Daniel Farke on 'risky' Leeds United idea, 'dirty, nasty foul' and confidence recovery

Neither result at Elland Road or Portman Road went the right way for the Whites, who produced a timid performance in the 2-1 defeat by Southampton. Though they hit back almost immediately through Joel Piroe following Adam Armstrong’s opener, Leeds’ recent defensive frailty continued as they allowed Will Smallbone to make it 2-1. News of Ipswich Town easing to a 2-0 win over Huddersfield contributed to a flat second half at Elland Road. The full-time whistles consigned Leeds to the play-offs, with Ipswich joining Leicester City in automatic promotion.

Leeds had clawed their way back into the top two conversation with a remarkable run of 13 wins from 15, but four defeats and a draw in their last six saw them finish six points behind Ipswich. Farke said they had to go for it against Southampton on the final day with a risky strategy, so the performance should be judged a little differently to their normal standards. “It's also a bit difficult, results are dropping in and players on the pitch know there is no chance even if we win,” he said. “I wouldn't label this performance with our normal standards. We chose a really risky approach because there was no option but to win. We pressed man on man, opened the centre against one of the best counter attacking sides. It was wild a bit like a basketball game but there was no other option. We wanted an early goal to perhaps send some pressure to Portman Road. When you go for it you have to reward yourself with a goal and can then adapt your approach a bit. The problem was we gave two goals away pretty cheap.”

Farke, who will return to face former club Norwich City in the play-off semi-finals extended his congratulations to Leicester and Ipswich but wants to turn the squad’s thinking away from the season just gone and towards the challenge ahead. He said: “In general you have to say this season is over and this means you have to congratulate Leicester and Ipswich, they fully deserve to be promoted, the two best sides. We are the third best team on 90 points. And that's it. We draw a line under this season and go into a new competition. In the last weeks we had some problems, key players not available. I hope we can use the upcoming days to make them available for what I hope is three finals. We have a really young side, some of my young players have lost their momentum, their confidence. It's important to prepare, give them good moments on the training pitch, to find their rhythm back.”

The manager admits that it will fall on him to produce the leadership and energy the squad needs to lift its performance levels again. “From the manager, this is what I have to do,” he said. “I have many players in key roles who are there with their first season in the Championship. We don't have the 30-year-old leaders with four or five promotions. It's a side where the manager, I have to do even a bit more leadership. Take our more experienced players a bit more into the boat. Stuart Dallas is fantastic, Liam Cooper who has to wait for games, is also doing a fantastic job. It's a bit more difficult if you don't have experienced leaders. We know we're lacking experience, we're not the finished product. It's not a perfectly balanced group, we had to allow some experienced players leave in the summer. We couldn't afford to buy just experience. We have lots of potential, individual quality and players who will one day play on really good Premier League level. This is the big advantage of this group. Yes there is not that much natural born leadership but it's also not to feel sorry for it, it's even more my task to lift everyone up.”

Farke, who hopes to have Daniel James and Patrick Bamford back for the play-offs, will also have everything crossed that the knock Crysencio Summerville sustained late on against the Saints, as the game became niggly, turns out to be a minor one. He said: “Overall I hope first assessment of Cree was not too bad but we have to wait. A foul was given against us, if you watch it back I'm happy that it's not a broken ankle [for Summerville]. It was a really nasty and dirty foul. I can't imagine how we end up with a free-kick and yellow against Joel Piroe. Hopefully there's a chance Patrick Bamford and Daniel James can return to the group, we desperately need these players. We need this and we need this week in order to work on the training pitch.”