Daniel Farke left to rue 'cheap' goals Leeds United conceded as manager calls for aggression — YEP 6/4/24

Leeds United manager Daniel Farke was not overly critical of his side following their first defeat of 2024 but did rue coming off second best in 'decisive duels' at the Coventry Building Society Arena.

By Joe Donnohue

The German was disappointed but not disheartened as Leeds tasted defeat for the first time since December 28 last year. Mark Robins’ Coventry got the better of Farke’s Whites at two critical junctures in their 2-1 win on Saturday afternoon, but crucially were superior to Leeds in physical duels, particularly at set-plays, something Farke conceded in his post-match press conference.

Coventry’s first goal came inside ten minutes, Ellis Simms reacting fastest and nodding beyond Illan Meslier as Leeds failed to clear a home corner. Shortly after the restart, it was a corner at the same end of the pitch which led to Coventry’s second. Leeds struggled to make anything of an attacking set-piece before Coventry broke through Milan van Ewijk who carried the ball some 50 yards into United territory.

Josh Eccles took possession as Van Ewijk was held up in traffic, and lofted a deep cross into the run of Haji Wright who left unmarked finished past Meslier for the Sky Blues’ second.

“From the statistics, a really good away game I have to say, but we didn't win the decisive duels, this was crucial today,” Farke said at full-time. “They invested everything in order to go into a counter-attack, we could have sprinted back a bit more aware, a bit more greedy and perhaps a bit smarter to do a little tactical foul before, and we conceded then again out of a counter-attack. If you give these two goals relatively cheap away, it's always a tricky game against a really good home side.”

A tricky task it proved to be as Leeds fought back through Joel Piroe’s cool strike midway through the second half, but could not muster an equaliser for their efforts.

“The duel success rate in the decisive moments of the game, this was I think decisive today,” Farke added. “When I compare our set-pieces, we had much more but then either the delivery was not perfect or the ball goes through the six-yard box and I would have preferred to show a bit more aggressiveness to attack the ball, a bit more will to get on the end of the set-piece.

“And they scored out of their first corner, won the first header, won the second ball and the third ball and then Simms was there and won the fourth ball. Yes, to be a bit more effective in these duels was the key today.”

Leeds play again in less than three days, this time at Elland Road against mid-table Sunderland, although the Black Cats have already beaten United once this season. Farke will hope his side give a more assertive account of themselves on home turf, as they have done in 20 consecutive matches unbeaten in LS11.