Daniel Farke on why Leeds United have to keep their 'fires' under control during relentless Championship run

A trip to Sheffield Wednesday is a difficult prospect in itself at the moment, but the Whites go there on the back of three games in a short period of time which were in the balance until the full-time whistle.

It started with an unlucky 3-2 FA Cup defeat at Chelsea on February 29, settled by Conor Gallagher's stoppage-time winner.

On Saturday they were unable to get past a Huddersfield Town side who battled with 10 men for half a game on a difficult playing surface, drawing 1-1. Although not at their best, they beat Stoke City three days later, but a 1-0 scoreline meant they were never able to take their foot off the pedal.

They looked a little leggy against the Potters but with so many challenging games within a short period they were always going to have to play a little within themselves, even at Elland Road.

"If it's just intensity, physicality and fire you run out of energy pretty quickly so you have to make sure you fill it with quality and structure, and control the game with a disciplined structure," argued manager Farke."Especially at Elland Road it's difficult because everyone knows how good we are in transition (counter-attack) moments and everyone expects us to play forward.

"If you keep the ball for one or two moments you can feel everyone thinking, 'Come on, play forward.' You literally feel this in the stadium.

"It's important we're not too driven by our emotions and our greediness to entertain the supporters and score the next goal but it's never easy to find this balance.

"To show this balance and stay disciplined in terms of defending will bring us over the line in terms of what we want to achieve at the end of the season and it's important we stick to the plan at the moment."

Substitutes are important in these matches and the first changes Farke made on Tuesday, brining on Mateo Joseph and Joel Piroe for Patrick Bamford and Georginio Rutter.

Important or not, Joseph, who scored twice at Chelsea, and Piroe, whose form has dipped since late last year, will both want to be in the XI at Hillsborough, and made decent cases for themselves.

"It was important because for Georgie and Patrick there was lots of load in recent weeks," explained Farke.

"They (Stoke) controlled the game a bit better with (Ben) Pearson in the second half and we wanted to bring on Joel, a player who always works well against the ball and is not so concentrated on doing some magic like Georgie.

"In the second half he (Rutter) got more and more tired.

"Patrick always produces a good workload, he has come out of a little injury and lots of workload at Huddersfield, so we wanted to bring some new energy in.

"We calmed their possession down a bit and Mateo and Joel didn't get the crucial assist or goal but they had many good contributions and I was pleased with both of them."

After Friday, an international break means the March 17 visit of Millwall is their last game before Easter, when the helter-skelter schedule goes into overdrive once more.

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