CALM DOWN!

Leeds boss says pressure is all on Foxes

DANIEL FARKE insists Leicester remain the Championship favourites - despite Leeds topping the table.

Leeds have slashed Leicester’s 17 point-advantage and went above them on goal difference before the international break.

But ahead of Leeds’ showdown with Watford tonight, Farke insists Enzo Maresca’s side remain the team to beat.

Only a point separates the top three sides in the Championship but Farke said: “No, we’re not favourites because Leicester have a game in hand and I expect them to take points from it.

“Then they will have the best-possible option. Those are just the facts and that’s the reality.”

Leeds have taken an astonishing 37 points from 39 in 2024 to transform their promotion hopes and Farke paid tribute to his players for recovering so well after their difficult start.

Farke, who won the Championship with Norwich in 2019 and 2021, had to overhaul their squad in the wake of relegation and they took just six points from their first five games.

He hailed the turnaround as “remarkable” and claimed the potential of Leeds was one of the factors which attracted him to Elland Road last summer.

Position

“It was perhaps not realistic in July or August to speak about being in such a great position and not just the position, but also what we’ve done in terms of performances and also the points tally,” said Farke, who revealed Pascal Struijk will miss the rest of the season after having groin surgery.

“This is quite remarkable. But this is one of the reasons why I signed the contract here for Leeds United because I knew about the potential of this club and that you could achieve something special.”

Farke jokes that Leeds were a “mission impossible” when he took over and says it was similar to when he arrived at Norwich in May 2017 because he had to build the club from the bottom up.

“I always love challenges and I know it was a bit like a mission impossible, but it was a quite similar situation once I joined Norwich because they were somewhere in midtable,” he said.

“The team was a bit too old, we had no money, we had an unbelievable financial pressure on us and in the next transfer window we needed to earn at least €29million.

Challenge

“And this was without having many proper players under contract so we had to develop some young players no-one had ever heard of.

Farke, who was appointed on a four-yera-deal last July, added: “Leeds is a different club to Norwich, but it feels like it’s a big, big challenge here and certainly there’s no guarantee it will be the same outcome.”

MAKING HIS FARKE: Daniel Farke has transformed Leeds in the new year, guiding his team to the top of the Championship table with the end of the season now in sight