Daniel Farke has been speaking in Friday’s press conference ahead of Leeds United’s play-off semi-final against Norwich City and he identifies one advantage The Whites have.
Leeds failed to finish in the automatic promotion places this term as Kieran McKenna’s Ipswich overtook The Whites into second, with Farke’s men losing four of their last six Championship matches in the run in.
It means that Leeds go up against Norwich on Sunday as third place take on sixth place, away from home in the first leg. Leeds will take confidence from the fact they have beaten Norwich twice already this term.
Plenty of players, managers and pundits have given their take on the play-offs and who will win. But on Friday, both Ray Parlour and Ian Holloway predicted Southampton to go and win the mini-tournament.
But Farke believes Leeds have an advantage over Norwich and discusses it in his press conference on Friday, as The Yorkshire side prepare to do battle against his old club Norwich for the third time this term.
Here is what Farke said on Friday afternoon:
Farke says Leeds have one crucial advantage over Norwich
With Leeds sitting in third place in the Championship, it means The Whites will play away first before going up against The Canaries in the second leg at Elland Road before a final at Wembley on May 26.
Farke mentioned in his press conference today that playing at home in the second leg hands Leeds a massive advantage, but said anything that happened in the regular season beforehand no longer matters.
“We can moan about the run in and yes it can be a bit better, form, injuries, it doesn’t matter anymore. 90 points, unbeaten record, clean sheets, two wins against Norwich doesn’t matter anymore,” Farke said.
“It’s a new competition. We had the 46 games to earn this and finished in position three which is good because it means the second leg is at home,” the Leeds manager said, ahead of Sunday’s encounter.
What Norwich are saying about facing Leeds this weekend
Norwich defender Jack Stacey has already commented on the clash and admits he knows how hard it is going to be for his side, praising Leeds for the quality on the pitch after losing on two occasions recently.
“The thing you can take from today is the importance of a home atmosphere. We want to create that for Leeds and use that to our advantage. We know they’re a good team, have lots of real individual quality.”
Norwich manager David Wagner has also commented on Sunday’s match and he claims that if Leeds aren’t promoted then there will be trouble at Elland Road next season, perhaps attempting mind games.
“One of Leeds or Southampton will fail to win promotion and that is something that I think will cause them a lot of trouble. Leeds are a big club with big players, big money and big pressure,” Wagner said.