After a long couple of weeks, club football is well and truly back. Leeds United will resume their campaign when they travel to The Den on Sunday to take on Millwall. Niall Togher looks ahead to a tough looking encounter.
After a dramatic deadline day that saw Leeds lose Luis Sinisterra to Bournemouth on loan but welcome Jaidon Anthony in from Bournemouth in return to replace him, the squad is finally settled after a chaotic summer at Elland Road.
Manager Daniel Farke said the international break was “much needed” and that it has allowed him to further integrate some new signings with some more individual based training as quite a few Leeds players were off on international duty meaning he could work more personally with the smaller group.
“Since Wednesday we are all back together as a whole group so it’s not too much time but then knowing this is the group we have for the upcoming month and with this group we want to achieve our targets and right now we have clarity, and the uncertainty has gone away, and we can focus on good training sessions” Farke said.
Sunday’s game is another tough test for this new look Leeds United. Millwall narrowly missed out on the playoffs last season and Gary Rowett’s side have got off to a steady start that sees them just three points outside of the playoff positions after their first five games.
Similarly to the game against Sheffield Wednesday, Millwall versus Leeds United is another rivalry that has been reignited for the first time in a few years as a result of Leeds’ relegation to the Championship and Daniel Farke is expecting a tough test at The Den.
“The Den is an unbelievably tough place to go, I’ve played there several times and it could be impressive especially for young players or players who are not used to playing at a Championship level and especially in such a tough place, we’ve spoken about this.
Speaking about this and preparing them in a theoretical way is one thing but bringing this onto the pitch is when it really counts is a different question, but this will definitely be one of our tasks also to play with fire in the heart but also cool in the head.”
In a few of Farke’s games as manager, Leeds have been able to dominate large periods of games whilst creating numerous chances however they have been unable to convert those chances that would have turned some draws into wins.
“I am quite confident we have enough quality and creativity within our squad in order to find final passes and to find more end product because that is definitely something we want to improve.
We have created an unbelievable amount of chances in the last few games but lacked a bit of end product so let’s be brutal and clinical with our finishing” Farke said.