How Daniel Farke reacted to Leeds United FA Cup draw and why Crysencio Summerville sat out

Although Farke insisted before the game that he would rather take a replay than exit the competition, another away day at Plymouth is not what his Whites need right now with a number of injuries hampering an already small squad. They took control early on and went ahead through Jaidon Anthony’s fine individual goal in the first half, but were unable to keep Argyle under their thumb as much in the second half. Plymouth levelled with a counter attack finished off by Adam Randell 17 minutes from time to make it a proper cup tie and though Leeds created a number of good chances to win it they were thwarted by goalkeeper Conor Hazard.

Farke was not in the mood to be overly critical of his players, despite his desire to avoid a replay. “Leeds United, we never go the easy way, that's it,” he said. “Obviously we wanted to go into the next round, today we are not, so the first reaction is disappointment. To be honest I'm struggling to be annoyed performance wise. We were so dominant, had good energy with and against the ball. But we played a good side and didn't kill the game with a second goal. Even after the equaliser we had good chances to win and it's football. It was a third game in six days. We had to do without several key players, they had a whole week to prepare, played with their best possible side. A good Plymouth side, with good players playing with confidence, they can create one or two chances and they were able to score one goal. We sadly scored just one of our 10 chances. Congratulations to their effectiveness. We could have done without the replay, but I definitely prefer this draw than to lose. We still have a chance to go into the next round.”

The Leeds side boasted six changes from the midweek win over Norwich City and Farke saw that as a particular challenge for those coming in after scarce recent involvement. “No I wouldn't blame them that much, I feel a bit for them,” he said. It's not that easy, we had six changes, normally it's a bit too much to have a healthy moment for the group. Normally two or three changes, but due to the load and a few injuries, we felt we had to mix things up a bit and risk a bit. Perhaps you lose a bit of rhythm, didn't feel it too much in the first half, we were quite on it. Overall there were several good individual performances. Obviously I would wish for more effectiveness, especially from the offensive players. But it had nothing to do with not enough workload, or mentality or attitude. So no complaints from my side. It's just a bit sad for them that they were not able to use the game in a much better.”

Leeds were without the injured Pascal Struijk, Daniel James, Archie Gray and Farke opted to rest Crysencio Summerville, who reported a minor issue in training on Friday. The German said: “Cree felt a few problems with his adductor in the last session. More or less during the whole season he's had problems with his hip flexors, adductors, quad muscles when there's a big load. We decided not to take any risk in this game. To be fair I don't think he could have played if it was a league game but we hope in two or three days it will be sorted and hopefully he's available for the trip to Bristol.”