Daniel Farke reveals thoughts on 'successful' Leeds United summer as one last call-to-arms issued before Portsmouth — YEP 6/8/24
By Joe Donnohue
Leeds United manager Daniel Farke is pleased with a
'successful' pre-season for the Whites but knows friendly fixtures and
non-competitive encounters are nothing compared to the real thing which gets
underway again this weekend.
Leeds enter the 2024/25 Championship campaign among the
favourites for automatic promotion back to the Premier League after missing out
via the play-offs last term and have given themselves every chance of starting
the season well with a strong performance on the pitch over the summer. While
the likes of Archie Gray and Crysencio Summerville, protagonists of United's
90-point, third-place-finish during 2023/24, have been sold, plenty of key
players remain whilst others such as right-back Jayden Bogle have been added in
the summer transfer window.
The team have gone unbeaten in pre-season, defeating
Harrogate Town, Lincoln City, Hannover 96, FC Schalke and latterly Valencia
during their five friendly matches gearing up for the new campaign.
Following the 2-1 victory over top flight Spanish side
Valencia, Farke described Leeds' now-completed summer schedule as a
'successful' endeavour but was quick to acknowledge friendly triumphs will be
forgotten fairly quickly if their pre-season form does not translate to their
opening day meeting with Portsmouth this Saturday.
"Overall it feels like a performance deserved an even
bigger win than just 2-1," Farke told a media scrum at Elland Road last
weekend. "It wasn’t perfect, we have space for improvement, but overall a
really good game and a really good finish to an impressive pre-season so far.
"The bad thing is that there is no points for
pre-season games, so we start next week. Pre-season is not just to be ready for
the first game but also for the upcoming 46 games of the competition, so in
terms of preparing for this marathon, we are in a pretty good way."
Leeds' most recent opponents finished ninth in LaLiga last
season, whilst their upcoming visit from Portsmouth sees them take on the
reigning League One champions. German duo Hannover and Schalke both compete in
the country's Championship equivalent, while Lincoln and Harrogate are in
League One and Two, respectively.
United's last campaign saw them get off to a slow start,
which ultimately contributed to the club's failure to clinch automatic
promotion. It followed friendly defeats by Manchester United and AS Monaco,
whilst also being preceded by wins over Nottingham Forest and Scottish
Premiership outfit Hearts.
This time around, Leeds have a more settled squad to work
with heading into their season opener, and although Gray and Summerville are
yet to be replaced, the spine of the team remains solid from last term with the
likes of Joe Rodon, Pascal Struijk and Ethan Ampadu expected to feature from
the start on Saturday lunchtime.
Farke, though, insists there are no guarantees as to who
makes his starting XI, saying he will study performances in training in the
meantime to determine his line-up versus Pompey.
"They knew it was more or less the last chance to
impress in the friendly, they needed to use each and every minute to impress,
to work on their own rhythm and their confidence, fitness level and sharpness.
"The good thing is we still have one week and on the
training pitch, there are many sessions left and they need to impress because
nobody has a ticket for the starting line up next week.
"If you relax too much and don’t do it in training you
are pretty quickly out of the starting line up. So for that it was a last
chance in the friendly, important to give a good impression, but there are
training sessions left and you have to be on it in that as well," the
manager said.