Daniel Farke has accumulated enough Championship know-how, at this point, to realise the benefits of keeping his Leeds United squad fresh ahead of the run-in.
This is, after all, a coached who guided Norwich City to the Premier League on two occasions. A man enjoying his second season in the Elland Road dugout.
Farke knows the challenges posed by a gruelling 46-game season better than most. And while there was still a familiar feeling to Leeds United’s line up as Joel Piroe and Jayden Bogle secured a 2-0 win at Coventry City on Wednesday, one of the German’s most trusted lieutenants was conspicuous by his absence.
Joe Rothwell has started 20 Championship games on loan from AFC Bournemouth. Twenty out of the last 24, for that matter.
But after Rothwell played the full 90 minutes in Saturday’s 7-0 thumping of Cardiff, Farke felt that the time was right to hand one of the more underrated members of his squad a bit of time off in order to rest those overworked muscles.
Daniel Farke explains Joe Rothwell absence as Leeds United beat Coventry City
“We have a pretty busy schedule, so we need to rotate a little bit,” Farke explains in his post-match presser. “You always have to adapt a little bit [to] the strengths of the opponents.”
Farke introduced Ilia Gruev for only his second league start since undergoing knee surgery in October.
Gruev repaid the Leeds boss’ faith with a starring performance in the West Midlands, too. He completed five tackles, the joint-most of any player, while it was his aggressive pressing which forced the turnover in the build up to Joel Piroe’s 17th minute opener.
And Farke obviously felt that introducing the battling Bulgarian for the silkier Rothwell – one of the older members of his roster at the age of 30 – was exactly what was required to combat a resurgent Coventry.
“We needed legs today in midfield,” Farke adds. “It was clear that Rothwell played well [against Cardiff] but he also played 90 minutes.
“For me, it was never in doubt that there [had to be] such a decision. We had to take this decision.”
Farke sees positives and negatives as Leeds go five points clear
Shortly after Piroe converted his third goal in two matches, slotting home following a Manor Solomon flick, Bogle bludgeoned through the Coventry backline to double Leeds’ advantage with less than 30 minutes played.
And while Daniel Farke was frustrated with the denial of a penalty on Brenden Aaronson, plus a lack of ruthlessness in the second-half, Leeds are now three points closer to the promised land.
“Overall, a great night. A pretty important win and three points,” Farke smiles. “[Coventry is] such a tough place. We were aware Coventry were in top form. To come here and show a deserved win, I’m happy with so any details.
“Our pressing and counter-pressing, how we created chances, a fifth clean sheet in a row… We were pretty wasteful in using the chances [though, so] we have to be more efficient. You can’t waste too many chances.
“The 2-0 win is great but I think we should have had two clear penalties. Crazy how we don’t get a penalty with Aaronson. I’m a bit critical of our cutting edge. We missed too many one-v-ones. Against a really good side, it can be really costly.”
Fortunately, Leeds had the ‘unbelievable’ Illan Meslier to bail them out on the rare occasions when Coventry did threaten the visitor’s goal.
Meslier pulled off a ‘world-class’ save to deny Ellis Simms from point-blank range before tipping a stoppage-time Bobby Thomas header onto the bar. Leeds now have 19 clean sheets to their name this season and the Frenchman has not yet given up hope of snatching the Golden Glove from out the hands of Burnley’s James Trafford.
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