Daniel Farke comeback tactics cannot save Leeds every week as depth is needed
Leeds United boss Daniel Farke has admitted that he always expected his players to exhaust Cardiff City, physically and mentally despite not having a recognised striker at his disposal.
The Whites got their Championship season underway on Sunday (6 August) with a 2-2 draw against the Bluebirds thanks to a goal from Liam Cooper and a stoppage-time strike from Cyrsencio Summerville in the 95th minute.
While most inside Elland Road panicked as Leeds fell behind to a side that was almost relegated from the second tier last season, Farke remained untroubled as he knew that his side would have what was required to drag themselves back into the tie.
Speaking in his post-match press conference as reported by the Yorkshire Evening Post, he said: “I told them ‘listen, this is our way of preparing, we will exhaust them mentally but also physically and we can even turn the game in the last minutes of the game’.
“If you would have started to put long balls just upfront, we wouldn’t have equalised the game because today we didn’t have strikers like Bamford, like Joseph, with physicality. We had a pretty small starting XI on the pitch and even later on, so we need to find some other solution.”
Worked, for now
Leeds got away with one at Elland Road, with the on-the-ball quality of some of their players paying dividends in the final minutes, but just because it worked once doesn’t mean that it will again and again.
Farke and the owners know that the Whites need a striker, they are looking for one currently with Joel Pohjanpalo one name consistently linked to Leeds United and it is quickly becoming a necessity as the strikers currently at their disposal aren’t reliable.
Bamford could score goals both in the Premier League and the Championship, but that prolific version of the finisher feels a long way away now and he hasn’t managed to stay fit, let alone hit the goalscoring heights he once did, in recent seasons.
With games getting longer this season as new time-saving rules come into play in the EFL, Leeds’ fitness will be a benefit in scoring late goals, but could lead to injuries down the line. If Farke begins to rely on late goals he won’t be able to rotate and rest players as regularly and the minutes played by some of the more prominent names will continue to add up and lead to injuries.
Although the late leveller left a feeling of joy around Elland Road, it should act as a trigger for Farke and the 49ers to recognise the need for a reliable and genuine centre-forward in their ranks.
In other Leeds United news, the Whites have already identified their Tyler Adams replacement