'Right now' - Daniel Farke's admission about Leeds United's pre-season and young players need

United’s quest to bounce back from relegation at the first attempt will begin when the Championship season starts in just two weeks’ time with the visit of Cardiff City, ahead of which the club took in their latest pre-season friendly on Saturday against AS Monaco.

The French outfit have spent seven of the last nine seasons competing in the Champions League and recorded a 2-0 victory in Saturday’s clash at the LNER Community Stadium in York as a second-half penalty from Wissam Ben Yedder was followed by a Kevin Volland looping header.

For Leeds, the defeat followed the previous week’s 2-0 loss against Manchester United in Oslo, albeit sandwiched by a 9-1 thrashing of Barnsley in a game played behind closed doors, and new boss Farke has admitted that he would have preferred to face “easier” opposition ahead of the new campaign.

Two more tests against top-flight opponents await before the start of the new season via Thursday night’s clash against Nottingham Forest at Burton Albion before Sunday’s visit to Tynecastle Park to face Hearts.

Farke has highlighted how his side are also having to deal with continued transfer “distraction” but says the strength of opposition faced this summer is particularly good for the development of his club’s youngsters who the Whites manager says are needed here and now.

Speaking to LUTV, Farke was asked if the squad was where he wanted it to be and reasoned: “You always want to be already on the top class level but I am also not naive. I know realistically how difficult it is after relegation.

"Also the contract situation is like it is, obviously there is also a lot of ongoing stuff and distraction also from the work. But I have to give praise to my lads so far because they are fully concentrated on the training pitch, fully concentrated on hard work and getting ready for the Championship.

"We have pretty tough pre-season friendlies. If I would have had influence after relegation perhaps I would have had a few easier opponents than just Man United and Monaco and we also play a few other strong sides. But so far so good I would say.

"I think it's important that we also grow as a team and also grow as individual players and these tests against, I wouldn't say world class sides but definitely a side who is European class is good also for the development of our young players. We need our young players to step up right now and also for our future. Important tests and so far so good."