Coventry City v Leeds United: Daniel Farke pulling off balancing act as stability meets freshness at Elland Road

Easter is out of the way and Leeds United know a good or bad result at Coventry City will be magnified because there is so little wriggle room left in a Championship top three which has the Whites second on points won but third on points per game. Only two teams go up automatically to the Premier League.

When there are five games left, the intensity will crank up again.

Keeping your nerve is easier said than done at times like this and manager Daniel Farke, a two-time title-winner with Norwich City, is determined not to spread panic by doing anything out of the ordinary – not when it has brought 86 points from 40 matches.

But the same old can bring staleness too. Leeds have combined stability with freshness lately.

"If you try to go away from what you've done during the whole season because you think as a manager you have to do something special right now, you will fail," warns Farke. "You have to show consistency right now, this is important – and calmness.

"If the lads get the feeling the manager's nervous or he wants to be in the spotlight or wants to play a game of chess or do something unexpected, it's never beneficial."

And yet somehow, Leeds were able to bring a bit of something new to that tried-and-trusted formula over Easter.

International break injuries were a major frustration for Farke but the absentees did allow fresh impetus from youngsters Charlie Crew and Mateo Joseph.

With only six first-teamers on the Thorp Arch pitches at times in the break, 17-year-old midfielder Crew – a scorer in Thursday's 4-3 FA Youth Cup semi-final win over Millwall – joined senior training and showed enough to make the bench for the games against Watford and Hull City.

Injuries opened the door, but Farke subsequently said he would rather have named a third goalkeeper – as against Plymouth Argyle in February's FA Cup tie – than an outfielder who did not merit it.

Joseph had already scored for Leeds – twice in the FA Cup at Chelsea – before Easter but these days league goals count for an awful lot more, especially ones which rescue an 85th-minute point at Vicarage Road when your team is off-colour. When Patrick Bamford was replaced three days later, Joseph came off the bench while £12m summer signing Joel Piroe sat and watched.

As an unused substitute Crew might not have made his mark on the history books in the same way, but he did contribute.

"Sometimes you need fresh energy and this was one of the reasons we had Charlie in our gameday squad," explains Farke.

Joseph was riding the crest of a wave after his Spain Under-21 debut last month, then scoring in his second game. Archie Gray went one better, finding the net in his first England Under-21 appearance.

"Archie made his first start for the under-21s, Mateo scored an important goal for his country and I also like the fact they didn't play that much – especially Archie, because he had so many minutes in his legs," says Farke. "At least for those one or two it (the international break) was definitely a positive outcome."

In the same way, seeing young players come through lifted the spirits of the club but Farke is not getting carried away.

"I can't guarantee that from now on he will always be part of our travelling group or in contention to play minutes," he says of Crew.

"If I'm honest I'm also looking forward pretty soon to having one or two injured players back available. This will also give us new energy compared to the last two games.

"I like it when everyone is buzzing about our players and Mateo 100 per cent deserves lots of praise because he has developed during the season, especially the last weeks, and had a big impact but it's also important we're not too driven by our emotion and put the weight of our promotion hopes on the shoulders of a teenager (Crew) or a 20-year-old guy (Joseph).

"Mateo has got one goal this season so far in the league so it's not like without him we have no chance.

"We know we can bring a quality player from the bench who can affect the game.

"It's good to have a player with this momentum because whenever he comes on it's with emotions and confidence and everyone knows he can have an effect. But it's so important to have experienced players on the pitch like Patrick."

As always, it is all about balance. Bringing freshness whilst keeping things the same is some balancing act, but it looks like Farke might just be pulling it off.

• Leeds’ final away game this season, at Queens Park Rangers, has been moved to a Friday (April 26, 8pm).