After their best performance of the season so far against Watford, Leeds United travel to play Southampton on Saturday as they look to extend their unbeaten run in the league to seven games.
Leeds were finally able to record their first home win of the season last week after being frustrated by the likes of West Brom and Sheffield Wednesday earlier in the season. Now Daniel Farke’s side have built up some real momentum going into the game against Southampton.
It is quite the opposite for Russell Martin’s Southampton side who have lost their last four games in a row, including being on the end of two heavy defeats at the hands of Sunderland and Leicester respectively.
Despite this, Daniel Farke believes it is the worst time to play Southampton.
“I couldn’t think of a worse moment to play against them because they have four losses in a row. Obviously it’s tricky at times when you have a busy schedule and you play three games in six or seven days to change things, but for such a big club with high ambitions and many quality players, if you have such a period and then you have a normal week on the training pitch you speak about each and every detail that has to be improved.
A home game against Leeds is a big opportunity because to play against us is more or less always the game of the season for our opponents, but then once we are in red hot form like this you know with one game you have the chance to win the momentum back and change your whole mood.”
During Leeds’ six game unbeaten run they have also managed to keep four clean sheets in a row, a sight United supporters haven’t been used to in recent years as the side were renowned for their defensive frailties.
Manager Daniel Farke said that despite his reputation as an attacking coach, defensive stability is always one of his priorities.
“Football is always a complex game and my ambition is always to attack, to be good in possession, to create chances to score many goals, it’s not just my reputation, it’s my DNA because I think you should play the game in this manner, we are there to entertain our supporters.
In order to do this you need to focus on solid defending and this is always my thought. Although my reputation was that of an attacking coach that concentrates on possession, one of my main topics was also to stabilise the defence and there are different ways to do this.
One of the key areas was to improve our possession, but also the structure in possession in order to be not open once we lose the ball and it’s a pretty complex and tactical topic but we are on a good path,” Farke said.