The ‘been-there-done-that’ aspect of Daniel Farke’s CV was a major consideration when Leeds United hired him, and it can bring important comfort this season.
Farke himself referred to his experience with Leeds’ delayed start as the manager and the Elland Road hierarchy struggled to create a final squad during the most complicated of transfer windows.
The Whites won just one of their first five games, but Farke was unconcerned because he had been there before. Farke’s first six games as Norwich City manager in the 2018/19 season delivered just a single victory.
His second Championship title came in 2021, despite only winning one of the first four league games and losing two.
“I also had this experience with Norwich,” he stated recently following a 0-0 draw with Sheffield Wednesday.
“The first time we were promoted, we did so with a club record season, over 90 points, and a brilliant, brilliant season – after the same number of games with fewer points than we do now.” Teemu Pukki was lauded as the league’s outstanding player, and with over 30 goals, I believe he was just there with zero goals at this point. So I’ve had enough experience to realize that it’s a long season, and you don’t have to be where you want to be after five or ten game days.”
Farke’s lesson is one he does not need to reiterate right now, following a 3-1 loss to Southampton, because only nine game days have elapsed, but it is worth remembering. The Championship season is long and incredibly unpredictable – who could have predicted the St Mary’s result, after all – and so much can happen to derail the starts of multiple teams.
With nine games completed, the table has not yet reached a particularly illuminating level, therefore Leeds’ ninth-place finish and 13-point haul are not obstacles to success.
What can be said is that for Farke to win a third Championship title, or even just automatic promotion as runners-up, Leeds will have to tread into territory that no one, not even their manager, has walked in the previous ten years.
The gap to leaders Leicester City is at 11 points. Leeds have 13 points, nine fewer than second-placed Ipswich Town.
With as many games played over the last decade, none of the automatically promoted teams have had to overcome a deficit as large as the one Leeds are facing.
There have been examples of clubs making a similarly brisk start to the season and yet climbing the standings while avoiding the playoffs. Burnley got 14 points after nine games last season and went on to win 101. In the 2018/19 season, Farke’s Norwich City had 14 goals from nine attempts. The key difference in each of those situations is that the Clarets were only six points off first place and two points off second place, but Norwich were four points off the leaders, who happened to be Leeds United.
Bournemouth, the 2014/15 second-tier winners, set a more encouraging pattern. They had 12 points after nine game days, making them the only automatic qualifier in the last ten years to have a lower score than Leeds now have. Furthermore, they were in 14th place with an eight-point disadvantage to the leaders.
The Cherries displayed two things that season. To begin with, things may change quickly in this division; they were at the top by the first week of November. Second, a promotion charge is based on the number of runs. They went 14 games without losing before finishing the season on another 13-game unbeaten streak. Momentum is everything, as Leeds proved under Marcelo Bielsa and Norwich did under Farke.
The last ten years of the Championship also show that this season’s front runners have taken off at breakneck speed.
Only one of those ten seasons had a team with more points than Ipswich after nine games, demonstrating how outstanding the newly-promoted side had been under Kieran McKenna and casting a brilliant light on Leeds’ Portman Road victory.
Leicester provides the exclamation point, with a 24-point haul that bests the previous decade’s better nine-game totals. The Foxes are flying high, with an eight-point lead over fourth-placed Sunderland.
The gap exists, and it is significant, but how much you mind it is all up to you.
If your glass is half full, you raise it to Jamie Vardy and pals, satisfied that no one’s start can compare to what Enzo Maresca has done thus far, and in any event, nine of the last ten champions had a deficit to overcome by this point. Maresca and McKenna have never played in the Championship before, and they will face hurdles, including their own blips and dips in form. Squad depth, particularly at Ipswich, will be scrutinized as the division takes its toll and the promotion surge may not last until mid-winter.
Those with a half-empty glass will spit it out and worry about the work that will be required to catch the Foxes or overtake the Tractor Boys, as well as the reality that this is a Leeds side that is still coming to know itself, its component parts, and how it is supposed to work.
Farke, by his own admission, is willing to have the table conversation if it arises, but it won’t be on his mind this week as he prepares Leeds for their home match against Queens Park Rangers.
“The key at Norwich, twice, was we never looked or obsessed over the table,” he stated.
“We weren’t afraid of it, and we could talk about it, but we never became obsessed with it.” The table looked after itself. We only focused on the performances. We were on an incredible run with them, setting club records and having a terrific time, but the trick was not talking about our goals or where we wanted to go. We’re only thinking about where we want to be in two or three days.
“Nobody started playing football thinking about the table, TV money, next season, no, we want to go out and it’s us versus the others.” We’d like to win several games.”
