‘No reward for poor performance’ but Farke is calm

DANIEL Farke admitted he could have sworn at and punched his Leeds United players after perhaps their worst performance of his tenure, but he plans to stay calm to stop a drama escalating into a crisis.

The German has spoken before about what an “emotional” club the Whites are and their nerves were on full display at Queens Park Rangers.

Sloppy in possession, poor in their body language, not tight enough to first-half goalscorers Ilias Chair and Lucas Andersen and not switched on for the second-half set-pieces which allowed Lyndon Dykes and Sam Field to complete a 4-0 win, Leeds were as downbeat as they were dreadful at Loftus Road.

But events the next day showed all is not lost. Ipswich Town have two games to Leeds' one to win more points and claim the second automatic promotion spot, but a 3-3 draw at Hull City means the Whites start the final week in the top two.

“My fire is also burning,” said Farke on Friday. “In such a moment I could use some language and a physical approach to threaten my players but it wouldn't help.

“We're a pretty emotional club and they need someone at the helm who stays calm but also critical, selfcritical and honest.

“We won't play any psychological games, we will speak honestly about what went wrong but we'll be far away from over-reacting. I would have done this perhaps in my first or second year of coaching but not at this stage of my career and age.

“I'm not happy, not relaxed, but pretty focused on the week in front of us with lots of work.”

Attitudes towards Patrick Bamford epitomise Leeds' schizophrenia. Often scapegoated when he fails to score, many pointed to his absence with a bruised knee as to why Leeds lost.

“(Before the Middlesbrough game) everyone wanted to send Patrick Bamford into retirement, now he's our only hope to win games,” said Farke. “In both directions we shouldn't be too much over the line.

“We travelled with one player more, had a little training session in the morning and treated him but it was too painful and he couldn't sprint. It made no sense.”

Farke had his players back in at Thorp Arch the next morning.

“There's no reward for poor performance,” he said. “I want them to understand what happened so it was important to be in on Saturday to analyse the game.

“Then they had a day off and we'll start the new week with new energy and we'll remind ourselves what we've done over the course of (the previous) 44 games.”