Daniel Farke has shared his thoughts on a massive win for Leeds United on Friday.
Leeds United worked on the exact scenario that led to one of their goals in what Daniel Farke called a 'massive' win over Nottingham Forest.
A 3-1 victory at Elland Road put nine points between Leeds and the drop zone and it owed much to the two-goal lead they carved out in the first half. Ilia Gruev sent a perfect ball over the top for Jayden Bogle to run in and beat Stefan Ortega, before James Justin set up Noah Okafor to make it 2-0. Four minutes after the break they were three to the good, Gruev's delivery being chested home by a flying Dominic Calvert-Lewin. Forest nicked a goal late on but were unable to make it a really nervy finish.
Before the game Farke's team selection came in for scrutiny when he played two defensive central midfielders in Ethan Ampadu and Gruev, but what he got from the Bulgarian was an outstanding all-action performance and a pair of assists.
"First of all we brought Noah Okafor in, a more offensive thinking player than [the injured] Anton Stach," explained Farke. "Anton covers more ground and is by nature a defensive midfield player. We went more offensive bringing Noah on. The training week, Ilia looked unbelievably sharp. But I would say all his performances, he's so reliable, you always get a 7 out of 10, today it was pretty close to a 10 out of 10. We spoke about what we wanted to see a bit more. The left half space with his left foot to explore the weaknesses we have perhaps seen. We encouraged him to play more forward-thinking passes from this position but he trained really well. He was a mix out of Hristo Stoichkov and Lothar Matthäus. He was everywhere, won every duel, set a genius left foot, two assists."
The pass from Gruev that took Forest's defence out of the equation and put Bogle in for a one-touch finish was exactly what Leeds had worked on at Thorp Arch this week.
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"We had a few processes where we thought we had to be flexible," he said. "Sean Dyche's side are always so complicated to open and create against. We had Ilia in the left half space to initiate, but also some passes with our pace in behind. We wanted runs from other positions, we have encouraged our wing-backs with this. We've worked on exactly this scene in training and shown clips. If you score a goal from this all credit to the players, it's up to them to bring it to life under pressure. You're very happy as a manager, it's a sign they sometimes listen so I'm just happy with this many details today. It was a perfect night for us."
Farke had Arsenal's 4-0 win over Leeds last weekend in the back of his mind as an additional complication in the build-up to a Friday night under the lights at Elland Road. But what his players produced was exactly what they needed.
"Very proud today, this was a complicated game for us," he said. "We've lost the last game, it was still Arsenal but a loss always does something with the confidence and belief. This made a difficult game. It was a game where there was a bit more on the line, sometimes there's a game that feels just a bit more important than others. To deliver in this way with such a spirited performance and a well deserved win - the pitch looked like you should send some sheep on it and not footballers - but to be so dominant and play such a good football game. Then later on when we were a bit - Noah was exhausted, he was excellent, Brenden got a hit, Ilia with his face injury - you could feel we invested so much and out of nothing they scored and for the last moments you're even a bit nervous. Not to celebrate an easy 4-0, 5-0 win but to show steel to bring it over the line is sometimes even more perfect. It will do a lot with our confidence and belief. It's a massive performance and a massive win."
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