Leeds United and Ipswich Town gap ‘not important’ as boss issues Marcelo Bielsa reminder

Third-placed Leeds approached Wednesday night’s Championship clash at Stoke City having cut the gap to the division’s automatic promotion places to six points but suffered a 1-0 defeat which left them nine points behind second-placed Ipswich Town.

The Tractor Boys also have a game in hand which could extend the gap to 12 points and leave them just two points behind leaders Leicester City who are currently 14 points clear of Leeds. Farke, though, insists that the current gaps are “not important” at this stage of the season and has highlighted how even Marcelo Bielsa’s title-winning Leeds side suffered nine defeats before going up as champions.

"The difference to Ipswich or whatever is not important to me,” said Farke to the YEP ahead of today’s Championship hosting of Huddersfield Town. “The table is for me just important after 40 games. Also, I don't like that you always have to be concerned about something, so if someone would have offered the position three after a really difficult summer break in the end of August that we will be in position three and in the top six with a proper points tally, I think many people would have settled that would be great if you're in this position.

"So, I'm not concerned. We were there on a brilliant little run, it's the Championship but sometimes there's a little setback but you don't have to take too much attention of point differences. For us, it’s just important that we deliver good performances and good results. I think we were not at our best, especially in the first half in the last game and this is our only topic. I want to use our possession better than we did at Stoke but that's the only topic.”

Pressed on whether the key was not to overreact - to work harder to make sure people don’t overreact – Farke reasoned: “Yes, that is normal, it is important after each and every win, our supporters want to dance on the table and after a loss like we conceded at Stoke, you need to have the feeling the world goes down.

"I have the same feeling but I have to stay calm and more level. I don’t dance around with several wins in a row and I don’t overreact to a little setback. I am quite analytical in this way, sometimes it is fine margins because if we would had converted the penalty and scored the first goal, just one team would have won this game and everyone would dance on the table saying, ‘yes it was a difficult away game, first half we had to dig in but the game management was brilliant. What depth in the squad we could rotate, we brought players off the bench and they decided the game,’ but sadly we didn’t convert the penalty and it is the other way around.

"That is quite normal for an emotional club. It is important to stay calm. The last time this club won the league in a perfect way, it could be that I am wrong, but there were nine losses. Last time I was promoted with Norwich, we had six or seven losses, so sometimes you can have a setback, it’s the Championship.

"It’s a long season and no team goes through it without a setback, without losing. This league is too competitive, like I mentioned, not the best league, that’s the Premier League, but this is the toughest league and if you don’t have a mindset to keep going after a setback and you don’t lose your confidence, you have a problem.

"The most important topic after a setback is to react in the right way and make sure there is not back to back losses. This is what we’ve done so far and why we are highly motivated to show a reaction tomorrow and win the points.”