Daniel Farke goes back to the future amid ultra-tense top-two promotion battle with Championship rivals Ipswich Town and Leicester City — Yorkshire Post 11/4/24

DANIEL Farke is not one to usually harken back to the past.

By Leon Wobschall

But when he looks at the current state of play regarding Leeds United amid an ultra-tight and tense race for automatic promotion to the Premier League, he is prepared to make an exception.

For the second successive game, Leeds spurned the chance to go top after being pegged back in Tuesday’s frustrating stalemate with Sunderland.

Just as worryingly, it represented a continuation of the disappointing form which has afflicted Leeds since the last international break.

Two-time Championship title-winner Farke has been here before, in fairness.

In 2018-19, his first season of silverware at Norwich, the Canaries – pitted in a top-two battle with Leeds and Sheffield United - didn’t finish with a wet sail.

They drew four of their final six matches, but managed to get over the line.

It is a reminder that the promotion course rarely runs smoothly, particularly towards the end.

Farke - whose side have been beaten just once in their 17 league matches in 2024 - said: “I normally never speak in front of the players about what happened at my former clubs because they don’t want to hear this as it has no effect on nowadays.

"But just because it fits (now), with how I ended my (first) promotion with Norwich City in the last six games, it was draw, draw, draw, draw, win, win and after each and every draw, everyone was panicking ‘oh, a draw is not enough for promotion, we need to win this.’

"Then, in the end, you see the other results coming in and the draw was not too bad. It was also a tiny way at Leeds when Marcelo (Bielsa) was involved with Chris Wilder at Sheffield United and in the end we (Norwich) won the league with four draws in the last six games.

"I am not happy as I am just happy when we win a game. But you never know. Sometimes, one point can prove pretty important.”

On Tuesday, Farke made no changes from the side who lined up from the off in the defeat at Coventry, United’s first league loss since December 29.

After giving his starters the benefit of the doubt, it is fair to say the German now has plenty to ponder in terms of his starting line-up against Blackburn on Saturday.

Farke also received criticism for bringing on two attackers in Mateo Joseph and Joel Piroe late on Tuesday and not earlier when the likes of Patrick Bamford, Georginio Rutter and Dan James were quiet by their standards.

Farke, whose side remain unbeaten at Elland Road this term - but failed to score on home soil for the first time since September 2 – commented: “In general, it was not so much due to the (individual) players on the pitch. We did not create enough clear-cut (team) chances.

"Even when they (substitutes) were on the pitch, we were not there with one-v-one situations for them.

"Perhaps if they had started, they would have scored an opener, but it’s always guessing and not a fair picture if we’d started them or played them long. I wouldn’t blame a player for not being good enough to create chances to score goals; it was more the approach.”