Daniel Farke's Leeds United selection nerves and injury update after rout of Luton Town — YEP 27/11/24

By Graham Smyth

Leeds United boss Daniel Farke admits he was nervous about the big selection decision he made ahead of a 3-0 win over Luton Town.

An early goal from Sam Byram all-but settled the contest with Luton Town offering very little in the way of forward endeavour. The Hatters did manage to fashion a pair of chances in the first half, taking neither, before Joel Piroe put things beyond doubt in stoppage time. Substitute Daniel James added a third late on to ice the cake.

The win sent Leeds back to the top of the Championship table on the merit of goal difference, while level on 35 points with Sheffield United. Leeds have won their last three games and taken maximum points from the last six at Elland Road.

Before the game the only real talking point was Farke’s decision to take James out of the starting line-up and go with Manor Solomon and Willy Gnonto. Though both Solomon and Gnonto found the net against Swansea City on Sunday, James set up three goals and put in what the manager admitted was a Man of the Match performance.

But there was more to the selection call than a manager’s hunch. He said: “Each and every decision makes you nervous. DJ was perhaps Man of the Match along with Ao Tanaka in the last match and was outstanding. When you know the result you can say it was the right decision but before the game you don't know the outcome. I always love to have him on the pitch with his pace. But three games in six days, though, you have to keep the whole group sharp and fit.

“DJ is a lightning quick player, these players are sometimes more at risk of muscle injury, he has had injuries this season and he was more or less the only winger or player who played more than 90 minutes in the last game. The objective data was not that good with his recovery.”

At Swansea Farke wanted to target the hosts’ high line with James’ speed, but expecting Luton to play a different way also fed into the decision to go with Solomon and Gnonto ahead of the Welshman. But when James came off the bench, he did exactly what Farke wanted.

“We expected a deep sitting opponent, not that much his game, he needs a bit more space like was the case at 2-0 and he came in and killed the game,” said the German. “It's great to have options like this, you always hope you're there with the right decision. Even if we had lost, all the signs were telling me I needed to rest him. He's such a crucial player, we can't afford to have him injured for three or four weeks and missing seven or eight games.”

Farke was delighted with his side’s dominance but even with the three goals and another clean sheet he saw room for improvement. “Very convincing because we played against a side who played Premier League last season, many players who played at that level,” he said. “I still think they're contenders for the top six, last game was a clean sheet win. To show such a dominant performance in the home game, to create many chances, score three, score in perfect moments of the game - it was very professional, focused, apart from the last six or seven minutes when we allowed them to be there with two strikes. I was a bit annoyed, I wanted to return with a clean sheet. Thank God Illan was there. During such a period this is exactly how you should win such a game against a pretty physical and good side. I'm pretty pleased tonight.”

Goalscorer Byram came off midway through the second half and Farke revealed the full-back had felt a slight issue, so he sent on Max Wober in a precautionary move. Leeds will assess Byram ahead of the early kick-off on Saturday against Blackburn Rovers, when Junior Firpo will once again be available following suspension.

“Manor [Solomon] is okay, lots of load in the last three days, felt a bit like a cramp but he’s alright so quite normal but no injury,” said Farke. “Sam felt a little bit of a problem in his hamstring. Hopefully he felt it early enough. We have to wait for the assessment, I hope it's not too serious because he was excellent.”