Still battling for Premier League survival, Leeds United visit West Ham for a place in the FA Cup semi-finals.
Daniel Farke has outlined his Leeds United FA Cup ‘luck’ hope amid a bread and butter Premier League admission but but points declaration.
Leeds continue to fight on the two fronts of the Premier League and FA Cup and victory at Sunday’s FA Cup quarter-final hosts West Ham would put the Whites in the competition’s semi-finals for the first time since 1987.
Farke admits that making the last four of the competition would mean a lot to the club but has again readily admitted that United’s “bread and butter” has to be the quest to ensure Premier League survival.
That quest will resume next Monday night with a clash against arch rivals Manchester United at Old Trafford, ahead of which Farke’s men sit in 15th place and on 33 points, just four points clear of the dropzone.
Farke, though, says his men should already be on 44 points or even 60 with the added ingredient of missing luck - the Whites boss hoping lady luck now shined on Leeds in another way in the FA Cup.
“The bread and butter and the first topic is definitely to stay up,” said Farke.
“I think this is crucial for this club and this is what we want to achieve. To be in the quarter-final is already a good achievement. But if you can progress further on, it would mean a lot of course.
“And sometimes you ask yourself when you have a look at what we've done and our statistics and you look not just at subjective feelings but also the objective datas, on the matrixes and where we should be in terms of expected points table due to the performance. We should be comfortably in mid-table.
“We should be already on 44 points and would just need to worry if there is perhaps a late push for Europe anyhow and not fighting against relegation.
“Sometimes you ask yourself, why is it anyhow, why don't we, are we not already on the amount of points that we would deserve?
“And why do we get at the moment on a weekly basis a letter more or less from the Premier League and apologise for this decision, a red card, or this decision, was not a penalty, or this decision, the goal should stand?
“We're so, so often unlucky, or why don't we win a game like against Sunderland? Sunderland had out of the game, I think, I just watched it a few days ago, 0.05 expected goals.
“We gave a calamity penalty away. We get apologising letters for not being rewarded with a penalty. And you ask yourself, why is it always so difficult?
“And I know the normal answer is always, ‘yeah, it's Leeds United, we never do it the easy way.
“But I hope also for a perhaps that you get a bit of luck also in the other competition and perhaps we have to suffer a bit like this in order to be rewarded with something different.
“This is also what I have a bit in my mind.
“Perhaps we get this little bit extra luck then in the FA Cup anyhow, because I don't ask for luck.
“With luck we would be on 60 points anyhow. If it'd just be normal, we would be in our mid-40s.
“We were such in so many scenes and also decisions, if I'm honest, so, so unlucky.
“Yes, perhaps we deserve this little bit of luck in order to write history anyhow in the other competition.
“This is what of course I'm hoping for and of course it would be massive.
“But again, the bread and butter and the most important topic is more or less that we stay in the league.”
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