Daniel Farke satisfied, not delighted as Leeds United and Burnley happy to settle for a 0-0 — Yorkshire Post 27/1/25

By Stuart Rayner

Daniel Farke was satisfied rather than delighted by his side's 0-0 draw against Burnley.

The Clarets have the best defence in the Championship, incredibly having only conceded nine goals all season and they seemed more intent on another clean sheet than on drawing level on points at the top of the table.

Whilst Leeds wanted to win more, they were reluctant to take too many risks to go for the throat.

The result was a dull game which saw its only shot on target from Daniel James in the 89th minute. Burnley goalkeeper James Trafford tipped it over the bar.

With Sheffield United losing 3-0 at Hull City, it leaves Leeds in a slightly stronger position at the top of the Championship after the latest round of matches.

"It was a good result for us, a good point on the road," reflected Leeds manager Farke. "(I was) happy with our defensive behaviour, happy with a clean sheet.

"We've had a really difficult game here, two of the best sides in difficult circumstances with the weather. They are on a massive unbeaten run, especially in the home games and if you come away with a point and clean sheet on the road it is always a good result.

"It was a game of few mistakes. Both teams were there without crucial mistakes so both teams were struggling to create enough chances.

"I'm pretty happy with how we controlled their processes against the ball.

"With the ball I would have wished in and around the box we would have been a little bit more confident and committed. If you play such a well-defending side, who after 29 (league) games have not even conceded double figures so far, of course when a chance comes along you have to be a bit more on it.

"The build-up, the midfield play, we were patient enough to bring ourselves into good position but we when it came down to the final decision, the final pass, the final shot, we could have to be a bit more convinced and a bit more committed to our action and a bit better prepared.

"That's the only thing I could criticise a little bit but it doesn't take anything away from my lads.

"It's definitely a good game and a good result for us against a tough opponent on the road."

Farke was too respectful to criticise Burnley's lack of ambition.

"It's not up to me to judge what they have done or what they should have done, we concentrate on ourselves," he said, when asked about it.

"When you analyse Burnley's game they have a special approach and you have to be ready for this in order to control this. You have to make sure you're rock solid defending.

"The problem is they take pretty little risk with the ball. If they lose the ball it's just in areas where they can't be hurt on the counter-attack. This is why you never have a counter-attack or a dangerous transition moment against them and that makes it so complicated.

"You always have to prepare and create a chance against a compact block.

"They are well structured against the ball, credit to Scott (Parker) and how he does it,

"It's a special approach so it's complicated to make chances against them. If they should be braver or whatever is not up to me to judge."

Parker too was happy to take a point.

"The two match-ups, if it was a boxing match it was a side with real attacking threat that have scored goals at will at times this year playing against a side in us that have been nothing short of remarkable defensively," he reflected. "I suppose it always smelt a little bit of a 0-0 and that's exactly what it proved.

"I'm happy with that point. We came here with the full intention to win the game and we wanted to try and cause Leeds a problem. We came here with the belief we could win while understanding it was always going to be a difficult game for us.

"In the first half we had a few moments, we lacked a tiny bit in terms of loose balls at certain moments in the final bit; (in the) second half I think it's fair to say the game goes away from us and they proved dominant while not really causing us problems.

"Then the back end of the game was two teams seeing out the game, really."