Ao Tanaka feels his current form is “good enough" for the Premier League
Isaac Johnson Leeds United reporter
15:38, 30 Oct 2025
Ao Tanaka started his first game for months vs West Ham
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Ao Tanaka started his first game for months vs West Ham(Image: Simon Stacpoole/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
Daniel Farke admires Ao Tanaka’s self-critical honesty but has told him not to be too harsh on himself, after the Leeds United midfielder suggested he was not “good enough" for the Premier League on current form.
The Japan star was starting his first game for two months, having suffered a knee injury in the second game of the season against Arsenal. Upon his return, Sean Longstaff and Anton Stach had initially kept him out of the side.
Tanaka was given the nod to start once again in last Friday’s 2-1 win over West Ham United, where he looked notably but understandably off the pace. He had previously enjoyed just 42 minutes in four substitute appearances since coming back from injury.
Yet the 27-year-old was very critical of his own display after full-time. He told BBC Radio Leeds: "I enjoy playing football and I can find what I need to improve. This is important and I have to improve for the next game.
"The Premier League is the best league in the world and every game is such a difficult game. The opponents are so good. I enjoyed the time but I have to improve a lot.
"I'm not good enough at the moment but I enjoy this time to find what I need to do as a football player so I will try everything."
Speaking later to Leeds Live, he added: “It was not the best performance for me, but I need to improve my quality every game. And because this is the Premier League, I can't play high performance every game. I will try my best every game.”
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These comments were put to Farke ahead of Leeds’ trip to Brighton Saturday. “I like it if someone is really humble and self-critical and puts his demands really high,” he replied.
“I quite like it because normally in this business, it's more like every player tries to protect himself when their performance is not on top level, then someone else is blamed.
“I quite like it - but he doesn't have to say this, not at all. There's also no reason to be too self-critical because Ao was fantastic for us last season.
"Of course, it was the Championship and, of course, it's the first time in his career that he plays right now in a top division - he has a point to prove there.
“He had a really good start to the season with us. I didn't expect him to be man of the match [vs West Ham], being in his first match after injury back in the starting line up, but I think he was quite solid and showed a really, really good performance.”
Farke added: “I also like that he expects more from himself, but he doesn't have to be too self-critical. It's good that he wants to step up - he needs to step up in a few areas a little bit. There's no doubt about this, but there's no reason to doubt yourself too much.”
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