Leeds United boss Daniel Farke's dressing room message and Illan Meslier assessment at Sheffield United — YEP 24/2/25

By Graham Smyth

Boss Daniel Farke again saw his Whites side fight back to defeat another promotion rival at Bramall Lane.

Daniel Farke has expressed his pride at the way his victorious Leeds United side reacted to a 'worst possible' start at Sheffield United.

Leeds produced a dramatic late comeback for the second game in succession to deliver another blow to their promotion rivals.

This time it was Sheffield United on the wrong end of the Whites' suckerpunch, one week after Sunderland suffered the same fate, as goals in the last 18 minutes from Junior Firpo, Ao Tanaka and Joel Piroe turned the game completely on its head.

A poor start from the visitors was compounded when Illan Meslier turned the ball into his own net for a 14th-minute Blades opener.

Leeds struggled to deal with the intensity of their hosts and though they began to rally prior to the break they were decidedly second best in the first half.

The second half was when Leeds slowly began to take a strangle hold on things.

Daniel James' perfect cross was thumped home by Firpo with a powerful header on 72 minutes and with a minute of the 90 remaining Tanaka headed in a probable winner.

A minute later Piroe sent a blistering effort searing into Michael Cooper's net to add the insurance on a five-point lead at the top of the table.

Leeds are now seven clear of third-placed Burnley and 13 ahead of Sunderland in fourth.

Farke, who watched from the gantry as he served a one-game touchline ban, was delighted with what he saw from 25 minutes onwards.

"I'm proud of the boys," he said.

"It's one of the toughest places you can go, Bramall Lane fired up, the worst possible start and the whole stadium is buzzing.

“The reaction the lads showed was outstanding. Top reaction during the game to find two or three other gears, in a tight game.

“A tight win but I think a deserved win, you coud feel the momentum switch. We had the lucky situation that we scored the goals in more or less the right moment. A really good night for us and priceless three points."

The message to his side at half-time was to continue to play as they had done in the closing stages of the first half.

"They deserved to be in the lead," he said.

"We didn't play with courage and had losses of the ball. We gave it away cheaply before the goal, allowed an easy cross, O'Hare wins a header against our tall centre-backs.

“We were not ourselves in the first 20, 25 minutes. Then we started to play football and grow into the game.

“Once they're in the lead, well structured, dangerous on the counter, you have to invest so much. We started to grow back, created some good chances. You could feel it coming.

"[The message at half-time] was 'not like the first 25 minutes, exactly like the last 20.' We changed a bit our pressing behaviour. They go for second balls, we wanted an additional player in front of our last row.

“We were in a losing position. We spoke about the tactical change and it was encouragement to add more robustness in our offensive duels and to stick to our plan. If you're scared of a mistake and play like this you can see this."

Farke absolved his goalkeeper of blame for the opener because there were so many other errors or contributing factors.

"I wouldn't blame him, our problem was we lost the ball pretty cheap, allowed them easy passes, allowed an easy cross, lose a header to O'Hare and normally they would have scored, I thought they'd have scored the rebound," he said.

"He has to put his arm out, it was a bit unlucky the ball went in. It was a sign of how we started. We deserved a bit to concede this goal and perhaps it was the wake up call we needed to play football and this is what we did from minute 25."