'Who?' - Rival boss in strong Daniel Farke declaration, Leeds United admission and Birmingham City comparison
A rival boss has made a strong declaration about Daniel Farke - with a Leeds United admission.
Derby County boss Paul Warne has launched a strong defence of his Leeds United opposite number Daniel Farke with a Whites admission and Birmingham City comparison.
Warne will take his 15th-placed Derby side to Elland Road on Saturday for a lunchtime kick-off which both sides are approaching following defeats last weekend.
Warne, though, says he ‘cannot believe’ any suggestions that Whites boss Farke is under pressure following a defeat at Blackburn Rovers which left Leeds out of the Championship’s automatic promotion places and down in third place.
Speaking to the BBC, Warne praised United’s football under Farke as he admitted Leeds were a team battling with the expectation of being in a division lower than they should be - as with Birmingham City in League One.
The Derby boss also questioned exactly “who” would be a better option for Leeds than double-promotion winner Farke as he spelt out just what would be needed to take anything from Saturday’s clash at Elland Road.
Pressed on Leeds ‘being under a bit of pressure for their performances under Farke’, Warne replied: "I can't believe he is under any pressure at all. If we are going off an echo chamber on social media then maybe he is but I wouldn't have thought so.
"I have been to Leeds this year, I didn't hear one bad thing about him. The atmosphere was electric, the team played really well and I've even seen the team lose there this year and it was obviously disappointment.
“The pressure on Leeds to get up is the same every year, it's a difficult one when there is a big club in a league lower than it should be, the same as Birmingham this year.
“Birmingham aren't going to win every game they play in, Leeds aren't. Every time Leeds do lose though and I have watched the Blackburn game in its entirety and I have shown a lot of that to the lads, they always seem to bounce back.
"It's a little bit like us, if you just look at the scoreline with our last game you could argue that we lost. If you look at just the scoreline, you could say they lost at Blackburn.
"But if you watch the game, they did everything to win it so I don't believe he's under any pressure at all. And if they did get rid of him, I don't know who they would suggest to get in, who could do it any better than what he's doing. I think they're a great team.”
Picking out a particular set of Leeds stats, Warne added: “To put it into context, in the last five games, because we're obsessed with set pieces, they've only conceded eight corners. That doesn't sound like a team that's struggling to me.
“Some teams concede eight corners in one half so they're a really offensive team, they've got pace throughout the team, they have real confidence and at home, it's fair to say that it's probably the toughest place to go in this league. That's what I think so we're going to have to be absolutely at our best with the players that are available to us for this game.
“We're going to have to work really hard out of possession and I know no Leeds fan is going to want to hear that because they want to hear a team that's going to come and absolutely go for it.
"But you have to pick and choose when we go for it so we're going to have to be really clever and we're going to have to have a lot to go our way. But we are also going to have to have a threat when we get the ball and we are going to have to be a threat every time we have restarts and corners and free kicks and everything on top of that.
"There's a lot to go into it to compete but these are the games you want to be involved in and if you ask the players, the players are like, absolutely fearless.
“They go into it knowing there's no expectation on them, which is a dangerous and an enjoyable place to be so hopefully we can put on a performance worthy to come away with points in whichever way it comes."