Ilia Gruev has performed a prominent role for Leeds across the last three games in particular.
The Bulgaria international played 90 minutes as Leeds suffered a 3-2 defeat at Manchester City, before playing 23 minutes of the 3-1 win over Chelsea and also starting the 3-3 draw against Liverpool.
An injury to Sean Longstaff opened the door to the Leeds No.44 – and he has certainly stepped up.
Ilia Gruev has now claimed that Daniel Farke oversaw something abnormal during that defeat against Manchester City, but hopes it continues.
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Ao Tanaka has got to start, surely!
Illia Gruev says Leeds United fighting back against Manchester City was “not normal”
Speaking to BBC Radio Leeds, the Bulgarian said: “What I can tell you is we weren’t shocked, which is important. We as a team. For example, you are 2-0 down, let’s be honest… we weren’t like hopefully (it just stays) 2-0. No no boys, we go for the win.
“I wasn’t surprised how we did it. Maybe (other) people are surprised, of course – we are a promoted side, we play away to City and it’s tough. How we played, especially second half with self belief was quite impressive. Also you have to evaluate it. It’s not a normal thing, but our goal is that these things (become) normal.”
It was quite abnormal to see that tactical tweak from Farke cause Pep Guardiola so many problems, as Leeds battled back from 2-0 down to make it 2-2 before ultimately losing in stoppage time.
What made it even more strange is the fact Farke was absolutely wedded to his 4-2-3-1 and hardly made any changes prior to that game against Manchester City, even though Leeds were on a run of four consecutive defeats.
The German deserves credit in that respect for eventually mixing his tactics up, especially for doing it against one of the best ever in Guardiola.
Daniel Farke cannot afford to revert back to type at Leeds United
With Brentford on the horizon this Sunday, the worry is that Farke eases off a bit.
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The 49-year-old clearly felt he needed to do something different against the bigger sides, and it paid off as four points out of nine were taken from clashes against Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool.
However – as aforesaid – Farke rarely changed anything against the smaller sides as Leeds recently lost four games in a row.
Perhaps there was a bit of arrogance that his tactics would eventually reign supreme over a club outside of the so-called Big Six.
As a result, all eyes will be on Farke this Sunday, and whether he reverts back to the stubborn approach which was starting to anger Leeds fans before that trip to Manchester City.
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