Daniel Farke in ‘worse moment’ admission ahead of Leeds United trip to Southampton
Leeds United manager Daniel Farke insists he could not think of a “worse moment” to face next opponents Southampton than this weekend.
The Saints have lost four Championship games in a row, conceding 12 goals in the process and scoring just twice, with the pressure really rising.
However, Farke believes that will work in Southampton’s favour when the two sides meet at St Mary’s on Saturday [30 September].
“I couldn’t think of a worse moment to play against them because they are there with four losses in a row,” he said at his pre-match news conference on Thursday [28 September], as per Leeds Live.
“One thing is for sure, for such a big club with such high ambitions and also many, many quality players, if you have a normal week and time on the training pitch, you look under each and every stone and speak about each and every detail that has to be improved.
“I’m pretty aware they would have done exactly this and then the home game against Leeds is a big opportunity because playing against us is more or less always the game of the season for our opponent.”
Terrible form
You can understand what Farke is saying in that Southampton will see this showdown with Leeds in front of the Sky TV cameras as a great chance to right some wrongs.
But on the basis of their most recent performance, a 2-1 loss to a badly struggling Middlesbrough side, United will still consider themselves strong favourites this weekend.
The Saints have had a week to learn lessons from that game, although that was also the case when they followed up a 5-0 loss at Sunderland with a 4-1 defeat at home to Leicester City.
Throw the 1-0 defeat to Ipswich Town into the mix – again at home – and it is fair to say that Russell Martin is not exactly flavour of the month at St Mary’s right now.
Leeds must ensure they take advantage of any sloppy errors made by their opponents, of which there have been many in this ongoing run of defeats.
This fixture looked pretty daunting not so long ago, but that is no longer the case and three points must now be the target for Farke’s men.
In other Leeds United news, a player is surely heading for the Elland Road exit in January after a development on Thursday [28 September].