A wry smile from Daniel Farke was the giveaway.
That little tell, a glance towards the floor and a laugh to himself told the press conference room two things. One, that he had seen the question coming a mile off. And two, that he was going to bat it back properly this time.
Managers tend to keep an ear to the ground, forever conscious of what is being spoken about on the airwaves, and Farke is aware that since the start of this season, one of the debates about his Leeds United team has focused on his decision to play Joel Piroe at No 10; Piroe, the £10.5million striker signed from Swansea City who, for his two years in south Wales, was a 20-goal-a-season man. So why the reluctance to push him up front?
Farke, plainly, had digested the chatter and thought about how to nip it in the bud. As a whole, the results taken via a tactical system which used Georginio Rutter in a position in front of Piroe have been decent. Leeds go into tomorrow’s game against Bristol City in the Championship’s top six. But the Piroe discussion was there in the background: the insinuation that more would be made of him as an out-and-out No 9.
When the subject arose again at Farke’s pre-Bristol City media briefing, what followed was an answer with a degree of depth a manager rarely stretches to, and usually stretches to only when something is on their mind — a level of detail reminiscent of the way one of his recent predecessors at Elland Road used to deal with burning topics of conversation.
“Let’s make a deal,” Farke said. “I’ll give you right now, a bit lengthy, my whole thoughts on this topic. And then, please, don’t ask me again. Everyone who’s not interested, try not to fall asleep.”
Here, The Athletic has reproduced the fascinating 13-minute explanation that followed in its entirety:
“First, my general thought is that I’m a big believer in playing players always in their best position because I think they can just be at their best if they’re playing in their best position.
“But this then means that if you’re talking about Georginio Rutter, Patrick Bamford, Joel Piroe, Mateo Joseph, Joe Gelhardt, just one of them can be on the pitch. If you ask Georginio Rutter, where does he want to play? Striker. Patrick Bamford, where does he want to play? Striker. Joel Piroe? He would probably also say, ‘I’d like to play in the striker position.’ Joe Gelhardt, Mateo Joseph. That’s it.
“If I’m honest, in games I sometimes like to have two or even three of them on the pitch, because we need goals. This is what we were lacking a bit in the past — goals out of deeper positions, midfield positions, wider positions. We can’t just rely, if we want to be ambitious, on goals from the striker options.
“That’s my first thought.
“The second is that your best position always differs a little bit between clubs. Obviously, Joel has played many games for Swansea in the striker position but also quite often behind a quick and mobile striker. He has also scored goals (playing) there. There’s a difference if you score 20 goals for a club who are fighting against relegation or if you’re scoring 20 goals for a club in mid-table, or if you’re scoring 20 goals for a club who are fighting for the top positions. It’s a different ask.
Joel Piroe celebrates scoring for Swansea earlier this season (Athena Pictures/Getty Images)
“You can’t compare this. There’s never a guarantee that a player who scores 20 goals for a team who fight against relegation or in mid-table will also score 20 goals for a team in a different position — more like fighting for a top position. With all respect to Swansea, I think it’s different if you have to score 20 goals for Swansea or 20 goals for Leeds United.
“Also, the setup is different. At Swansea, he was the main man and each and every pass had to go in to him. Here, he plays with Georginio Rutter, with Patrick Bamford, with Cry(sencio) Summerville, with Jaidon Anthony, with Daniel James, with Ian Poveda, with Mateo Joseph, with Joe Gelhardt. It’s a different role if you’re the only main man or if you play together with other players. This is something we must not forget.
“In comparison to Swansea, they were also a side — and I really rate them, they play proper football — but at times in away games they were sitting a bit deeper and were a bit more reluctant. We need here, in a striker, some other qualities.
“If we speak about Joel, there are always different qualities. Some of his qualities, they could tempt me to play him in the striker position; yes, of course. When we speak about his finishing, I think he’s world-class. I love his finishing. I’m struggling to find, in this whole country, players who are better in those finishing moments.
“If he has the ball close to the box, you can then go to the halfway line because quite often his next touch is on the halfway line. This is what I love about him. I would love to play him in the striker position but for us, because we’re Leeds United, we want to have the ball in each and every moment. So we need a player who leads the line with the pressing, who is there with intensity in the pressing. Because we’re often so dominant, and against teams who are parking the bus a bit more we need a striker who stretches the opponent with running and smart movements in behind.
Piroe scored two against Millwall last month (Jacques Feeney/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
“With all respect to Joel and his finishing qualities, I wouldn’t label his pressing qualities the best in this league. For example, there is Patrick Bamford and Georginio Rutter in the top positions because they always press with intensity or running in behind. With all respect to the qualities of Joel, he’s not a player who’s lightning quick and mobile like Speedy Gonzales, who stretches the opponent.
“At Swansea, he liked to drop. Then there were quick players on the wing who went more or less (directly forward). He arrived late in the box and was there to finish, but our setup is slightly different. So when we ask our lone striker always to drop, to link the play, to play the ball out wide and then our wingers go deep and we work with crosses, I would then play Joel definitely as a striker. But if our striker has to fulfil other tasks, then he’s perhaps not always the perfect solution up front.
“My next thought is that it’s not healthy if, after each and every great game from him, where he scores goals, after Watford, after Millwall, after Ipswich, we’re singing the song of Joel Piroe. But every time when he doesn’t score a goal, we put it in his head that he’s playing in the wrong position. You have to send the message across, instead of giving him the feeling that when you don’t score, you’re playing in the wrong position. It’s not healthy for him.
Piroe celebrates with Wilfried Gnonto after scoring scoring Leeds’ third goal against Ipswich (George Tewkesbury/PA Images via Getty Images)
“The last thought — or perhaps the second- or third-last thought, I’m on fire at the moment. I’ll try to calm myself a little bit — I’m just thinking about the team. I’m not here to (have a Leeds player) win the Golden Boot. I just want to be successful as a club and as a team. So if you want me to set my main target as ‘My striker wins the Golden Boot’, I have to play him each and every second. I just want that we’re successful as a team. I’m not interested if Patrick Bamford or Georginio Rutter or Joel Piroe wins the Golden Boot. For me, it’s important that our strikers in total are there and our offensive players score more than 30 goals, possibly even 35.
“With all respect to Swansea, they have played Joel Piroe up front. It’s not that they’ve won the title. It’s not that they’ve been promoted. It’s not that they have a natural finisher in the top six. For me, I have just one time (at Leeds). I want to be successful and for that, we need players all over the pitch who can score.
“The last thought: Joel Piroe is there with four goals in the seven games. To be honest, if he goes further on with this average then happy days, because he’ll finish with more goals than at Swansea. What should he do? Should he double the tally and finish with 60 goals or whatever? I don’t think it’s realistic.
“It’s quite natural that sometimes as an offensive player, you don’t score goals. He’s already there with four in seven games. We need also the goals of Bamford and Rutter and the other offensive players.
“And really, my last thought: I try to stay humble and I don’t over-rate my position. It’s not about me. I want to be there in order to do a good job for the club. I want to support my players and I’m there to help my players.
“But I’ve won the league twice (taking Norwich to the Championship title in 2018-19 and 2020-21). I know what is necessary as a team. Not to win the Golden Boot but what is necessary to win this league, and we need goals from everywhere.
“In saying this, that I’m not interested in the Golden Boot or the goal tally of one striker, I was a striker. I started my coaching career at a smaller club in Germany. We had a striker who won the Golden Boot. In Germany, we speak about the Golden Boot when you are the best goalscorer in the league. We had to sell him on for financial reasons, we were a smaller club.
“The new striker? Won the Golden Boot. Same again, we had to sell him for financial reasons. The next striker? Won the Golden Boot. So at this club, I had three strikers who won the Golden Boot.
“Then I moved to Borussia Dortmund and was there with the under-21s. I had a striker, Marvin Ducksch. He was frozen out of the bench, I worked with him. He won the Golden Boot. We sold him. He’s playing for Werder Bremen (now), a really good striker, a Bundesliga striker. We signed another one, Hamadi Al Ghaddioui, and the next season he won the Golden Boot.
“So five seasons in a row, my strikers won the Golden Boot. Then I moved to England and we (Norwich) signed a young Teemu Pukki. Everyone was talking about, ‘He’s a free transfer, he can’t be great; he was horrendous at Celtic.’ I worked with him, he won the Golden Boot in the Championship — twice, by the way.
“I went to Borussia Monchengladbach, we didn’t have one striker. I converted a guy, Marcus Thuram, into a striker. He was a winger before. We were not the best team but he scored double figures in the Bundesliga, ended up playing a World Cup final for France, scored 16 goals (for Gladbach last season in all competitions). I think he was runner-up in the Golden Boot in Germany (he was actually sixth with 13 Bundesliga goals). I missed this one, that’s fine!
“I always try to stay humble. But believe me, when it comes to strikers, I know my business. I know what I have to do. And also when it comes down to winning this league, I know my business. So let’s not speak about this topic any more. I know exactly what my offensive players need. I know exactly what my strikers need. It’s not a guarantee that we will win the Golden Boot during this season, and secondly not a guarantee that we’ll win the league.
“But while always staying humble and not over-rating my position, when it comes down to strikers, I know my business. Keep going, speculating, giving opinions, asking pundits. Everything’s OK. But do me a favour, let’s not talk about this topic any more in a press conference. And also, leave my boys a little bit alone. Let them just score goals for us. When they do this, we’re all happy.”
(Top photo: Ben Roberts Photo/Getty Images)
