FARKE HORSES
Daniel salute as his men unsaddle losing touch and gallop for Prem
DANIEL FARKE has paid tribute to his Leeds players for turning their season around since they last faced Millwall.
Farke was still dealing with the fall-out from relegation when Leeds went to The Den in September and they had won just one of their opening five Championship matches.
But Leeds were victorious 3-0 and won 10 of their next 14 games as Farke’s side found their groove.
Leeds are now challenging for the Championship ahead of tomorrow’s home clash with the Lions and Farke claims he had to change the losing mentality from the two previous seasons.
“Confidence levels are much better now,” said the Leeds boss.
“You get used to losing games, after losing a lot of matches over the last two years.
“Obviously we have worked a lot on our principles, how we want to play, to develop younger players and other individual players like Joe Rodon, Ethan Ampadu, Ilia Gruev and Glen Kamara.
“You need confidence to work on individual games and our principles. Things like, what we want to do against the ball, how our football should look like. We’re more in our rhythm.
“We’ve developed a lot in comparison to the beginning of the season.
“Credit to my players, they’ve been open-minded and credit to individual players, who are playing crucial and central roles for us and who didn’t come in the summer with the best rhythm and confidence level. It’s credit to how far they’ve come.”
After moaning about having to play four games in 10 days, Farke has had eight days to prepare for Millwall and he is glad of the break.
“In the beginning, it was important to calm the load down,” he added. “We analysed the Sheffield Wednesday game and allowed the players a few days off after that. After these two days, we started to prepare for Millwall.
“It’s a difficult game and it’s good to have time on the training pitch. We have a good opportunity to prepare in the best way.”
Meanwhile, Joe Bryan has warned Millwall are still in danger, despite the upturn under Neil Harris.
The South London club have won three and drawn one since Lions legend Harris returned as manager. But Bryan said: “We were in a precarious position, and I suppose we still are. We are not getting carried away yet and saying we have got out of the relegation scrap because if you look at the league – especially this season – it’s incredible how tight it is.
“We need to enjoy the pressure, that is the main thing in football.
“We’re doing alright. We’ve had an up-and-down season – the 10 points we have picked up in the last four games have been brilliant.”
The defender added: “We’ve kind of gone back to what as a club we are about – fighting, grit and determination.
“We’re not going to get too excited. We know how quickly things can change – both ways – in this league.”