Leeds United's Daniel Farke keen to pitch his reaction right after seeing his side lose too many 'decisive' moments

Unsurprisingly manager Daniel Farke was in no mood to panic after a first Championship defeat of 2024 saw Leeds United drop out of the automatic promotion places with only five games left, but equally he was in no mood to sweep it under the carpet.

A 2-1 defeat to Coventry City, who took a 2-0 lead before the visitors pinned them back, dropped Leeds two points behind new leaders Leicester City, who have six matches left and stopped them capitalising on Ipswich Town's 1-0 defeat to Norwich City.

Kieran McKenna's side are a point ahead of Leeds.

Although Leeds dominated the statistics, Farke felt they lost too many decisive moments, saying: "We have to be calm but also make sure we don't fall asleep."

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Farke felt his side had lulled themselves into a false sense of security before Ellis Simms opened the scoring after nine minutes for the play-off chasers.

"We started well, dominated possession, had many good scenes in or close to their box and the first set pieces," said Farke.

"It's sometimes quite normal when you have such a comfortable start, you lose a bit the aggression and greediness in the duels and I got the feeling this was a bit case, especially in the first half.

BALANCING ACT: Leeds United manager Daniel FarkeBALANCING ACT: Leeds United manager Daniel Farke
BALANCING ACT: Leeds United manager Daniel Farke

"We dominated against a really good possession side with nearly 70 per cent possession (it was exactly that), we had more chances, more expected goals, more shots, more shots on target.

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"From the statistics it was a really good away game but we didn't win the decisive duels. This was crucial, I think.

"The first goal we conceded out of our corner kick, a counter-attack. It was the first time they were in our half, if I'm honest, (they won) their first corner kick, and they scored out of it.

"The second goal (scored by Haji Wright) was more or less the same – a free-kick from us, they invested everything to go into a counter-attack. We could have sprinted back a bit more, been a bit more aware and greedy, perhaps a bit smarter and made a little tactical foul.

"If you give two goals relatively cheaply away it's always a tricky game against a really good home side.

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"We had a good reaction, scored the first goal with Joel Piroe, a pretty calm finish, I was really happy.

"I would have preferred he had used his big chance to equalise but you felt this was one of those games where you perhaps needed to score with a shot from distance or a set piece and we didn't do this."

With a game at home to his former club Norwich on Tuesday, Farke was conscious of the need to pitch his post-match reaction at the right level.

"I have to be careful because if you lose your first game in the calendar year at the beginning of April it's difficult to be over-critical with your lads but I still got the feeling we had more to give," he said.

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"For that I also wanted them to be a bit disappointed and allow us to suffer a bit. After a loss you should stay a bit humble and self-critical. It's always the right reaction even if it's the first loss of the year and not to be too bullish straight away.

"We will allow ourselves to be self-critical for one or two days and suffer a little bit and then make sure on Tuesday we go again.

"If you asked me did I expect to go unbeaten throughout 2024? No. Am I disappointed that we don't? Yes.

"We are definitely disappointed but it's also the Championship. I'm far away from over-interpreting this.

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"Sometimes when you're not that effective and you don't use your chances against a really good opponent who is effective at using their chances, you have to say congratulations."

Coventry's win moves them up to seventh in the table, a point ahead of Middlesbrough and Hull City, who also won. Hull are at Coventry in mid-April.

The two Yorkshire sides remain six points outside the final play-off place, held by Norwich, but Hull and Coventry have a game in hand on David Wagner's side.

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