Leeds United put Daniel Farke's mind at rest with 'relentless' win despite minimal preparation
Daniel Farke was gushing in his praise for the way Leeds United produced perhaps their best performance of the season after a rushed preparation.
Both Leeds and Sheffield United had players away in the international break before they came back a day early for Friday's game at Elland Road, but the hosts even more so.
It did not show, though, as Leeds ran out comfortable 2-0 winners with goals from Pascal Struijk and Mateo Joseph.
"Of course I was hoping for this but they deserve unbelievable praise and many compliments," he said.
"It was so tricky. For Sheffield United you normally have to prepare in a proper way and we had no time on the training pitch because yesterday (Thursday) the lads (back from international duty) could just recover, there was no chance to have a tactical session.
"We had two video sessions, and one this morning, but you also have to make sure you don't overload them so we need to find a good mix.
"It was so complicated with so many late choices about who would be in the starting line-up, Brenden Aaronson probably the biggest call but also Junior Firpo, Willy Gnonto, Ao Tanaka, who was in a different time zone and played on Tuesday.
"I was a bit nervous, if I'm honest.
"I was thinking to leave them or at least a few of them on the bench. It was a tight call and you never know how it pays off but we got the feeling they can handle it, they are professional.
"It was the right call.
"They executed our plan in a perfect way. As a manager you can have a plan and work on this gameplan but it's more important the players execute in a perfect way.
"For that all the praise belongs to them."
Despite dominating the game throughout, it took 69 minutes for Struijk to score from a corner, yet it never felt like the result was in doubt, even to Farke.
"We were relentless today and on it," he reflected.
"It felt it was coming because we were so dominant through the game.”