Leeds United v Shrewsbury Town: Daniel Farke hungry for more goals

The Whites scored two, and made 25 chances, at home to Cardiff City on Sunday but were only able to take one point because they had already conceded as many – sloppily.

But Farke, who had three centre-forwards injured, has told his team they need more goals from all areas of the pitch.

Leeds' 48 last season was the second-best tally in the Premier League's bottom half. Their 78 conceded was comfortably the worst.

But 29 of those goals were missing on Sunday, with Jack Harrison, Patrick Bamford, Sam Greenwood and Junior Firpo injured, and Rodrigo, Brenden Aaronson, Rasmus Kristensen and Marc Roca leaving.

"We need goals all over the pitch," said Farke. "Last season we didn't score enough from midfield. I also want my centre-halves to be there with some goals from set-pieces (as Liam Cooper did for Leeds’ first).

"I'm also 100 per cent sure as soon as Patrick Bamford, (Georginio) Rutter and Mateo Joseph are available it will offer some striker goals. I'm pleased that even without a proper, natural-born goalscorer we were able to create so many chances and score goals."

The Bluebirds got in behind both full-backs to take a 2-0 lead in the first half, but Farke was reasonably relaxed about the defensive issues the game threw up – and with Leeds enjoying so much of the ball, there were few beyond that.

"There were no major tactical things to learn, just individual awareness," he stressed. "This is something we can fix quite quickly."

The early rounds of the cups have become a bit of a show of squad strength in modern times but nine senior departures and a host of injuries saw back-up goalkeeper Karl Darlow and free signing Sam Byram sat alongside seven youngsters on the bench against Cardiff, the oldest being 23-year-old Ian Poveda.

Stuart Dallas will not feature as he continues his recovery from a broken leg suffered in April 2022.

“It’s not possible to give him a timescale because it was a bad injury,” explained Farke. “We have to make sure that Stuart that comes back as strong as possible.

“There’s also no pressure and no rush, he gets all the time because he's done so much for this club and is such an important player and also his personality in the dressing room (is important).

“I love to have him around even during his rehab because it's good for the mood, good for the confidence, it's always good for the young players when next to you you see Stuart Dallas. Perfect personality and person, quite important for us as a club.”

Sunday's game drew Sky's biggest Championship audience for a non-play-off game since 2017, peaking at nearly 1m on a weekend which saw over 500,000 supporters attend Football League games.

With Yorkshire providing three of the five top gates, the league's 543,168 aggregate attendance was the biggest for an opening weekend this century.