Daniel Farke’s Leeds United side face the visit of title-chasing Manchester City to Elland Road on Saturday evening.
Leeds United are out to try and avoid losing the set-piece battle when Manchester City come to Elland Road on Saturday evening.
The Whites have outperformed Pep Guardiola's men when it comes to goals from dead ball situations this season, finding the net 13 times to Man City's six.
Where City have shone far brighter is in open play and on the counter attack but for a newly-promoted side there can be joy from long throws, corners and free-kicks - particularly with a specialist like Anton Stach involved. Man City have conceded eight times from set-pieces this season, to the 12 Leeds have shipped.
But where Pep Guardiola once said set-piece success was 90 per cent down to the taker and the delivery, the waters have become muddied this season by an increasing use of dark arts.
The wrestling term Royal Rumble has entered the footballing lexicon due to some of the pushing and shoving that has taken place before and during the delivery of the ball into the box, with goalkeepers under increasing pressure. It goes both ways, however. Only last weekend Leeds skipper Ethan Ampadu was ragged to the ground by Aston Villa stopper Emi Martinez, without a penalty being awarded.
Daniel Farke is a big fan of the level of physicality in the Premier League and the officiating of it, but admits his players need to take great care in the box when they're defending set-pieces.
"Difficult topic because nowadays VAR looks at it also a lot," said Farke.
"I can remember my times when I was a player, and there was even more fight in the box, and it was more difficult for the referee to see all the other hidden fouls. I think everyone, especially the defensive players, have to be a bit more careful right now in this behaviour. But of course, it's very physical. And we are also proud of being the most physical league in the world, and not any soft penalties are given away. So for that also expect that there is lots of fight and lots of ongoing stuff. I'm not on the board of the rule changes, so we adapt to what happens."
The Leeds boss also admits that staying on level terms with City when it comes to set-piece goals will be absolutely vital if they are to pull off a remarkable result against the title chasers. At the Etihad when the two teams met earlier this season City scored from the second phase of a corner, although Phil Foden being offside was not spotted by the officials.
"Set pieces are an important topic," said Farke. "They were always important in each and every decade and right now also, of course, an important topic, especially right now also for this game. It's important if you want to achieve something against Man City, then you have to make sure that you don't lose the set piece scoreline. So if you lose the set piece score then it's very difficult to gain some points, we have to make sure that we at least draw it, or of course even better to win it. So it's still an area where we have to be spot on and have to defend really well and also use our chances in terms of attacking."
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