Daniel Farke knows first-hand just how intense the pressure can be at a club of the size of Leeds United.
While the majority of the Elland Road support have kept faith with the German throughout his time in West Yorkshire, there were certainly a few audible grumbles as Leeds United first missed out on automatic promotion last term, and then flopped in the play-off final defeat to Southampton.
And as Leeds started the current campaign with two wins in five Championship matches, plus a humiliating home defeat by Middlesbrough in the EFL Cup, even Daniel Farke’s most committed backers would have been forgiven for wondering, even briefly, if he was not in fact the silver-bullet solution capable of guaranteeing a Premier League return.
Flash forward to January 2025, however, and Farke’s job is now as safe as it realistically can be.
Despite Leeds’ suffering a frustrating 0-0 draw at Burnley on Monday night – Dan James mustered the only shot on target with 88 minutes on the clock – the Yorkshire giants remain two points clear at the top of the table.
Their destiny is still in their own hands.
Daniel Farke thrives at Leeds United as Carlos Corberan stars down La Liga barrel
The same cannot be said of another of European football’s fallen giants.
A Valencia outfit who, limping along in 19th and five points adrift of safety, need not only a dramatic upturn in their own form but for other results to go their way if Los Che are to avoid relegation for the first time since 1986.
To think, not so long ago, Leeds and Valencia were going head-to-head for a place in the Champions League final. Two decades on, should both clubs fail to achieve their objectives, Leeds and Valencia will each by second-tier clubs in 2025/26.
Though with Farke’s team threatening to motor clear of the likes of Sheffield United, Sunderland and Burnley, former Leeds coach Carlos Corberan would surely bite your hand clean off the bone if you offered him the chance to swap league positions with the man currently in the Elland Road dugout.
A former assistant to Marcelo Bielsa – Carlos Corberan was even linked with a return to Leeds recently – the Castellon-born coach could not resist the temptation to leave the relative lukewarm comfort of West Brom for the footballing frying pan that is his beloved Valencia.
Only time will tell if Corberan – Valencia’s 13th head coach since 2014 – comes to regret taking on a role which did considerable, occasionally fatal, damage to their reputations of some of his predecessors. Take Gennaro Gattuso, for instance. Albert Celades.
Most infamously of all, Gary Neville. A man he now unwittingly joins in the history books for all the wrong reaasons.
Three wins from his first five games, albeit two of those coming against lower-league opposition in the Copa del Rey, represented a smooth start. But while a trip to Barcelona always looked like a potential pothole in the road, Corberan was understandably alarmed about the way his tyres blew out and the engine spat oil all over the road, Valencia careering off course and into the nearest ditch.
Corberan reflects on ‘painful’ Valencia defeat as Barcelona run riot
“When you suffer a defeat as a result of having not competed at the level that we can as a team, well, obviously there is no more painful feeling than that,” a dejected Corberan sighed after his Valencia team found themselves 5-0 down at half-time in Catalonia, and 7-1 down by the final whistle.
The first time they had conceded seven goals in a La Liga match in 70 years. And the first time they had conceded seven in any game since Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar cut Neville’s Valencia to ribbons in the Copa del Rey back in 2016.
“When that happens, I always like to take responsibility,” Corberan adds, a manager renowned for his ability to construct a solid backline helpless as his young team collapsed like a house of cards in a hurricane.
“It is time to do some self-criticism, to see why we have not competed at the level that the match demands and what the badge demands. A result like this demands a reaction proportional to the pain that this defeat leaves you with.
“When a team is so outclassed, obviously, I am the one responsible. We are better than we have shown.
“It’s not about motivation, but about taking responsibility, showing honour and self-love to change the situation.”
Daniel Farke succeeded in turning round a slow start to the campaign at Leeds United. But, even for a coach of Carlos Corberan’s talents, rescuing Valencia from the abyss may simply be a task too great.
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