Comment: Leeds United manager Daniel Farke has far more to him than critics acknowledge

Even if you agreed with some or all of the criticisms levelled at Daniel Farke by certain sections of the Leeds United fanbase, once the final whistle blew at Turf Moor on Easter Monday, none of them mattered.

In taking Leeds back to the Premier League, Farke accomplished his critical mission, or part one of it. Having failed once, a second failure would have been unacceptable.

But the board realised not taking Leeds up last season, even with the second biggest wage bill in the Championship, was no reason to rip things up and start again. Kudos.

Farke changed the midfield balance and signed Jayden Bogle to address the lack of a specialist right-back, but stuck to his beliefs.

The knives will be back out next season when the Whites inevitably struggle. If two Championships at Norwich City was not enough to persuade Farke's doubters, his 26 points across 49 Premier League games will certainly not be. Now he really does have something to prove.

The managers who made Leeds champions of England – Don Revie and Howard Wilkinson – were pretty dour. With a colourful turn of phrase and engaging manner, Farke is not, but his patient football can frustrate the Elland Road bearpit.

Sometimes medicine can be hard to swallow, but perhaps that steadiness is what Leeds need. Farke certainly thinks so with his constant references to an "emotional club".

Marcelo Bielsa took Leeds' football to places Farke could never dream of, but his team also buckled under the first-season pressure. The groundwork for the 2020 title was laid before Covid but did finishing behind closed doors help? Did it create the freedom for an exhilarating ninth-place Premier League finish in 2020-21 before Bielsaball crashed and burnt out? We will never know.

We do know how Peter Ridsdale "reaching for the stars" turned out.

Farke's team are not Biesla-style cavaliers, nor are they roundheads.

All three runners in the Championship title race – Leeds, Burnley and fallers Sheffield United – have a pragmatic edge. Better that than the "entertain-at-all-costs" approach that has Tottenham Hotspur 16th in the Premier League or the la-la land football Russell Martin inflicted on Southampton, and which Ruben Selles is still trying to rescue Hull City from a division down.

You could not seriously accuse Leeds of "boring our way to the Premier League" to quote Burnley's tongue-in-cheek Josh Brownhill.

Numbers are a crutch for those who do not watch games, potentially misleading if taken in isolation and at face value. But when they paint such a comprehensive picture, they cannot be completely ignored.

Leeds have a point more than Bielsa's tally, the best in the club's history. Had Revie's 1968-69 First Division champions got three points for a win, they would be level with Farke's 94, from two games fewer.

With 89 goals, this is already Leeds’ joint third-highest-scoring team. "If all the goals hadn't been ruled out that should have stood we would already be close to 100," muttered Farke.

They scored 89 in 1953-54 – John Charles got 43 – but conceded 81, enough for 10th in Division Two.

Their 98 won promotion in 1927-28 but they were only Division Two’s third-highest scorers. That season Dixie Dean scored 60 top-flight goals with the game was still figuring out a changed offside law.

Best, then, to judge a team by its era and its level.

Leeds have scored 22 more than nearest rivals Norwich City. Their goal difference is 14 better than Alcatraz-secure Burnley.

This despite having Crysencio Summerville and Georginio Rutter pulled from under them in August.

Nineteen are Joel Piroe’s – making him top-scorer in the division – yet it feels as though every match he has failed to score in, he and Farke have taken a good Twittersphere kicking.

Fifteen came from substitutes – a Championship record only Sheffield Wednesday's Danny Rohl can match – and six more were made by them.

There were goalfests – 7-0 at home to Cardiff City, 6-0 v Stoke City – and late winners – Sunderland and Sheffield United – for drama enthusiasts.

Farke stood by goalkeeper Illan Meslier too long, but did make the change and is unbeaten since.

Calmness saw him through not just losing Summerville and Rutter together, but injured midfielders Ethan Ampadu and Ilia Gruev.

It got him through a six-game wobble which could have become a Leeds meltdown. He actually shut down that drama by being bold.

Saying during the wobble he was "100 per cent convinced" they would win promotion was out of character.

"When you are a bit longer in this business you sometimes feel what the players need," he said. "Normally I don't like to speak about it in public but I sensed this was the time."

That is Farke – a bit of this, more of that. Some will frustrate you and some will excite you.

The best managers are too nuanced for lazy caricatures, as Farke has just proved. Again.