Daniel Farke strikes perfect chord with Leeds United supporters as manager reveals private feelings

Farke's pre-match press conferences tend to be cordial affairs, 30-35 minutes in length and follow a similar pattern of team news, reflection and looking forward to the next game. Every once in a while, though, the 47-year-old delivers an especially long and detailed, almost Marcelo Bielsa-like answer to a question which holds the attention of those in the room like a tenor at the opera.

For his predecessors, press conferences sometimes yielded soundbites which did not resonate too kindly with supporters, or the wider footballing sphere - think Jesse Marsch's mention of Bielsa and training methods in the same breath, or Sam Allardyce deflecting attention away from the team's position in the table by insisting he was just as accomplished as Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp. It's different now, and while results certainly help with sentiment, by and large when Farke speaks, he unifies.

Ahead of Leeds' encounter with Ipswich Town this Saturday, Farke delivered, as outlined above, an unrestrained response to a question about his faith in the current crop of players at Thorp Arch. It began with the German insisting the fire in his belly had not been diminished over the years, but that experience in the game meant he was not the type to overreact to poor results.

"I'm already a bit too old and too experienced for overreacting. That doesn't mean that the fire is not burning. I've mentioned before, so after a loss for example - thank God it was not a loss in the last game - but [you] want to die and want to kill and this will never [go] away, so if we have a week when we didn't win the last game it's always not that enjoyable for myself," he said.

Coming off the back of defeat at Sunderland and a disappointing draw to Coventry City last week, ahead of a big game this coming weekend, Farke could have kept his cards close to his chest, closed ranks and played it safe. The United manager chose instead to wear his heart on his sleeve, a move which has been extremely well-received by fans.

"It's always great when you have such a good run that we were, I was labelled Manager of the Month - it means more like 'Team of the Month' - in November because we were the best side, then we started December also back-to-back wins, yes and then one unlucky loss and one unlucky draw.

"In these moments I feel more connected with my players and love them even more.

"It really feels already that my feelings for this club, I really start to love this club already, I start to love our supporters and what we are. When we have a spell like right now we are a bit unlucky, my connection with this club and with our supporters and what we are doing feels even stronger because our name says already what we are all about, we are Leeds United," Farke added.

The ex-Norwich City man has only been in charge since the beginning of July, and yet belief in him from the terraces supersedes that of the last three men to sit in the manager's chair at Elland Road. Semantics and gushing media suite soliloquys don't win football matches, but Farke has bought himself the opportunity to speak so enthusiastically because his team do the business when the curtain is raised on Saturday afternoons.

"We are Leeds and this means we never go the easy way," he continued. "Leeds means always we're not perfect. We're not without mistakes. But we always play with a big heart, with honesty and workload and we are special and unique.

"With United, the second part of our name, means that yes, everyone likes to moan sometimes, but this just shows that we care. When it comes down to when it’s important and we have to stick together then we have the mentality of 'we are united against all the odds, it’s us against the world' - although in the last weeks it’s more like us against the referees, if I’m honest.

"It feels like in this moment I love this club and these players even more. I know we are not perfect, we could keep the ball better, Djed [Spence] could have put more pressure on the ball when the cross comes in [against Coventry], Archie [Gray] could have been higher, Pascal [Struijk] could have been more orientated in the middle, even Illan [Meslier], we are there with small mistakes, but that’s what we are.

"We’re Leeds, we’re not perfect, but we play with a big heart," he added.

It takes a bold individual to publicly define what a club stands for, not six months after taking the job, but this season Leeds need to be bold in pursuit of their goals, to overcome opponents who have begun the season in record-breaking fashion at Championship level.

On and off the field Leeds appear united, harmonious even, for what could be the first time since that ninth place Premier League finish. There have been no directors' box outbursts, no touchline flare-ups, and not since the summer, which Farke traversed with commendable restraint and diplomacy, has there been a whiff of wantaway players. The melancholy of relegation has made way for the melodic undertones of a promotion push.

Had Leeds gone with a different appointment at the start of the season and signed alternate players, they may still have been in the promotion conversation at the halfway stage, as they are. It's a lot harder, though, to envisage a manager bringing about a coalesce between fans and figureheads quite like Farke has managed in five-and-a-half short months.

To that end, there is not a great deal more that can be done other than continuing to play the sheet music, beating whoever is in front of them, starting with Ipswich this weekend.