Leeds United have now failed to score in four consecutive Premier League games.
Leeds United boss Daniel Farke says his side have the necessary goals in them to earn the points needed to stay in the Premier League, despite a fourth successive blank.
Leeds had more possession, shots and corners but still created an xG of just 0.54 to Brentford's 0.46 in a 0-0 draw at Elland Road. Attacking quality was in short supply all night and neither goalkeeper was asked to produce their best. Although the Whites had the better of the second half, Brentford defended their box well enough to ensure Leeds would go four Premier League games without a goal. The last time Farke's men scored from open play was at Chelsea on February 10, six games ago.
"Not alarmed," said Farke. "You have these periods. We had a period where we conceded a few too many. I'm happy we have three clean sheets in a row, with the FA Cup game. We created chances at Crystal Palace. Today I would just judge it as an isolated game, they had really good defensive behaviour. Overall we're very aware that we don't have the individual quality to expect to just beat a player and go score a goal. It was a bit risky later on sacrificing a centre-back and bringing Daniel James on, changed to 4-2-3-1. We had many offensive players on, because we wanted to win. But it was also important not to do something stupid and lose this game and run into counter after counter. It was not enough to score goals but over the season we've proved we have goals in us."
Farke believes somewhere between five and seven points will secure survival in the Premier League for his team this season and he likes their chances of doing it.
"We edge one point closer," he said. "Right now we have to win five to seven points, this will do it. We need to win two games, or whatever, draw from now on. I'll definitely take it because with 40 points you'll definitely stay in the league. It's not an easy cruise to the promised land. I expected a tough season. We're on 33 points, in a quarter-final of the FA Cup. I'm very confident if we keep going with this mentality, we have enough to win the five to seven points we need. We have three home games and four chances on the road."
Just as opposite number Keith Andrews credited Leeds for causing more problems in the second half, Farke pointed out how successful Brentford have been this season when asked why it was so difficult to create good chances.
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"I think you could see why Brentford is not just an established Premier League side but sitting in position seven and fighting for Europe," he said. "Rock solid at the back and had many players offensive wise who play with confidence and have scored many goals. It's the first side since a while who could handle our physicality. They even adapted their base formation to have good solutions in defending. They defended really well. Against such an in-form offence you have to make sure you don't run too much into counters and chances. I'm pretty happy with a clean sheet, that we controlled all their counter attacks. The last final composure in and around their box was of course missing. We're probably the only side who has probably dominated each statistic in both games against Brentford. It was still a tight game, they didn't allow clear cut chances. It's a bit of an expression of what we are, it's not like we can cut a team to pieces with unbelievable individual quality."
The one moment Farke particularly lamented came in the second half when no one read Pascal Struijk's front-post flick on from Anton Stach's corner and the ball sailed harmlessly wide.
"If you're missing the final push, when we had a bit of a powerplay, lots of momentum, it was missing the anticipation," he said. "I think about Pascal's header, normally we have a clear process to make that run and have a tap-in. For that we have to settle for a point, a valuable point."
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