'Christmas is cancelled' - but Daniel Farke and high-flying Leeds are not moaning about it

Footballers are no strangers to playing a lot of games over the festive period but Farke, in his first season as Leeds head coach, sees it as an important time not to ease off the accelerator pedal. Leeds have won nine of their last 11 games, an impressive run but good enough only to keep Leicester City and Ipswich Town within touching distance at the top as the Championship frontrunners set an inexorable pace.

Ahead of a trip to Sunderland on Tuesday night, where the Whites look to continue the momentum of Saturday’s 2-0 win at Blackburn Rovers, Farke demands that there be no let up - not now, and not over Christmas.

“We don’t want to hide behind the fact but you cannot allow yourself to enjoy it (the run) too much or be too proud of yourself because this league is relentless,” said Farke.

“And if you want to be successful in this league you have to become relentless yourself, and this is what we are doing.

“Although we’d like to enjoy the time around Christmas with the family, now is the time to concentrate on good habits, like good nutrition and good sleep, to prepare yourself mentally. There’s not much Christmas shopping for my lads, they’ll have to give it over to their families.

“I apologise, but that’s what you have to do to be successful in this league, there’s no moaning about that.”

He is also not moaning about the current workload which sees Leeds and the rest of the Championship playing a three game week for the second time in three weeks. “It’s difficult with two away games when you have to factor travel in, there’s not much time to prepare on the training ground,” he observed.

“We have to work a lot more in a theoretical way with videos, but also to make sure we don’t overload the players because they have to be mentally fresh for the game. Also at this time of year we hardly have a training session altogether we have to have it in separate groups.

“But we don’t moan about it, for each and every manager it’s the same. The more difficult, the tougher the going gets, the better for us because our fitness levels are good and the spirit is high which helps during this period.

“I like it when it’s tough. And you have to show some steel, so for that I don’t moan too much, it’s hard work and I like it.”

Sam Byram (hamstring) is likely to be out for three weeks while Jamie Shackleton has a glute injury and a doubt for Sunderland, which creates a potential problem at left-back, not that Farke is worried.

The club hope Patrick Bamford comes through a training session to have a chance of making the squad to face a Sunderland side Farke, inset, says exemplifies just how tough the Championship is; in the top six but still not good enough to keep Tony Mowbray in a job.