Inside Leeds United's teary dressing room scene after Millwall loss with some players shaken up

Tears were in the eyes of some Leeds United players inside their dressing room at The Den as they stewed on Wednesday’s loss. Daniel Farke said his younger faces were struggling to process the Millwall defeat, but he wanted them to be despondent and to use that pain for the rest of this season.

The Whites dominated possession in Bermondsey and had far more shots at goal than their hosts, but goalkeeper Lukas Jensen was never really tested between the home sticks. Millwall scored from one of the many dangerous set-pieces they dropped on the Whites, with Jake Cooper heading the ball down for Japhet Tanganga to volley home in the first half.

Farke was not shy in pointing to two players who failed to track the defender’s run onto the second ball at the free-kick in question. Replays would suggest these were Joel Piroe and Joe Rothwell.

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It was only the club’s first defeat since September 14, but every dropped point hurts a promotion hopeful. Wilfried Gnonto and Mateo Joseph were the youngest players to get on the field for Leeds in the capital, and Farke said it was his less experienced players who were upset.

“I want them also to be disappointed,” he said. “This is what I like. It was, with all respect, the 14th gameday in the Championship. It's more or less just another day in the office at the moment, but I still saw a tear in the eyes of my players, not of all of them, but especially the younger guys.

“This is what I like. I see their desire, see how emotional they were and no complaints about this. I want for them that the world goes down tonight and that they feel also the pain because, next time, it will lead to a situation when there's another ball, a set-piece on the second post.

“I guarantee you these players will drop right now to be there for the second ball.”

Farke did try to strike a balanced tone with a long-term perspective in his post-match press conference. The manager said he felt the first-half performance was excellent, though he conceded he was holding back the disappointment he felt with the result.

The German sees no sense in being emotional and reactionary with his post-match comments.

“I'm not annoyed they are disappointed,” he said. “I'm also disappointed, but right now [it] also makes no sense if I'm here in the press conference, over-emotional and in tears and try to analyse in an objective way what went wrong.

“There's always something that went wrong when you lose a game. And [it] also [makes no sense] to speak about what we have to do, but there is no major thing we have to change or whatever.

“It’s more like: more effectiveness in the final third and to play without a mistake, this is what you have to do.”