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Leeds United boss Daniel Farke says he was sending a message with his starting line-up for the win over Norwich City.
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An unchanged Whites side opened the scoring inside the first minute at Elland Road with Manor Solomon’s fifth of the season from a pinpoint Daniel James’ cross. Norwich had a little spell in which they caused a few problems without creating a clear-cut chance, but the first half and Elland Road went flat with little in the way of exciting action.
It wasn’t until the introduction of Junior Firpo in the second half that things ramped up again and he was involved in the move that brought the second goal. This time it was a Solomon cross and a James finish that settled the game as a contest.
Both Solomon and Brenden Aaronson were injury doubts ahead of the game and the expectation was that there would be at least one change to Farke’s line-up, given they played on Sunday and will face fellow title hopefuls Burnley next. But Farke went with the same side and wanted everyone to see the Norwich game as they see the one at Turf Moor.
“Sometimes I have to surprise you guys and be a bit predictable,” he quipped. “We had three proper nights at home, no travel, there was enough time to recover, the time to the next game is enough to cover and I wanted to send the sign, perhaps people thinking massive game against Burnley you change a bit, that no we take this game seriously, we don’t underestimate any team.
“Manor was able to train yesterday with us. His data and scan were okay. I got the feeling I could give him a rest in a good situation for the last 20 minutes or so. You’re a bit nervous sometimes but the gut feeling was we needed to set the sign we were on it and thank God it paid off.”
Farke was obviously pleased with the result, the clean sheet and the sheer dominance of his men but their attention to detail in the first half annoyed him.
“It was perhaps not our most exciting game and most shining performance, for that we were too solid and dominant in our defending behaviour,” he said. “We literally didn’t give one opportunity away. I think xG in the second half was 0.0. Nothing out of the game, nothing out of set pieces.
We scored an important early goal. Sometimes we had so many good wins here at home, the last game here was a clear result and we scored early. Sometimes you think okay come on, nice easy evening, we normally win the game in the lead and you perhaps do one step less. We were not good in the details, bit slow in the head, not that accurate with passing.
It was not easy, the pitch was not great. The last game was just two and a half days ago. It was not our best performance but in January after many games, in a busy week, this is how you should win such a game.
“With the 2-0 the game was more or less won and we concentrated on being rock solid. We could relax a bit more instead of investing too much. It was then a pretty controlled performance. An important three points and it gives us more confidence.”
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