Daniel Farke, the manager of Leeds United, expressed his satisfaction with his team’s performance against Stoke City, calling it their finest victory of 2024.
The Whites’ winning streak came to an end over the weekend, but they didn’t have much time to reflect because their home match against Stoke City was scheduled for Tuesday night.
In an attempt to keep his team from falling into League One, Steven Schumacher brought his team to Elland Road in the bottom three. They desperately needed a change in performance to keep up with others around them.
Given that the top two also won on Tuesday, Daniel Farke was thrilled to have another victory under his belt.
Regarding the crucial three points (via the YEP), Farke stated the following following the game:
“Relief but also happiness and I’m pretty proud. It’s the best win in 2024 for me. In such a game everyone more or less expects us to win this home game. Sometimes with a spotlight game against Leicester everyone accepts a draw. We didn’t have a dip in form, but a dip in results if you can call it that at Huddersfield and then the next game is only two and a half days later, against a side fighting with everything they’ve got against relegation.
“They had a brilliant win in their last game. Should be an easy win, feels like that a bit in the stadium, the atmosphere in the stadium is a bit like going for a cup of tea and a slice of cake instead of this explosion with everyone on it. I was pretty happy with the first half, we needed 15, 20 minutes of our dominance to create chances, scored just one and could have got more goals.
“Second half we opted too much to wait for transition moments. Whenever we had the ball we didn’t control the game, we were too greedy to go for the next attack. It was a bit like a basketball game and we had by far the better chances, two or three times we have to play the final ball a bit better.
“If you don’t score the second it’s a bit nervy, you allow the opponent to have half chances or good shooting positions. We returned with a clean sheet and I’m pretty happy and proud. It was not our best second half but this hard-fought win in the end is what brings you to a top position by the end of the season.”
Farke makes promotion verdict after Stoke win
Leeds now sits as you would have anticipated the top two in the promotion battle, trailing Ipswich by two points and Leicester by five.
But Farke believes that Leeds’ home performance and atmosphere might be crucial in moving the team into the top two come May. Here’s what he said:
“It was no criticism, it was still a great atmosphere. My suggestion is normally after such an explosion at Elland Road in the last game [against Leicester], okay it’s another day in the office against a side in position 20, 21, 22 in the next game.
“Everyone expects entertain me, so you have to make sure you inspire this crowd. You can’t also expect Elland Road is always such a firework, when you have 23 home games plus cup games, then it’s more like a candle that burns from both sides and probably at the end of the season no one shows up at Elland Road any more. We need our supporters further on.
“I promise you, if we keep going and win each and every home game from now on, even with draws in away games, we will be in a top, top class position in May.”
Panic stations were always going to be the result of our winning run coming to an end at Huddersfield, but to have 28 points from 30 to start 2024 is absurd form.
Winning the next game after that is a perfect response and keeps us on track for a points tally that should put us right in the mix for the top two.
The standard is incredible at the top end this season, so we might need to pull something special out to come out on top, but Farke is confident for a reason.
