Leeds United £10m man told to 'step up' by manager as midfield injury extent is revealed
Daniel Farke saw his Leeds United side held to a 1-1 draw at Luton Town.
Daniel Farke has called on Leeds United Largie Ramazani to 'step up' if he wants more game time in the promotion run-in.
With Leeds drawing 1-1 at relegation-threatened Luton on Saturday Farke turned to Isaac Schmidt to replace Manor Solomon on the left flank.
Though Farke pointed out that Schmidt has played a lot on the wing in the early part of his career, the newly-capped Swiss international was brought to Elland Road as a full-back last summer and Ramazani was a circa £10m winner, bought from Almeria.
The Belgian has struggled to get into the team since injuring his ankle early on in the campaign and was overlooked entirely today even with his side in need of a winner.
"Isaac looked really sharp in training, he has strength in driving forward and we had the feeling if he can cut in with his strong right foot he can create a chance," said Farke of his substitution.
"He was so close to making this happen. We wanted a player on the pitch a bit more solid in the duels, I was not 100 per cent happy with last performances in terms of the maturity in duels of Largie. He has to step up a bit if he wants game time."
Leeds were without Joe Rothwell, who suffered a calf injury in training on Friday, and illness kept Mateo Joseph out of contention for a place in the squad. The Whites also lost Pascal Struijk to a foot problem late on and the centre-half limped off down the tunnel slowly and gingerly at full-time.
Farke revealed: “Mateo is ill, Joe Rothwell is out with a calf injury from training yesterday, Pascal had to go out injured, Max [Wober, Struijk's replacement] is just one week in training. I'm happy how we handled this adversity.
"Joe Rothwell will be out at least for the next three weeks, will definitely miss the next four games. We'll try everything to bring him back. With Pascal right now I'm not sure, the striker hit on his foot and it got more and more painful, he could hardly step on it. It's a bit too early to judge. I think he was top class today in many situations."