Leeds United press conference highlights as Daniel Farke confirms injury bad news for winger

I tried 12 months ago to sign him, I was desperate, I followed him, he caught my eyes in the second tier. I’m fully convinced of his qualities. Good age, tidy on the ball, good passing skills and can score goals. Out of number eight role he has scored and assisted. He plays the second-last pass, I really like him, we like to dominate the game and possession, are good with the ball and smart. It’s the same for him, big challenge and honour to have this move to England - he’s desperate to play with us. A bit same like Isaac, he hasn’t played on the top level for a while. Obviously he comes from the second tier in Germany so we’ll give him time to adapt. First glimpses are promising, I liked his cameo, he’s shown there has good passing choices. Good sense of humour, really like him, good to have around, it’s difficult to predict right now he will have the best midfielder in the league, lots of competition in this position. He was not so much in the spotlight so far, I’d like to mention Joe Rothwell, he’s not played one bad pass, I like his skills and in pre-season. Together with Joe, Ao, I think we are really good in this position. We are all happy Ao has finally arrived. Today he was back after international duties at Thorp Arch.

I haven’t really thought about this to be honest, never say never but we’re not tempted. Our group is not too big right now, 99.9% we will not lose any players.

Great guy, still a really good age, on his way up the hill in his career. Desperate to play for the shirt, great mentality. The lads love him already, but you have to keep a bit in mind, he has not played in one of the top five leagues in Europe. The Premier League for me is the best in the world, but the Ch’ship is the toughest with the load and physicality. We will give him time to adapt to this. We have some proper options in the full-back position. He’s an important squad player, we will bring him to the door, work with him, lift his potential and it’s up to him to grab it with both hands. He has lots of potential and also a great mentality, character, lots of competition for him.

I think it’s important you don’t change your whole principles because a player is not available. For that, it’s not like you say we go for proper 4-4-2 long balls and second balls to our strikers, that’s not our style. We stick to our beliefs. There could be an injury, you can’t change your whole processes. It’s important you adapt to your reality and make the best of what you’ve got. We have players who can fulfil this creative role, perhaps not like Georginio Rutter, but can fulfil it in a slightly different way. We will always adapt our style to strengths of our players. We want to have different scenarios, we’ve played with a goalscorer in this No. 10 role with Joel Piroe, good against the ball and covers a lot of distance. We’ll keep going with what we’ve got and adapt to the reality. So far we’re unbeaten and have found some good solutions.

I think even the first games were really big tests. Away game at West Brom unbelievably difficult, they’re more settled and less fluctuation than us and Burnley. In the Ch’ship, every game is a challenge and Burnley is without doubt one of the best sides in this league, very experienced coach, mature players, one of the big contenders for winning the title. Top start into this new season, little setback in the last game but overall we know it’s a tough task. Lots of individual quality within their team, lots of experienced players in the central positions. We have to be at our best, it’s tricky when 13 players are away, but at least we have a home game. Early kickoff on Saturday, would’ve wished for a later kickoff but it is what it is. We want to stay unbeaten with good defending and want to win as many points as possible.

For me, there is no time to reflect. Within the recruitment team, there is time in order to speak about the process but for me it’s not like the end of August I can reflect for two weeks, the proper work begins to integrate the new lads. Players like Manor, Ao, Largie, Isaac, it’s important they get integrated. We had many individual talks and scenes of our game and principles. There’s not much time for reflection. It’s more like hard work is going on. It’s good that rumours are done.

You can’t work team tactically, Manor Solomon or Ao Tanaka leaving immediately, it’s not easy or great. Isaac Schmidt just gets to know the team right now. You have a bit more time for individual work, that works. Tactically is a bit tricky because you can only train with them [in one session] tomorrow. It’s tricky to prepare them really for the first game after the int’l break. You literally have just one or two days. It’s a good problem to have, we don’t complain.

Patrick has been back involved in team training since Tuesday. We will still be careful with him, he’s not ready to play 90 minutes. It’s good he’s back in training. He will be important during the season.

It was more or less 13 players that were away for us. First week was tricky, we only had eight players for first-team training. The lads were coming back on Tuesday, we trained with ten outfield players. We still had a few who had a recovery session today. There will be some late decisions as there were some small injuries. Big question mark behind Max Wober, he returned with a meniscus problem. Late decision with him. Also some bad news with Dan James, he had a re-injury during his rehab, sadly it’s even worse than before. He is out for four weeks.

It’s not up to me to announce it in a press conference. When there is something, the club will speak about it. We made sure he had the best possible farewell within the group. It’s good he finished with a strong last season with 90 points, he was still unbelievably important in our group. Whenever you need him to help on the pitch he was always there and I could always count on him.

I’ve spoken so much about Liam in the past. It’s now officially announced, I’ve nothing to add, it was a pleasure and privilege to be his manager. I’ve also played several times against him in his prime. Fantastic footballer, fantastic human being, he’s a real club legend what he’s done in the last decade, it’s second to none. He lives our mantra, side before self. He will always be with us in our hearts. From the bottom of my heart, I wish him all the best.