Daniel Farke has plenty of Leeds United credit in the bank, but precious little room for excuses — Leeds Live 8/8/24

After last season's play-off heartbreak, the pressure is on for Farke and Co to get the promotion job done this season

Excuses will be thin on the ground for Daniel Farke if Leeds United do not hit the heights of last season during next term. The manager was able to point to the decisions of previous administrations as he plotted a path through the pitfalls of his first campaign.

After arriving as late as July 4, with 49ers Enterprises’ takeover still going through and a squad riddled with post-relegation angst, Farke warned the start of last season would be bumpy, and so it proved. The German has been a perennial winner at this level, crafting two Norwich City sides for the title, but this was a new canvas he had to paint around.

No mistake should be made about the quality of the squad he inherited or, indeed, took into the season after the closure of the summer transfer window. It was the disjointed preparation, wantaway players and average squad age that kept being raised as the problems he was fighting against.

However, this time around, Farke has had a full year at the club. He has come to learn the ins and outs of the organisation, the strengths and weaknesses of his squad, the capabilities of 49ers Enterprises and had a full summer to enact his plan. If the Whites neither start well nor achieve their targets next May, the manager will know he is under severe pressure.

His stock is high going into his second chapter at the club. While no manager is without their critics, missing out on promotion in a one-off game at Wembley after amassing 90 points is hardly a stick to beat Farke with. There were fine margins throughout his first year in a freak campaign that generated four clubs worthy of winning the league in most other seasons.

Farke garnered praise for his handling of the disputes that rumbled on throughout the season. He was keen to protect his players until the right moment came to go public and let supporters know what was going on inside their club.

Last August, he took a stand with Luis Sinisterra and Wilfried Gnonto. If they were going to down tools and refuse to play until they got a transfer, they would train alone. In the case of the latter, he would eventually find a route back with an apology and a clear public message from Farke there would be no third chance if this stand-off happened again.

In January, Charlie Cresswell’s attitude in training was publicly questioned and he was made available for transfer, but only on the club’s terms. No club could meet those terms and things were ultimately patched up, with the centre-back returned to matchday squads.

At the other end of the spectrum, Farke nurtured Archie Gray through his first season as a senior footballer. Yes, the teenager is arguably a generational talent who could play for any manager and look good, but if a coach can be criticised when things go badly, they must take a share of the praise when things go well.

Gray was managed through his periods of heavy workload and, ultimately, transitioned to right-back, where the team needed him most. The England youth international has always been full of praise for the way Farke coached him and gave him that chance last season.

With Crysencio Summerville too, we are talking about the best player in the league during his first season as a regular starter in a senior side. The 22-year-old had flashes under Marcelo Bielsa and Jesse Marsch, but Farke eked out this new level from a winger who the American publicly called out more than once for poor standards around Thorp Arch.

Last season was not without its criticisms for Farke either. Substitutions felt like they came too late in some matches where Leeds were crying out for some inspiration or an injection of something different. This seemed to improve as the campaign wore on, but there were many times games would drift through the 60th, 70th and 80th minutes without any movement on the bench when Leeds were level or behind in matches.

There seemed to be a stubbornness in the German’s selections at times too. In the first half of the season, Farke was wedded to Joel Piroe playing behind Georginio Rutter through the middle. Despite the fact the former was a better finisher and the latter was a better creator, he kept them in roles which didn’t seem to suit them or the team for months.

There was a famous 13-minute answer that memorably drew a line under that matter, with compelling arguments from the manager, but still didn’t ultimately generate the results he wanted. Patrick Bamford’s introduction at the turn of the year, which pushed Rutter back, unlocked the door to an unbeaten streak of 15 matches.

Two of the bigger calls he has made this summer, at the time of writing, revolve around Brenden Aaronson and Max Wober. Farke compared returning loanees to reheated microwave food earlier this year, but he has been convinced they can play a role for him next term.

As he recently teed up the season ahead and the importance of pre-season, he put out a confident message to supporters ahead of his second crack at promotion.

“We are always seen as a favourite,” he said. “Even last season, we had the pressure, more or less, to win each and every game. We also have this attitude: we want to win each and every game.

“Last season doesn't change that much. Overall, we all know it was a long last season with many odds against us and it was, of course, also a bit heartbreaking in the final and you need then a few days, perhaps even a few weeks, to recharge and to be ready for the new season.

“If I'm honest, it’s not important to be fully recovered on the first day of pre-season. We have only this pre-season with nearly six weeks of working to build this attitude and I'm quite sure when the real stuff starts, and we have the group together and all the incomings we hopefully want and all the players are back who were out on loan like Max Wober and Brenden Aaronson are fully reintegrated, we are ready to go and this is quite important.”

“After such an exhausting season, it’s important we are not too early in red-hot form because you have to keep it for the 46 games, but we're preparing pretty focused and concentrated. The players were in a much better mood and also shape than I expected, so we’re on a good path, but you can't speak right now about ‘We are already there with 100 per cent.’ We definitely need these three weeks and then hopefully we are perfect.”