Leeds United 'half-time' Daniel Farke warning after Oxford United rout as he reveals Struijk risk — YEP 21/12/24

By Graham Smyth

Leeds United entered the festive period in ‘perfect’ fashion with a 4-0 win over Oxford United but Daniel Farke has told his Whites they must be relentless all season.

The victory was Leeds’ ninth in a row at Elland Road, where Farke’s men have become utterly dominant this season. Leeds were not as comfortable as they would have liked against Oxford in a first half that ended 1-0 in their favour. Though Daniel James opened the scoring and came close to a second from distance, Oxford United had a pair of chances too. Przemysław Płacheta ran in behind Ethan Ampadu but blazed wide with only Illan Meslier to beat and in the final action of the half Elliott Moore headed over the keeper and the crossbar.

The first chance of the second half went the way of the visitors too, Ciaron Brown heading over the top from a dangerous free-kick. But Leeds soon took complete control of the game and the scoresheet. Jayden Bogle rifled in the second, Brenden Aaronson added the third 10 minutes later and seven minutes after that Manor Solomon made it 4-0.

“Perfect way to start the festive days,” said Farke. “Important win, impressive scoreline and performance. Our claim was to win but during such a busy period, the storm, difficult to day to deliver such a performance. I'm quite delighted. We could have scored a few more in the first half, Largie [Ramazani] had great chances to score a couple more but overall important for us to return with a clean sheet, also good for the goal difference.

“There's always, even on such a good day, something to improve. We allowed them two counter attacks when we tried to force the ball, had the wrong decision. Placheta is lightning quick. We could have done better. The first five minutes in the second half we could have started a bit more awake but apart from this the performance was excellent and how we were able to create chances against a deep-sitting block. Four different goalscorers, lads who chipped in with assists.”

Farke was especially pleased for Aaronson, who in recent games has been guilty of squandering chances. The manager revealed part of his half-time message was directed at the American.

“Yes of course [I’m pleased] because we spoke of his relentless effort, he's so important for our balance,” said Farke. “His numbers are quite good. In the first half he had a couple of chances and we spoke at half-time that he should concentrate to bring the body over the ball, sometimes he has a tendency to put it over. But really well taken goal, an ice-cool finish. It's good for the confidence of our offensive lads and the right scoreline today.”

Being four goals up allowed Farke to turn to his bench and give minutes to Willy Gnonto, Mateo Joseph, Largie Ramazani, Josuha Guilavogui and Isaac Schmidt. The latter, who arrived as a full-back signing, has almost exclusively played in forward positions in his substitute cameos but against Oxford United he replaced Sam Byram at left-back. Farke hoped that the Swiss defender’s efforts would lead to a goal contribution.

“It was good that we were already 4-0 up that we could afford to think about the upcoming weeks and rotate a bit more,” said the manager. “We wanted to see Isaac in this role in the last 10 or 15 minutes and to give Sam a bit of rest. It's important to have a look at the players, like Willy, more or less the first time he played in the 10 role because we could afford to give Aaronson a little rest. They all chipped in with being on it. I would have liked if Isaac was rewarded for his hard work with an assist or Willy with a goal.”

Leeds captain Ethan Ampadu made his return to the starting line-up for the win, due to the injury concern over Pascal Struijk in the build-up to the game. Struijk was on the bench but Farke did not want to take an unnecessary risk with his centre-half.

“He was able to train yesterday but it would have been a little risk,” he said. “I took the decision not to risk him. Ethan has not played in the centre-back role for ages but he looked sharp in training. We still have a pretty busy period coming up. I didn't want to take too much risk but I wanted to have Pascal on the bench. It's always a good feeling when you look left and see him on the bench and if you need to win a header in the last five or 10 minutes in a tight game.”

Next up for Leeds is Stoke City away on Boxing Day and Farke wants to see the performance level from the Oxford United game replicated again and again because while they have 45 points from 22 games, there is a long way to go.

“This league is relentless and if you want to be successful you have to become relentless yourself,” he said. “You have to show this quality of performance through the whole season to have something to cheer about. So far, so good, we have quite an impressive points tally but it's not even half-time. We have a long road ahead. We have to stay humble. We have to keep going exactly in this way and in the upcoming games, weeks and months.”