Leeds United boss Daniel Farke's message to gametime-shy players after Millwall disappointment — YEP 8/2/25
By Graham Smyth
Leeds United boss Daniel Farke has told his players to move
on quickly from a disappointing 2-0 FA Cup defeat by Millwall, as the
Championship title race becomes their sole focus.
Farke made 10 changes to the starting line-up but there was
still plenty of ability on display. Captain Ethan Ampadu was the only man who
started the game at Coventry City to stay in the side and he was joined by the
likes of Pascal Struijk, Joe Rothwell, Sam Byram and Willy Gnonto. The big
names were unable to take their chance to shine, however, against a clinical
Millwall outfit.
A comedy of errors led to the first goal. Willy Gnonto
dallied on the ball and invited pressure, Isaac Schmidt went down looking for a
free-kick and Ampadu allowed Femi Azeez to breeze past him and get a shot off,
which deflected off Josuha Guilavogui and deceived Karl Darlow. Millwall came a
lick of paint away from a second when Ampadu gave up possession running it out
of his own box and Azeez struck the crossbar.
Leeds missed a couple of chances themselves but struggled to
break down the visiting defence. The second goal arrived 10 minutes into the
second half with Leeds caught out of shape after attacking a corner. Millwall
broke into space on their left and Azeez fired his second past Darlow at his
near post.
Struijk had a golden chance to halve the deficit from the
penalty spot but Lions keeper Liam Roberts pulled off a fine stop to tip it
onto his post. Farke sent on the cavalry but Leeds failed to make a
breakthrough in the final stages and exited the competition.
“I want to say congratulations to Millwall and also that
we're disappointed,” said Farke. “We wanted to go through, otherwise we
wouldn't have shown up here today. Overall, I mentioned even before the game,
you know my attitude...to rotate is necessary and important but two or three
changes are healthy for fresh legs. If you rotate in 10 positions it can't be
beneficial for the fluidity for your football. We had the worst possible timing
with the schedule, played Wednesday night, players not in their beds before
3am, just a Friday to recover a little bit and the early kick-off here against
a competitive opponent with a whole week to prepare. We had to take a few
decisions, a few players with a knock not even involved in the squad. We gave
gametime to players not involved that much in recent weeks, a full debut for
17-year-old Sam Chambers.
“We had chances to win it but it was one of those days. You
have to say credit to their goalkeeper, probably one of the games of his life.
Great saves, even saved a penalty. In one or two situations we played a bit
complicated. One of those days when the ball goes deflected into the corner. We
tried in the second half to create chances, they defended pretty well. We
missed our chances and were perhaps lacking a bit in being clinical. They
scored out of a situation. When you concede such a goal you think okay it's one
of those days. No moans or complaints about the performance that we were not at
our best as a team, it was a bit expected. Disappointed to lose.”
The game was a chance to shine for players who have
struggled for gametime recently. Both Gnonto and Ramazani have been kept out of
the line-up by the form, goals and assists of Daniel James and Manor Solomon,
while Mateo Joseph’s frustration has visibly grown during a lengthy period out
of the starting side. It was another day of frustration for the striker but he
was far from alone in struggling to take the opportunity. Farke does not want
his players to dwell too long on the cup defeat.