Similarly, the Leeds boss refrained from criticising the officials over their handling of the game’s flash points or time management. “I don't like to complain too much about referees or ask for more yellows or reds,” he said. “It's what you'd expect a bit from a side fighting for their lives. As a neutral observer you might say it would be nice to protect the offensive players a bit and keep the game more fluid. There were one or two situations I would have wished for different scenario.”

He was pleased, though, with the outcome of his second half change when he brought Connor Roberts on to replace Archie Gray at right-back, with two-fold reasoning. Farke wanted older heads on the pitch to deal with Huddersfield’s approach and Roberts’ attacking profile was key to the switch. “I played again a pretty young side and when a side plays so aggressive and smart, this can annoy young players, the body language goes down, you feel sorry for yourself and you're not on it,” he said. “I brought players in who are more used to it [Roberts, Dan James, Joel Piroe]. We changed our positions a bit to use the wings a bit more, a bit like we assisted to the goal. I wanted Connor's experience on the pitch and his ability to deliver end product. I think it was the right decision to bring him on.”