Leeds United v Hull City: Daniel Farke press conference on team news, young star and best player

Farke spoke to the media in two parts after Friday night’s 2-2 draw at Watford, the second half of his post-match press conference acting as his Hull preview under embargo. Here is everything that was said by the Whites manager including a response to Watford boss Tom Cleverley’s call that Crysencio Summerville was the best player in the league plus praise for young star Mateo Joseph.

Crysencio Summerville - It looked like prime him tonight, what did you do with him during the break to rejuvenate him?

"Yes first of all he needed time to get his body settle down, after knocks and injuries in recent games. It was beneficial for him to have this spell when he could calm down a bit, then we worked with a small group on behaviours and individual details We spoke about a few things, his positioning, to work on what he needed to do to be back to his prime. He fulfilled all my expectations in a perfect way, so we are pleased with the outcome. At least for Cree it was beneficial to have this fortnight.”

Cleverly said he’s best in the league, do you agree?

"I don’t like to compare players too much, they are different positions and you can’t compare Summerville with a defender. We have many other good players in our team, also many others, I respect them all and I don’t like comparisons, that’s for the pundits but for sure he’s having an outstanding season and a season full of class and quality. It’s not just his end product but his maturity also. It says a lot about his character how much he develops and improves his football personality. He’s still a young player but he took responsibility tonight, showed great maturity and is on a good path."

How much did this test your man management skills, with the injuries and players coming back?

"It was not the easiest last couple of days that I had in my coaching career, but I’ve had worse days. It was a joy to work with them, even coming back that late they were all greedy to start, even Junior Firpo! It was tricky to take decisions. It was difficult for them to focus on football again, when you have such an outcome like the Welsh lads for example, or Junior when he’s back from South America in 35 degrees and I have to tell after one day, without sleep, that tomorrow is most important game of the season. It’s always difficult. The lads responded in the perfect way, I have to praise them, they make my life and job easy and they are a joy to work with.”

What are you expecting from Hull on Monday?

"I would have preferred a better result for them today because now they want even more to take something from Elland Road on Monday. We can’t choose. They are one of the best sides in this league, after so many games, the table never lies. They have many threats and players with end product, creative players, so it’s difficult to play against them. We have to be defensive wise spot on to control this, then also be good in our possession, to bring out strength to this game. So, it will be a complicated task but we want to be on it and win as many points as possible.

Mateo has scored twice off the bench in a week, are we likely to see more minutes from him?

"We have lots of competition in this position and it’s always good. I want that my players to be greedy to play every minute and I want this from Mateo to want to start, play each and every second, not that he’s just happy to score from the bench. As a manager and a team and a group, it’s great to have players who can change the game and score out of these situations. Last time I think he scored was when he was in the starting XI at Chelsea, quite impressive, it’s good for his confidence to score after a sub for his national team too. It’s good to have a young player with his energy on the bench. Also the experienced players have delivered with many goals, like Joel

Piroe, Patrick Bamford. Also good to have this group of strikers, you need 35 striker goals to finish in the position we want to finish and we’re on a good path to achieve this."

If Ilia doesn’t make it on Monday, does Ethan have to play there again on Monday?

"It’s too early to judge, it depends on what the outcome with Ilia is, also Jamie Shackleton is longer in training and has a few more days after his injury to be an option on fullback position to give freedom to play Archie in the centre. It’s a complicated task and we have to take the ideas into account, also to have to assess how ready Sam Byram is again for Monday, Junior is hopefully in a good place to start perhaps the next game. So, everything is connected together. I have to assess how ready Liam is after many minutes in last two days. We have to wait for the outcome and then we will take some late decisions.”