Daniel Farke admits no-one at Leeds is “dancing on the table” with delight at how the transfer window ended.
Leeds had hoped to sign another attacking player but a move for Fulham’s Harry Wilson fell through at the last minute, leaving the West Yorkshire side short of options in the final third.
It hasn’t prevented the newly promoted club from taking four points from their first three games and Farke insists, while disappointed, he won’t sulk at the hand he has been given.
Speaking ahead of the weekend trip to face Wilson and Fulham at Craven Cottage, the German said: “I’m already focused on the next game but it’s fair to say we are not dancing on the table.
“I’ve got principles with how I work. One is, I like openness and transparency and name it how I see it and speak in general what is necessary to do as a club. We have such a big fan base – I don’t want to navigate around some cliffs.
“Second principle is, once the window is closed you won’t hear one bad comment from me. I am fortunate to work in this business and my job is to adapt to the reality. I don’t need to feel sorry for myself.”
We did want another forward, says Farke
Farke did admit, however, that it was always the plan to sign another forward player prior to the window closing on September 1.
He added: “I don’t want to say different things to what I’ve said before. I won’t come out and say it was never the plan to sign offensive players. I would never do this because I don’t like to talk nonsense. Once the situation is done I adapt to the reality. You won’t hear one bad word from me. I’m there for my players.
“There is no point for me to feel down and sorry for myself. We perhaps wanted a different deadline day or different transfer window, but right now we are just focused on trying to get as many Premier League points as possible.
“I’m fully focused on Fulham. We need to earn the right to stay up.”
Leeds hit by injuries
As is often the case, having missed out on Wilson, Leeds have suffered injuries to two forward players with both Joel Piroe and Lukas Nmecha struggling to be fit for the game in West London.
“There’s a few little question marks around Lukas Nmecha – he got a hit on his foot and missed training – also Joel Piroe, he got hit on his calf and has a big bruise,” said Farke. “We have to wait for how their bodies react in the next 24 hours so there are little doubts around them.”
Elsewhere it was mixed news for Leeds.
“Lucas Perri is definitely out for the game,” said Farke of the goalkeeper who is likely to be replaced by Karl Darlow. “He reported after the last game some problems with his quad. He had a scan and there’s a muscle strain. He will definitely miss the next two games and then we’ll have more clarity.
“And there’s some good news. Ethan Ampadu and Ao Tanaka are both integrated into major parts of team training. Ethan slightly more. But we also have 48 more hours and we’ll take a late decision with them. But both are possible, it depends how they react in the next 48 hours.”
