Leeds United v Millwall: Daniel Farke wants Whites to feel title race excitement as he 'sharpens the senses'

The three-way battle is into its final 10 games. Leeds host Millwall on Wednesday looking to respond to Sheffield United and Burnley’s Tuesday-night results.

It should be great viewing for the neutrals, nervy for those involved, with Premier League promotion so transformative for the clubs, all of whom have one year of (reduced) parachute payments after this.

Leeds manager Daniel Farke wants his team to feed off the excitement, but not gorge on it.

"We have to sense that we are heading closer to the crunch time and you have to stay a bit extra focussed and not motivated because everyone is motivated, but extra excited," said Farke, a two-time Championship winner with Norwich City.

"But you can't be over the line, that's also important.

"If you are over-motivated or over-nervous, you can't be at your best. It's important to find a good mix and I'm pretty sure we'll be capable of doing this."

There will be pressure for a Leeds side whose 17-match unbeaten league run was ended by Portsmouth on Sunday, and who now face a Millwall team who beat them in the reverse fixture, and knocked them out of the FA Cup fourth round at Elland Road in February.

At the very least there should be no excuse for complacency as Farke tries to extract something positive from a frustrating weekend.

"We know we always have to be switched on, we know how difficult it is to win points but we have to sharpen the senses in the opponents' box,” he said. “We have to sharpen the senses again after February was just wins and an unbelievably long unbeaten run, to return back to clean sheets.

"Not that you want it but when there is a little reminder, it's important to use it, not just to complain about the penalty that should have been awarded or why it was just one of those days we missed chances."

Farke is reluctant to read too much into this season's previous matches against the Lions, because of the circumstances.

"The first game was a different team with a different manager (Neil Harris was in charge of Millwall)," he points out. "The cup game was a cup game. They came with their strongest line-up and three or four days later on we had a difficult away game.

"We opted to change too much perhaps but the outcome was we won the next league game.

"We decided to risk the cup game a bit with too many rotations and give some game-time away to some players who desperately needed this. For that it was definitely the right decision.

"But it doesn't take anything away from the fact Millwall are a very competitive opponent, difficult to beat. Everyone knows this.

"After the Cup game everyone will be aware how difficult it is to beat the and to create chances against them, and how brave they are in terms of their pressing. They are direct and quick, attacking the opponents' goal.

"We can definitely take that out of it to sharpen the focus."

Leeds pick from the same squad that faced Portsmouth, with Patrick Bamford still building his fitness after a hamstring injury.