Leeds United boss Daniel Farke returns from weekend off to find fresh headache and Mourinho mindset

There was one upside from playing Sheffield Wednesday on the Friday night that followed the Tuesday, that followed the Saturday lunchtime kick-off, that followed the Wednesday night FA Cup trip to London, because it handed Leeds a weekend off and a full eight day gap between fixtures. Farke's weekend was a simple one: "Like always - sofa, cake coffee. No, really. Honestly, I'm looking forward to a really relaxed weekend. The last weeks were crazy mental and so much load also. It's important for now for the players and for the whole staff, and not just for me, the whole staff. We have travelled so many miles and it's important right now also to enjoy ourselves for the next two or three days. Enjoying ourselves means for me in my age recovering on the sofa, really I'm looking forward to having some sleep and then to rest a bit and not too much movement and not much thinking about football. So from the beginning of next week, we'll then speak about our next opponent Millwall but next few days I just want to enjoy myself."

When Farke does stand in front of his players to address Sunday's Elland Road visitors Millwall there will be some obvious themes to address. Neil Harris is back at The Den for a second managerial stint after more than three years away. In the time since he resigned in October 2019, Leeds have gone to the Premier League and back, changed owners and said goodbye to four permanent managers. So much has changed and yet when the two sets of fans come face to face, it will of course be just like old times. And with Harris in the opposition dugout, there will be a familiarity to the task Leeds will be set.

Millwall are, just as they were in 2019/20, one of the league's most dangerous teams from set-pieces. Then they scored 20 from dead balls and now they're sitting on 14. They don't score many from open play - just 21 so far this season - but only Cardiff City have scored more from set-pieces. What's more, since Harris returned, only one of the five goals they've scored in a four-game unbeaten run has come from open play.

A shock 2-1 win over Southampton came courtesy of a big swinging free-kick and a brave header from Japhet Tanganga, who took a lump from the keeper for his troubles, and a penalty kick. The only goal of their victory against Watford was a Zian Flemming free-kick, hit too fiercely for Ben Hamer to keep out. And the only goal of their win over Birmingham was a Tanganga header from a back post corner. "Ultimately, he's headed the ball a lot [in both boxes] and to be a good Millwall centre-half you have to do that," said Harris of his match-winner.

Farke's comments from his time as Norwich boss show that he will come into this week knowing exactly what to prepare for. “Neil Harris was always known as a coach who pays a lot of attention to set-pieces, as did Cardiff,” Farke said three years ago. “No other team has scored more goals from set-pieces, so one topic is to control possession and keep them as far away from our goal as possible, but then you have to be focused to defend them. Man City were always one of the teams who conceded the fewest set-piece goals, but it's not like they have tall players, they just don't concede corners or free-kicks.”

Manchester City have also been pretty good at scoring from set-pieces. Pep Guardiola once said: "The secret of set pieces is about the taker. With a good taker, you have a chance. You can make movements to the near post or far post but it doesn't matter because the taker is the most important thing." George Saville, George Honeyman and Joe Bryan each have key passes - the pass leading to a shot - in double figures from corners and 10 between them free-kicks. Millwall have generated more set-piece shots than any other Championship team and their set-piece expected goals is 14.78 so they're converting just about as many as they should be. Delivery is obviously key but given that their most prolific corner taker, Saville, only has a pair of assists from corners and his accurate versus inaccurate corner ratio is far inferior to that of Crycensio Summerville, Dan James or Ilia Gruev, the Londoners have something else going for them when the ball is swung in. Collective danger. Their dead-ball threat is not simply limited to one or two big men attacking the ball. Kevin Nisbet's three set-piece goals - one of which was a lovely free-kick he curled home against Birmingham City - places him inside the division's top 10 for the metric. No fewer than four of his team-mates are just a set-piece goal behind him. And a number of the goals they have scored from corners, free-kicks or throw-ins have required persistence and belligerence. Fighting for the first ball, causing problems, taking advantage.

It should not come as much of a surprise, when you consider that Millwall have won more aerial battles than anyone else in the Championship this season - about 300 more than Leeds in fact. The good news is that the men facing a headache-inducing aerial bombardment this weekend are no light touch themselves in the air because they've also lost about 300 fewer duels than Millwall. The Lions win about 50 per cent of their challenges in the air, Leeds win about 52 per cent of theirs. And Leeds have, just like their next visitors, conceded just seven times from set-pieces - a joint second best tally in the division thus far.

The other potential source of pain comes, quite literally, from Millwall's status as the division's most penalised outfit. They've been pinged by referees for 105 more fouls than Leeds this season. Millwall have the fourth worst disciplinary record in terms of yellows and reds, with 85 and one respectively. And though Harris' first three games in charge saw Millwall conceding fewer fouls than their seasonal per-game average, they gave away 17 of them last time out against Birmingham. But, again, this will be nothing new for Leeds, the fourth most-fouled team in the league. And keeping a lid on it in the face of aggression should not be a big ask for the owners of the Championship's best disciplinary record.

Ultimately, this is unlikely to be a game the likes of which we have not seen before this season. And if Millwall come to Elland Road with the intention to be combative, draw Leeds into a physical battle and then profit from set-pieces, would you blame them? Sitting just five points clear of the drop zone, they will do what they have to do to using the tools at their disposal. If you have a Jake Cooper then you'll use him as a Jake Cooper can be used. Assistant head coach David Livermore told South London Press: "There is that quote when Jose Mourinho was asked what his playing philosophy is and he answered: “Well, what players have I got?” It’s true. What players have we got in the building and what is the best way to achieve the objective which, for us at the minute, is to move away from the bottom three or four places in the league? Medium to long-term I get it, you want to be at the right end of the table and playing entertaining free-flowing football but that isn’t always the reality, is it?Our job is to get these players winning football matches. We are coming up against some really good teams and the first two we faced were ex-Premier League clubs that have fantastic budgets. They play a really good brand of football but we found a way to win – that is ultimately what the game is about, scoring one more goal than the opponent."

You can never discount the possibility of a surprise, even if Millwall have scored just one counter attack goal this entire season and even if they won't see a lot of the ball. Southampton had a staggering 81 per cent of the possession and still lost at home to the Lions. Therein lies a warning for Leeds. Whether or not they’ve seen it all before and Millwall’s challenge is just a fresh badge on the kind of performance so many have mustered at Elland Road, this will be no sleepy Sunday afternoon fixture. Leeds will have to be alive to every conceivable threat - especially when the ball is dead.