'Made it clear' — Daniel Farke reveals Leeds United transfer message after Ramazani signing but shines spotlight elsewhere — YEP 23/8/24
By Graham Smyth
Daniel Farke lauded Leeds United's bravery in a 2-0 victory
at Sheffield Wednesday that he felt was almost the perfect away performance.
The Whites dominated their Yorkshire rivals after a frenetic
start to the game and took the lead through Brenden Aaronson, before taking the
game away from the hosts in the second half with Daniel James' dinked finish.
There were chances for Mateo Joseph and Pascal Struijk but
once James' goal went in the result was never really in doubt. Victory came
against a backdrop of adversity and fan frustration.
Leeds had failed to win any of their opening three outings
of the campaign and losing Crysencio Summerville and Georginio Rutter has left
Farke light in terms of senior options. The bench on Friday night boasted two
goalkeepers and a 16-year-old prospect in Sam Chambers. But there was little in
the performance that suggested Leeds were in a difficult moment.
"It was definitely our best performance of the season,
next step forward, nearly a perfect away performance," said Farke.
"I'm pretty pleased, we were able to dominate with our
possession. We played pretty brave and dominant against one of the best in-form
sides. In 2024 we are the side who has won the most points, I think Sheffield
Wednesday is in second place. Their first home game was a 4-0 win for them,
they play aggressive, press high.
“To come here and dominate, we didn't allow one chance,
perhaps a long throw in and a header but we were pretty dominant in our
possession. We were better to create chances. First goal you can put it into
your album for best practice possession football from build up to the finish.
And the second, after a good winning of the ball, more or less the same. Not
over the moon just because we're there with an away win, we had many of those
last season, but to show it under really difficult circumstances - I'm pretty
happy for the boys."
Willy Gnonto was singled out as a key player in the match by
opposition boss Danny Rohl and Farke agreed, calling the Italian international
'unplayable' at times during the Hillsborough encounter.
"We've worked a lot with Willy in recent months,"
said Farke. "We want him to be more flexible in his movements, so he
covers different positions and isn't too static. We work a lot with him
individually and show him different scenes. He was at times unplayable. He's
still a young player and can be a bit smarter to handle some situations on the
pitch. A step forward from him but one we expect from a player of his
calibre."
Farke wanted to leave the transfer talk for another time,
despite welcoming £10 million winger Largie Ramazani to the squad 24 hours
prior to the game. The Belgian was signed too late to be involved against
Wednesday but is seen as a replacement for Summerville.
Farke wants another three new faces to join him, but his
main topic of conversation on Friday night was those who contributed to the
win.
"I don't want to speak too much about the players not
involved with us today and who will come in the next days, obviously from
tomorrow he [Ramazani] will train with us," said Farke.
"I want to spotlight a bit more the players who were
involved and perhaps in the next weeks are not that much in the spotlight, like
young players like Sam Chambers, or Alex Cairns.
“Obviously it's good we have Largie signed and [I] have made
it clear we definitely need a few more if we want to be ambitious. Just with a
squad of 12, 13 senior players, for this emotional and ambitious club to be
successful it's not possible.