Leeds United v Ipswich Town: Challenge of new ideas is keeping old head Daniel Farke on his toes

It is not a narrative Daniel Farke is comfortable with, and not because it emphasises his 10-year headstart on Ipswich Town manager Kieran McKenna. As far as Leeds United’s manager is concerned, it is just good manager v good manager in the Championship’s early kick-off.

Coming into the Christmas period, the young buck holds the upper hand. A 10-point cushion guarantees that whatever happens, the vibrant, expansive Tractor Boys will sit in the automatic promotion places when the festivities begin, whilst Leeds' noses will be pressed against the window.

But Farke plays the role of old sage well. “My experience is quite often when you expect a thriller quite often it's a stalemate and the other way around,” he warns anyone too excited about what on paper should be an excellent game, before talking about not over-reacting to a couple of bad results and batting away the staple of a question about his team’s position in a league table not yet at its halfway stage.

The German’s experience tells him not to fret: he has not won the Championship twice already – not to mention a couple of titles in his homeland – by not knowing what he is doing.

"The Championship is quite often about experience," he opines, but when it comes to coaches at least, the second-tier tide is turning the other way.

A few years ago a 37-year-old like McKenna in his first job would be the outlier, but not now. Compared to Sheffield Wednesday's Danny Rohl, three years his junior, the Northern Irishman is knocking on a bit.

Experience alone will not cut it if you are set in your ways, but the challenges posed by McKenna and his callow cohort keep Leeds’ manager on his toes.

"The quality of the coaches is never about age," he is quick to point out. "You can be a pretty old-fashioned coach at a young age and the other way around.

"You have to be open. If you think you know everything about football and don’t have to develop your thoughts or approach, you should retire because you’re not good enough.

"You have to be ahead of the wave, this is what the best coaches are trying to do. That’s not about age, it’s more like about what you are doing.

"You can be experienced as a young coach (McKenna passed 100 matches in November).

"Nobody can teach you the lessons of what it means to be at Championship level if you’ve never worked there before (this is McKenna’s debut campaign in a notoriously quirky division), you always have to learn the lessons in your first season. This is what you have to do.

"If you are involved in a relegation battle for the first time, nobody can teach you how this feels. If it’s the first time involved in a battle for promotion (something McKenna ticked off in League One last season) or a title, nobody can teach you.

"So I am quite thankful I have already won a league four times in my career, it always helps and I tell you what, it also helps if it’s in a lower tier as the process is the same.

"You need to make your own experiences but for me it is never just a sign of quality (to be a manager) at a special age, it’s more like how much are you open to invest, to work, to be a bit like a workaholic and be ahead of the wave. You can do this as a young coach or as an older coach.

"The experience of older coaches is priceless and you have to learn by doing this job. I am not too much about the passport or age of a coach, they are different qualities."

Farke has earnt his stripes coaching in the best league in the world – the Premier League – with Norwich City and in Germany's Bundesliga, a bit of a crucible for forward-thinking coaches. They taught him much more than any Pro Licence course ever could.

"The good thing is when you work at the highest level and have to find solutions against top sides it also develops your game and you have to analyse opponents on the top level to find solutions. It always helps to analyse.

"Last season, I was in charge of Borussia Monchengladbach and we played Bayern Munich, (led by) a top-class young coach (Julian Nagelsmann, who has since become German's youngest coach for 97 years at just 36) and we had to find solutions against this approach, or against Dortmund, or Leipzig.

"Thank God we found some – four points against Bayern, not too bad! But it doesn’t help me right now, Saturday is not Bayern it is Ipswich.

"It helps if you work on a different level to develop your game, it’s not just theoretical like on a Playstation, or League Two level. You have to be open to do this.

"It’s always a challenge as you have to be concentrated on daily work, press conferences and things like this. You have to do this.

"But you need also to create times where you can be creative. You think more on the game on a level, this is crucial and you need to take your time to do this. It’s important."

Any Leeds fan panicking about one point from the last two matches did not have to look hard for the message between the lines – relax, Leeds United have a manager who knows what he is doing.