Daniel Farke is a good manager, his three Championship titles prove this. He clearly understands how to build a team, create a positive environment and have his team be consistent. You have to be good to lead a team to a title, it’s the hardest thing to do in sport. Which is why I don’t quite understand his overly cautious approach this season. There have been good performances, some luck hasn’t gone Leeds way at times, and the table should have looked a lot different. However, not converting good performances into results is the thing that causes major problems in the Prem. So why are Leeds competitive but not getting the right results? Cautious football. Farke has changed his system this season to be more difficult to break down, and this has meant that the team suffers in attack. He has also stuck to this system, not adapting according to opponent. This “stick to the plan” approach is okay if you’re delivering results, but hard to accept when things go wrong. Farke is also reluctant to change in-game, and this has been damaging. Let me explain what I’ve seen. Bournemouth Leeds played really well, and got themselves a lead. As the game moved into the final quarter, it really seemed as if Leeds were on track to win. Then things unravelled. DCL had run himself into the ground, and he should have been replaced on 65 minutes latest. However, Farke left him on. So why was this significant? Andoni Iraola realised that DCL had no legs left, and therefore his pressing or ability to spin off a centre back and run in behind was compromised. Iraola instructed his centre backs to change things. He left one back to look after the flagging DCL, and the other started to push up into midfield more to create an extra man. This subtle change meant Leeds suddenly started to find themselves pushed back more, almost looking as if they were inviting Bournemouth onto them. The fact is that Bournemouth had an extra pivot and ball winner in midfield, shutting down the middle of the park and giving them better control of the ball. This was clear when the spare centre back carried the ball unopposed for a good 25 yards up to the Leeds box before playing it out to the overlapping left back. Alarm bells!! Yet Farke didn’t react, leaving DCL on and bringing Tanaka on as fresh legs in midfield as he felt that would fix the problem. It didn’t, because the problem wasn’t a tiring midfield, the problem was a spare centre back pushing up and creating an extra man for them. As long as DCL stayed on the pitch, Iraola could deploy a centre back further forward when the game allowed, without fear of DCL running onto a long ball. Then it happened. Tanaka got caught on the ball when his opposite number, aided by the spare centre back, muscled him off the ball, causing our Samurai to give away a needless free kick. And this is exactly what Iraola was hoping for, having this extra man there to step in and win the ball back in Leeds half to keep the Whites on the back foot. The ball went into the box, the knock down fell where Bournemouth wanted it and two points were lost. On this occasion, Iraola outthought Farke, and the disappointing thing is the Leeds boss didn’t respond. Of course, we won’t know if this was because he felt Leeds could cope with Iraola’s subtle change, or maybe he didn’t see it at all. I’ll go for caution, and say that Farke simply doesn’t like to change things readily. Burnley Farke’s system this season has been to remove the 10 position and rather have a holding midfielder, similar to the Phillips role. The difference between Bielsa’s holding midfield setup and Farke’s is that the current Leeds formation has Stach and Longstaff playing more conservatively. The Leeds midfield two seldom, if ever, get beyond the striker. This means there aren’t enough runs into the opposition box, with the midfield there more as a safe ball back from out wide to retain possession. Opponents are able to see the play develop in front of them, knowing there won’t be runners trying to get in behind causing disruption. Ampadu sits deep, protecting the centre backs and helping to take pressure off the opposition press. Stach and Longstaff don’t stray too far from Ampadu to aid the possession game Farke likes. This means attacks develop slower, and in the Prem this makes it harder to create quality chances. Now here’s what really puzzled me at Burnley. Every time the Leeds full backs got themselves into advanced positions, Harrison and Aaronson would drop back to allow the full backs to be able to stop and turn back, keeping possession rather than putting a cross in. When the full backs did get half a yard of space, the cross lacked quality or it got blocked. This is because enough space hadn’t been created to deliver a good ball into the danger zone. Burnley was a great opportunity for Leeds to drive at their full backs, getting Harrison and Aaronson to double up with Guds and Bogle. The Burnley wide men seldom tracked back, Jaden Anthony in particular happy to let his man go. They didn’t need to rush all the way back to their penalty area, because Leeds weren’t creating overloads out wide. Too often the attack out wide would end in a pass backwards and then infield into traffic, resulting in another back pass to Ampadu or one of the centre backs before trying again. These constant resets meant Burnley had time to organise their shape and stifle Leeds attacks more easily. The slowness of the Leeds build up play is caused by the cautious approach Farke is taking. There aren’t enough quick passes forward, no killer ball attempts, no balls through the lines dragging defenders out of shape. With no willing midfield runners getting beyond the striker, sideways passing is the only real option. The Burnley game should have seen Farke dispense with the holding midfielder and rather deploying a 10 to get up and help DCL. This would have helped to create more space out wide as well as Burnley focused on the threat in the middle. Instead Leeds made it comfortable for Burnley, and even though the stats told one story, our eyes told us that Leeds were never going to score. The lack of runners getting forward through the middle and out wide made it too easy to defend against. Can Farke Change? This is the burning question. It’s not about “will he”, it’s about “can he?” Does Farke have the nous that an Iraola has to be able to see the problem and find a fix? He’s got his team working hard, everyone is together and that’s a big plus. Now he need to get Leeds playing a bit quicker, get them moving teams around and creating space. Playing a thousand passes from side to side is great for stats, but stats aren’t points. Leeds simply have to beat West Ham on Friday. This is a great opportunity to not only build a gap to the Hammers, but to also kick them while they’re down. Leeds have to demolish them, destroy whatever bit of confidence they have left. It’s a great opportunity to push a rival deeper into trouble and to potentially have them fill a relegation place. The same opportunity existed at Burnley, but instead of hurting the Clarets, Leeds gave them a helping hand. Now is the time to be ruthless, to finish off the Hammers and leave them in chaos. Leeds can’t give them anything, can’t allow them to leave with a result, can’t allow them a step up to rebuild their confidence and belief. Farke needs to attack the Hammers, go at them from the off. No caution on Friday, just a desire to hammer West Ham. Will he?
Farkeball only works when we have competent forwards who can create and take chances. This season only Okafor is doing that and a lack of service for DCL is hurting us. DCL has missed all his chances however but did score from a half chance. We spent money on the defence but haven’t used those players except JJ as a late sub. We beefed up our midfield mainly in a defensive way and combined with the defence on paper we are better than last season, and yet we are conceding goals. Too many goals for this defence. We are also having a very high XG which we are failing to achieve badly. The stats seem to suggest that we don’t know how to defend in this league or score goals. Farke cant say he wasn’t given the bodies he wanted in defence and midfield and I fully agree he was shafted in the forward department, but he did ask and get 2 centre forwards for free and gambled that they would come good and that may still happen and if it does Farke will be classed as a genius. However not working yet as we move onto game 9 of the season
Doesn't help that once again we've signed mainly players with no pl experience because they're cheaper and willing to come. Surely if the pl is the best league in the world as claimed, its bound to take all the new lads a fair few games to get up to speed with it
Interesting argument Billy. I thought the way we played last year would trouble enough PL teams to stick with it but it appears the management team got together, decided as a group that to survive in the prem the trick was to add size and strength. They wanted the team to be more solid and bought players to beef up the squad. Given that we’re playing how I thought we would - and unlike some of my fellow Leeds fans I think we more playing pretty well and deserve more points.. I’m not too critical of the ‘cautious’ approach. I did think we’d mix it up and be more like last year in games against bottom half sides at home. I’m not sure we’ve played one yet.. that awaits on Friday so we’ll see. If we have enough forwards to try it. So yeh I think he is being cautious. He’s obviously concerned our ‘front 6’ approach from last year would get punished in transition in the PL. Debate will always rage on the merits of continually recycling possession… ‘Controlling games’ by keeping the ball, tiring out opponents rather than than taking more risks and letting the opponent go toe to toe. I’d be more judgemental if I didn’t think the real problem was lack of quality turning performances into points. We’ve had no luck either. And luck plays its part in football,
