”Hurting” - Don Goodman’s prediction on Daniel Farke future at Leeds United | OneFootball

Goodman has issued his verdict on how Leeds can react to last season's play-off disappointment

Highlights

Don Goodman has issued his verdict on Daniel Farke's future at Leeds United after last season's play-off heartbreak.

Since first taking over the reins at Norwich City in 2017, the German has become a household name to fans of the Championship, mainly down to his duo of title-winning seasons at Carrow Road.

The expectations at Elland Road were high when Farke was appointed manager last season, and it looked like a third promotion to the Premier League for the 47-year-old and a potential instant return to the top flight for Leeds was on the cards for large proportions of the campaign.

However, the play-off curse was to strike against United once again as they were defeated 1-0 at Wembley by Southampton, consigning the West Yorkshire outfit to prepare for another promotion bid this upcoming season.

Goodman, the well-known Sky Sports pundit, believes that the experience within the dressing room in LS11, as well as Farke's previous success stories at this level, could help them recover from the disappointment felt in North London.

Furthermore, this season could show shades of a side that missed out on promotion at Leeds and West Bromwich Albion's expense four years ago, before going on to establish themselves in the Premier League.

Via OLBG, Goodman said: "Daniel Farke will be hurting and will be desperate to secure that hat-trick of promotions to the Premier League. There's a lot of experience in that dressing room and it's all about getting over the disappointment of the play-offs."

"But when he won the title with Norwich, he didn't get off to a scintillating start on both occasions. Last season at Leeds wasn't a great start either but, eventually, you would have put your house on them finishing in the top two. You can recover from average starts," he continued.

"Daniel Farke isn't silly and knows that if Leeds are losing games and playing poorly, then his job will be under pressure. But if they're dominating games and just failing to score, then I think performance levels become more important than results in the early stages. You know if that performance level is maintained, results will turn and you will start winning."

"That's why Brentford kept faith in Thomas Frank after a poor start in 2019/2020. It would have been easy for them to panic and look at them now," Goodman stated.

The 58-year-old concluded: “For Leeds it should all be about performance levels at the start of the upcoming season."

Given the squad of players Farke has at his disposal, there's no surprise that a number of them have been linked with moves away from West Yorkshire.

The Whites have so far been able to fend off interest in the likes of Crysencio Summerville and Georginio Rutter, with the Dutch winger recently linked with a move to French giants PSG, as well as Newcastle United, Liverpool and Chelsea.

However, transfer guru Pete O'Rourke of Football Insider has recently claimed that the club will be prepared to accept "big offers" for the pair as well as Wilfried Gnonto, as all three were instrumental in last season's promotion push.

Leeds have already rejected a reported £30m offer from Brighton and Hove Albion for Rutter's services, and it remains to be seen whether the Seagulls will up the ante in their pursuit of United's record signing from Hoffenheim.

United have also lost the services of Archie Gray to Tottenham Hotspur for a reported £40m, but somewhat softened that blow with the permanent acquisition of Joe Rodon, whilst captain Liam Cooper is said to have rejected a one-year contract extension after 10 years with the club.

Such goings-on highlight the task in hand for Farke, with the expectation levels only set to crank up further after missing out on promotion.

Daniel Farke will be hoping for a fast start to the upcoming season

In some ways, it was last season's slow start that eventually saw United fall six points short of Ipswich Town in the automatic promotion race, as the club won just one of their first five Championship outings, before eventually reaching a tally of 90 points - the highest ever tally in the division for a side failing to gain promotion.

Leeds' mental resolve will be tested straight away next season as they welcome last season's League One champions Portsmouth to Elland Road on Saturday August 10th, with many outsiders tipping them to feature prominently in next season's promotion race.