Daniel Farke must achieve promotion in his second season at Leeds United

Paul Warne baffled by Daniel Farke critics amid 'Great' Leeds United admission

Dan is a sports writer and broadcaster, who wrote for Breaking Media Limited's club sites between May 2024 and May 2025. Graduating from the University of Huddersfield in 2018 with First Class Honours in Sports Journalism, Dan has worked with several EFL clubs, as well as with BBC Radio, talkSPORT and TNT Sports. He previously resided in Sydney, Australia, where he continued his career as a freelance writer and broadcaster in various sports.

Published on:

05 Dec 2024, 10:40 am

Leeds United would not be able to perform better under any realistic alternatives to Daniel Farke, according to Derby County manager Paul Warne.

Warne was speaking ahead of his side's trip to Elland Road on Saturday [7 December], branding the stadium the hardest away ground in the Championship to play.

As quoted by BBC broadcaster Adam Pope on X [5 December], Warne has hit out at those applying pressure to Farke, who failed to achieve promotion with the Whites in 2023-24.

"I can’t believe he’s under any pressure at all, and if they did get rid of him I don’t know who they’d suggest to get in who could do it any better," Warne said.

"I think they’re a great a team. It’s the toughest place to go in the league."

Leeds United always under immense pressure

Leeds United are the unarguable biggest fish in the EFL pond. With that comes an intense and constant level of pressure, which Farke's experience has seen him navigate.

While the Whites look on track, the competition is fierce and Leeds at times drop off in consistency.

However, they head into their contest with 15th-placed Derby as overwhelming favourites, even despite their tendency to drop points in early kick-offs and the spicy recent history between the two.

Warne does have a point regarding Farke - after all, it shows the standard of Leicester City and Ipswich Town to earn automatic promotion last term when they overcame a Leeds side who earned 90 points and were pipped on the day of the play-off final by Southampton.

Derby boss Paul Warne on Daniel Farke: “I can’t believe he’s under any pressure at all…& if they did get rid of him I don’t know who they’d suggest to get in who could do it any better…. I think they’re a great a team. It’s the toughest place to go in the league.” #LUFC
— Adam Pope (@apopey) December 5, 2024

One hypothetically would believe Leeds would be faring far better in the top flight than Russell Martin's Saints are at present, but the task is to get in a position to prove it.

Winning games like Saturday's against Warne's men is a key feature of said task, and any dropped points would make for a very tense stadium.

In other Leeds news, Paul Robinson responds to talk of the club potentially selling Ao Tanaka after under six months.

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