Daniel Farke believes Hull City have the quality at the top of the pitch to cause his Leeds United side problems when the two sides meet at the MKM Stadium in a rare 3pm Saturday appearance for the Whites.
Farke’s comments will surprise some City supporters, who watched their side fail to muster a single shot on target in the dramatic 1-0 defeat to Middlesbrough on Wednesday night.
City have struggled for goals all season and will be without two of their key attacking weapons in Liam Millar and Mohamed Belloumi, who are both sidelined with season-ending ACL injuries. Their matchwinner at Blackburn Rovers, Ryan Longman, will also be sidelined along with Kasey Palmer, Carl Rushworth, Charlie Hughes and Oscar Zambrano (suspended).
The Tigers are the Championship’s lowest scorers with just 22 goals from their 25 games. They sit inside the bottom three, but have improved markedly under Ruben Selles, who has two wins, three defeats and two draws since taking over from Tim Walter. However, they have scored more than one goal in a game on just four occasions this term.
Despite City’s obvious struggles at the top of the pitch, Farke believes the Tigers have the quality to cause Leeds problems and end a five-game winless run against their West Yorkshire rivals.
“It’s always tricky when a new manager comes in and brings new ideas in. Even after a few more weeks, you see more changes. It will be a different Hull side in comparison to what we faced at Elland Road,” Farke said.
“They have got quality players and have really good options in the offence. Of course, they will be disappointed with the first half of their season, but I’m pretty sure they will try to use this home game to win important points. We are aware they will be a threat. We have to be spot on like we have been in the last away games with what we do, our team selection and set up.”
Leeds will arrive at the MKM Stadium on a seven-game unbeaten run, but had to settle for a point in a 1-1 draw against Blackburn at Elland Road on Wednesday afternoon and is determined to keep their run going.
“I don’t look too far ahead. I don’t have a special points amount for January and February. It is game after game,” the German said. “We are on an incredible run. Someone told me that this is the best Christmas run this club has ever had in terms of points. We are on a really good run but you always have to be switched on and ready for the next game to make sure this run continues.
“We had a good run last year and we didn’t get promoted. If you want to finish in the top positions, you can’t stop winning points. We are on 52 points right now and we are top of the league. We have a really good points tally, more than two per game, but if we stop winning points we won’t make the top six, never mind the top two. If you are in and around 90 points, we know we will have a good chance of finishing in the top positions in this league.”