'I don't like this attitude' - Leeds United warning sent after cheating and booing despair

Celebrating a player’s time wasting is not an attitude Daniel Farke likes, though the Leeds United manager accepts he may be old school in this regard. Saturday’s limp defeat to Blackburn Rovers was dogged by second-half disruptions by the hosts, in the manager’s eyes, in a manner at odds with why he fell in love with English football.

United were deserved losers in Saturday’s game, Farke conceded, but aside from the improvements his own team had to make, Blackburn’s interruptions were decisive in the second period. He did not name the player in question, but the German noted the persistent stoppages, without medical treatment, caused by one Blackburn man.

Asked what his half-time message was after such an insipid opening 45 minutes, Farke said: “I remind them on the basics, if I'm honest, because I didn't like our awareness, our sharpness, our aggressiveness in the duels, what we invested into this game. Also, I would have liked to speak about a few more tactical things because there were a few more.

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“We just reduced it to one or two, but it was decisive we are ready for the duels, we are ready to overlap, to underlap with our full-backs joining the attack, to come and bring ourselves into positions when we can bring crosses in and work the backline of the opponent, to control the counter-attacks a bit better.”

There were improvements he saw after the break, but the old English values he fell in love with were missing from the second half in Lancashire.

“In terms of what we invested in the second half, was much better, but, of course, due to the tactical reasons and also much more complicated because when it's always interrupted and there's more like a player on the pitch, I don't want to name him, but he was six times on the pitch, experienced player, and there was never one time a treatment, but it always lasts one minute,” he said.

“The referee goes over, speaks to him, he gets up. It's not just we can add the time, it also breaks the rhythm and gives the other team time to recover. Sometimes, I got the feeling I love this country because we were never soft.

“It was like ‘Come on, keep going’ and when someone was cheating and wasting time, even their home fans were booing him off. I like this mentality, even with my German passport, I always loved English football.

“Sometimes we remember on the way we are celebrating a player when he's wasting time. I don't like this attitude, but perhaps I’m a bit old school in these terms.

“I don't want to complain about this. You can also label it professional, smart, whatever. If a team behaves like this and the referee doesn't stop it, then it's, of course, difficult if a well-structured side is defending that deep and tries always to break the rhythm, second half.

“So, for that, what we have to take out of this game [is] we have to start the game a bit more on the front foot.”