I’ve seen Daniel Farke ‘really angry’ but Leeds United have found £10m-plus solution.
Leeds United boss Daniel Farke has another side away from the cameras.
It is rare that Daniel Farke loses his temper. However, Christoph Zimmermann, who twice won the Championship under his countryman at Norwich City, knows what really gets under the Leeds United boss’ skin.
“He properly hates conceding goals,” the defender told Leeds Live. “When you’re playing against a lower league side in a cup game, even giving away chances is something that makes him really angry.”
However, there was no danger of Farke lashing out at his players following Illan Meslier’s howler at the Stadium of Light on Friday night. The Leeds boss instead called the 2-2 draw against Sunderland the ‘proudest day of the season’ given all the setbacks his side encountered last week. The German also had a sense of perspective.
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After all, Leeds have only conceded four league goals since a bonkers 3-3 draw against newly-promoted Portsmouth on the opening day. The Whites have faced an average of just 2.13 shots on target per game in their last eight Championship fixtures. No other side have kept more clean sheets in the second-tier this season
It is a solid foundation to build from. In fact, Leeds are conceding goals at a lower rate (0.78 per match) than the Whites were at this stage of last season (1.11 per fixture). Leeds went on to keep the most shutouts (19) in the Championship in 2023-24, but the title challengers are already more than a quarter of the way there (five) after just nine games.
Stern tests lie ahead – not least a feisty clash against unbeaten Sheffield United after the international break – and Leeds’ backline have lost added protection in the form of injured midfielders Ethan Ampadu and Ilia Gruev, who are both out for several months. That has led to a change in how Leeds set up without their ‘defensive machines’, in Farke’s words, and finding a way to hold firm will be crucial in the coming months.
As obvious as it sounds, if Leeds start to ship goals, the club’s forwards will come under even more pressure after they were tasked with filling the huge void left by the loss of star forwards Crysencio Summerville and Georginio Rutter, who were directly involved in a whopping 50 goals combined in the second-tier last season.
Summerville and Rutter were game-changers at this level, but Leeds are no longer so wholly reliant on an individual to step up. Brenden Aaronson and Largie Ramazani, for instance, have each been directly involved in three goals so far this season. Mateo Joseph has four goal involvements. Joel Piroe has five. Wilfried Gnonto has six.
