First impressions count and Daniel Farke quickly grabbed the attention of those around him with his opening address to the Leeds United squad. “I want Elland Road to be a fortress again,” the German told his players in that July meeting.
Understandably so. In truth, the stadium had been anything but imposing in those painful final weeks in the Premier League. Where do you even start? The 1-5 capitulation against Crystal Palace? The 1-6 humiliation at the hands of Liverpool? The 1-4 defeat versus Spurs on the final day that finally put Leeds out of their misery and sent them down?
Leeds fans chanted: “You’re not fit to wear the shirt!” on that ugly afternoon. This young team are, though, having become the first since Don Revie’s legendary title-winning outfit to go 18 games unbeaten in all competitions at Elland Road following Saturday’s 3-0 win against bottom of the table Rotherham United.
“If you want to be successful in this league, you have to be successful at home,” Farke said. “Your home has to be a fortress and this is what the lads have delivered in a fantastic way.
“I couldn’t have predicted that we would win so many points at home and go on this unbeaten run with an unbelievable home record that’s the best in decades. All the credit goes to the lads but, also, to our supporters because we sometimes had difficult moments in home games during the season, but they were always backing us. This is one of the biggest assets of this club that we have a fortress at Elland Road and we have to make sure that the away team know about this reputation.”
