Leeds United endured an embarrassing Carabao Cup exit at Sheffield Wednesday but Daniel Farke was left pleased with one performance.
A victory in the Carabao Cup continues to elude Leeds United after they were defeated by a troubled Sheffield Wednesday on penalties.
Henrik Pedersen named a team largely comprised of inexperienced youngsters, yet they battled bravely against an expensively assembled Premier League side and took the lead through Jamal Lowe’s tame strike that deceived Karl Darlow.
Jayden Bogle levelled but despite their late push, Leeds couldn’t find a winner and failed to score from any of their penalties for the first time in their history as they were beaten 3-0.
Despite the turgid display, Daniel Farke was happy with the performance of debutant Sebastiaan Bornauw at centre-back.
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Daniel Farke praises Sebastiaan Bornauw’s Leeds United debut
When asked by Sky Sports if any performances pleased him after the humiliating crash out of the cup, Farke moved to praise Bornauw.
“Yes,” he replied. “After a loss, it’s always difficult because it’s more in the spotlight that you didn’t score the goals.
“I think Sebastiaan, after being out for such a long time, had nothing to do with the goal. Pretty good, solid performance.
“Jaka [Bijol] was out for a long time due to the fact he was not eligible to play and also in the last friendlies, I need to test a bit more the starting line up.
“Minutes for Noah Okafor, Dominic [Calvert-Lewin], they were involved in many, many good things.
“I feel a bit for them that they didn’t have a better outcome, because for their confidence, it would have been good.
“But you can’t choose in football and if you don’t score goals, you have to accept the other team wins the game.”
Noah Okafor Leeds United full debut stats
Farke named five full debutants in his XI, with Okafor the headline starter alongside Bornauw, Sean Longstaff, Jaka Bijol and Lukas Nmecha.
Versatile forward Okafor was positioned out on the left but struggled to have much impact despite being up against defenders aged 20 and 18 years old.
The former AC Milan man looked unfit, understandably, with such few minutes with his new teammates, but it was certainly an inauspicious start going off the eye test.
Yet, Okafor’s stats did look promising at least. He completed four dribbles, won 9/17 duels, was fouled twice, created one big chance, had three shots and had an 85% pass success rate.
However, big improvements will be needed from him in the Premier League.
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