Daniel Farke unimpressed with ‘overconfident’ Leeds ahead of Portsmouth fixture
Leeds boss Daniel Farke was far from impressed with his side’s performance against West Brom ahead of next weekend’s trip to Pompey.
The Whites missed the opportunity to maintain their five-point gap to Sheffield United at the top of the Championship table after only managing a 1-1 draw against the play-off chasing Baggies.
Despite Junior Firpo putting Leeds ahead after nine minutes, they were pegged back six minutes before half-time and were unable to find a second-half winner.
The point saw the Elland Road outfit bring a five-game winning run to an end a week before they make the trip to face Pompey at Fratton Park in front of the Sky Sports cameras.
And ahead of the visit to the south coast, Farke was less than impressed with his side’s display after going ahead within 10 minutes.
Speaking to Leeds Live following the draw, the head coach said: ‘Yes, sometimes you have also have to accept and learn to live with a point and we do today.
‘Top start to the game, we played on the front foot and scored a fantastic goal. You could feel 'OK we can only bury the game'. Like always, we have so many highlights, spotlight games, difficult emotional games and then you go and lead and the sun is shining. Perhaps we were a bit overconfident in possession.
‘We lost then a bit of the control over the game, our passing was not 100% focused. West Brom came back into the game, with a good header and they scored the equaliser. It was a good reaction in the second half because it is difficult once you lose momentum over the game then to gain control back.
‘We played against a good side, sadly missed too many chances, sometimes the other side can score on the counter attack and you can lose such a game. In the end we wanted to but in the end you have to live with a point.’
With Leeds only managing a draw against West Brom, second-placed side Sheffield United were able to close the deficit to the Championship summit by two points as they edged past QPR.
That leaves the Whites three points ahead of the Blades and eight points in front of third-place Burnley ahead of their trip to Fratton Park next weekend.
Pompey will go into next Sunday’s fixture without Rob Atkinson, who will be absent for 6-8 weeks with a calf issue and Hayden Matthews, who has been ruled out for the rest of the season with an ankle injury.
The Blues head into the contest, which will be shown live on Sky Sports at midday, off the back of Saturday’s disappointing 1-0 defeat to Luton but are unbeaten in 10 of their previous 11 Championship games at Fratton Park.
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