Leeds United handed significant boost over West Ham as old Daniel Farke gripe resurfaces
Leeds United return to action on Friday but their Elland Road visitors West Ham have other commitments to manage.
Leeds United regularly drew the short straw when it came to Championship fixture schedules but could benefit against West Ham later this week.
Daniel Farke’s side welcome the Hammers to Elland Road on Friday evening, having fallen to a disappointing 2-0 defeat at Burnley over the weekend. Goals from Lesley Ugochukwu and Loum Tchaouna condemned the Whites to a fourth league loss of the campaign and their first against a likely relegation rival.
West Ham look set to be relegation rivals too, with one win in seven leaving them 19th and a managerial change seeing Nuno Espirito Santo replace Graham Potter. They are a match behind Leeds and many others at the time of writing, however, with their gameweek eight fixture at home to Brentford taking place this evening.
Sky Sports picked West Ham’s bottom-half meeting with Brentford for Monday Night Football while also selecting their trip to Elland Road for a Friday evening slot, meaning Espirito Santo’s side round off gameweek eight before kicking things off for gameweek nine - with a quicker turnaround than many.
While West Ham will benefit from being at home to Brentford this evening, they will have just three full days to prepare for that trip to Leeds, the first of which will be a recovery day given they play late into the evening today. Espirito Santo will then have Wednesday and Thursday with his first-team on the training pitch before travelling on Friday.
Leeds were away from home on Saturday but not a great distance from West Yorkshire, meaning players will have been back in their own beds that night. Farke will therefore have five full days to rest and prepare for West Ham, plus the Friday morning in which his opposite number will be travelling up from London.
Leeds United to benefit from regular TV selection gripe
Sky Sports’ somewhat questionable selection decisions have been a regular gripe for Farke since he arrived at Elland Road. In the Championship, his side were often picked by broadcasters and therefore forced to make unnecessarily quick turnarounds, particularly during the promotion run-in.
"To have the fixture list that it's also right in terms of fair play and the sense of the game," Farke said when quizzed on the issue last season. “Sometimes you're struggling a bit to understand why the fixture list is how it is because when I have a look at this week it's difficult to understand why you have to play Wednesday evening, a late kick-off [vs Millwall] and then the quickest possible turnaround to play Saturday lunchtime [vs QPR].
“In terms of fair play, it's not great because we faced a side with one week to prepare. The next game is then scheduled on the Tuesday. Wednesday would also be possible, keeping in mind the next game is Monday. Sometimes it's hard to understand in terms of fair play.”
But with the shoe on the other foot this week, Leeds have an opportunity to capitalise on their extra preparation time, particularly given they’ll be in front of a packed out Elland Road. And with the importance of Friday’s meeting intensifying after defeat at Burnley, those fine margins could be huge.