Good Morning. It's Thursday 30th November, and here are the latest headlines from Elland Road...
Leeds keep pace with top two after early setbackLeeds kept their unbeaten home record intact, but had to come from behind, to overcome a spirited Swansea City side last night at Elland Road. With six wins and three draws so far, the Whites have the second best home form in the Championship (behind Ipswich Town), and the the only team yet to lose at home.
They felt confident of extending that record, when Dan James netted after just 45 seconds. Unfortunately, his effort was ruled out for offside. Euphoria quickly turned to anguish when, 15 seconds later, Jamie Patterson put the visitors ahead with a delightful chip.
Leeds weren't be be denied, and were level just a few minutes later, thanks mainly to Crysencio Summerville's surging run from halfway, and subsequent perfectly weighted through ball, which Piroe finished off in style. The away fans were incensed by their former heroes' celebrations, but that didn't bother the Dutchman.
After wasting several chances, the Whites finally took the lead, deep into first half injury time. Rutter latched onto Ampadu's long range pass, (played just in front of his own penalty area), bringing the ball under his spell in one touch. He held off the challenge from Humphreys, before beating Rushworth at his near post.
Rutter turned provider for Leeds third, with James smashing the ball into the roof of the net from 12 yards to ruin any chance that his former club would stage an unlikely comeback.
Farke snaps back at Duff's assessment of the gameIn his post match presser, Leeds boss Daniel Farke was quick to disagree with Michael Duff's assessment of the game. The Jacks boss had just stated that the difference between the two sides was Leeds finishing, which Duff had called 'Premier League quality'. Farke took exception at this, claiming that Leeds were far more dominant during the game, and also pointed at the expected goals or XG (the stat that measures the quality of a chance by calculating the likelihood that it will be scored by using past data) was seven or eight times higher than Swansea's.
I'm not sure if we would agree. I think the difference was the way we create the chances. We created chances through the centre, over the wing out of counter attacks. Like I mentioned before, expected goals for us was seven or eight times as high as their expected goals was.
I didn't see too many saves from Meslier today and also not shots against the crossbar or post. I think we didn't allow them to have chances apart from this, yeah, we had the scene at the beginning of the of the game. I think the difference was today that we created many, many chances. Yes, in terms of finishing we can definitely use our chance better. So efficiency is the topic we always speak about but yeah, also the way we scored the three goals was also outstanding.
Yeah, can't criticise my offensive players today too much in terms of the performance and also how they create a chances, also the way they scored the three goals. It was great today.
Spence on the comeback trailWe can expect to see Djed Spence back in action over the 'upcoming weeks', according to Leeds Manager Daniel Farke. The exciting full back has been out of action for nine weeks after a freak knee injury, he sustained in training put him out of in training, back in September. He has resumed full training at Thorp Arch and will gradually be eased back into action. Luke Ayling was dropped from the squad last night, as Spence was named in Farke's 20 man squad...
Yes, it was no gift. Djed is 11 or 12 days in training and you can see him growing more or less from training session to training session. He also gained some fitness obviously after such a long-term injury and also after such a difficult pre-season for him so he can't be there with 100 per cent. Today we got the feeling he deserves already to be in the squad because the last days and training he was quite on it and it was quite impressive for that we decided today to have Djed as an option also with us.
Yes, if he works that concentrated and focused, especially on this fitness level, because we don't have to talk about this potential and his quality, he has proved this on this level. If you work further on that, focused and concentrated in training each and every day and also to gain more and more rhythm. Yes, also good chances in the upcoming weeks to be involved with game time.
