Daniel Farke shares what he told Leeds United star Djed Spence after Blackburn win
Daniel Farke has lifted the lid on his on-field chat with Leeds United star Djed Spence following the final whistle after the Whites’ 2-0 win over Blackburn Rovers.
Goals from Daniel James and Crysencio Summerville ensured that Farke’s side took all three points back to Elland Road on Saturday 9 December, but the German manager was quick to debrief Spence immediately after the end of the match.
The Tottenham loanee made his first appearance since September when he was introduced with 20 minutes to play and while Farke was overall pleased with his displays, he did pinpoint a couple of areas in which the 23-year-old must improve.
As quoted by Leeds Live (9 December) he said: “He looked really rock solid in terms of closing the line in duels and he had some good situations going forward. Yes, sometimes in transition moments he could run a bit quicker back.
“There were one or two situations where I feel he could have invested a bit more but this is quite normal as it was his first game in months. Overall, it was important for him to grab the minutes and we are all happy to have him as an option.
“Sometimes I need to get it (thoughts) off my chest, but when it’s not too far away I can give this message early enough because the players also have this situation in their heads. It’s not a deep analysis. It is more to give one or two messages that they can think about before we analyse the game a day after.”
No big deal
So often when you see a manager make a beeline for a specific player immediately after the full-time whistle, you assume they are unhappy with that individual’s performance. But that doesn’t appear to be the case in Farke’s conversation with Spence.
The Leeds United boss clearly just wanted to get his immediate thoughts off of his chest while they were still fresh in his mind, rather than give the Spurs loanee a dressing down in front of the entire Ewood Park crowd.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that there were a few bits of rustiness in Spence’s performance when you consider just how long he’s been sat on the sidelines, but Farke will be hoping that the defender can get up to speed and work that bit harder than he did on Saturday.
The German wants committed players at Elland Road this season and will not allow players to go through the motions. He may have been forgiving to Spence this time, but you’d imagine he wouldn’t stand for that again.
In other Leeds United news, Tony Dorigo could not believe what Georginio Rutter did during the Whites’ win at Ewood Park