Leeds United v Luton Town: Smells like team spirit so Daniel Farke is determined to keep driving it — Yorkshire Post 27/11/24

By Stuart Rayner

DANIEL FARKE knows a thing or two about winning the Championship, so you should sit up and take notice when he gets the whiff of team spirit in his nostrils. Now the job of Leeds United's manager is to relentlessly drive it all the way to the Premier League.

The quest continues on Wednesday at home to a Luton Town team who have so far been unable to recreate the battling qualities that were such a feature of their time in the top flight last season.

And if Luton made one small step forward by beating Hull City on Saturday, Leeds made a psychological leap at Swansea City.

Their defending was uncharacteristically lax in south Wales but the fact they conceded a 90th-minute equaliser then came back to win 4-3 delighted Farke, who commented afterwards that: "This character and this mentality is sometimes more important than the football skills."

The dust might have settled and the clothes just about dried out, but Farke's abiding emotion from the weekend remains.

"I'm pretty fortunate I've got great characters in the dressing room and it's not so difficult to lead this group," commented the two-time title winner with Norwich City. "They are high-quality top human beings so it makes my life easy but I also try to not let the standards drop and try to aim for the highest target.

"Our standard is always that we won 90 points last season but we are not happy because we didn't finish in the top two.

"We know right now we are in a really good spell but we also speak of the things that were not perfect, for example the defending in the 90th minute or in added time in the first half (when Liam Cullen put his side 2-1 up). I try to make sure we don't let the standards drop.

"If you do this and always speak about it hopefully the players develop a winning mentality that the sky's the limit and even if they win it's not, ‘Okay we're happy.’ Thank God I've got a really good group."

One aspect in particular delighted Farke about the weekend.

"On Sunday we spoke about needing this resilience because Swansea under their current management (Luke Williams took over in the new year) when they have the lead have never lost a game and we knew it would be difficult," he said.

"We spoke about it before the game but we also made them realise if there is a deflected strike or a mistake by the referee, we keep going and become the first team to turn a game against Swansea. The players were prepared for something not going in our direction but we still have the tools to turn the game and the belief.

"The more often you are successful with this you build natural confidence and we have scored a few late goals this season. it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and more of a natural manner."

Farke believes the nature of the win, which took Leeds top of the table for the first time this season, would go a long way to counteracting the fatigue a heavy pitch will have brought, although he is still likely to rotate his XI on Wednesday.

"There's no replacement for wins and for such a winning feeling, especially such a late goal," he said.

"We've already had a few late goals and they're good for the confidence. We know we can score although everyone predicts after Swansea score (their third goal) it's difficult.

"But after we concede a late sucker punch and we find an answer it's good for the mood and the spirit.

"It seems to be there are no new injuries.

"During such a week you have to rotate a bit more than you normally do but we won't rotate 11 positions because it's never helpful to make too many changes."

Not that it will be straight-forward. Manor Solomon will be wanting to play again after scoring his first two goals for the club, Daniel James was the star player with three assists against his old side but Solomon's replacement from the bench, Willy Gnonto scored the winner – his first Leeds goal since September.

On Solomon, Farke said: "He had his first start after injury in the QPR game that we won at home. It was probably his best performance after the injury.

"Then he had two starts for his country (Israel) against France and Belgium – proper opponents and really good performances. On Sunday just over 70 minutes and probably his best performance in the shirt, at least his most effective.

"The winger positions, it's quite important to have an eye on them in such a busy period because you have lots of high-speed running so it's not likely a winger will play all three games over 90 minutes.

"We have to share the minutes a little bit and to pay attention to what is necessary and which winger looks ready to go and recovered.

"It's good that we have quality and we have the choices. I'm quite pleased all of them are back. Largie (Ramazani) will need more time to be in the starting line-up but he's an option for a few minutes at least."