Daniel Farke reveals Leeds United tactic that caught Liverpool by surprise and disagrees with Arne Slot

Daniel Farke reckons that his change of tactics helped Leeds United’s fightback against Liverpool.

The Reds threw away victory as they were held to a 3-3 draw at Elland Road to put more pressure on head coach Arne Slot. Liverpool were in cruise control after Hugo Ekitike fired a quickfire double just five minutes into the second half.

In a bid to get back into the game, Farke made a triple change and it paid dividends. On 70 minutes, substitute Willy Gnonto went to ground in Liverpool’s box under a challenge from Ibrahima Konate. A VAR review deemed that Konate had fouled Gnonto and a penalty was awarded, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin converting.

Moments later, Leeds were level as Anton Stach fired home, having been picked out by Brenden Aaronson, who had been introduced at the same time as Gnonto. And despite Dominik Szoboszlai regaining Liverpool’s lead, Leeds were not done and Ao Tanaka, substitute, bagged from a corner in the sixth minute of stoppage-time.

What’s been said

It was another big result for Leeds in their bid to avoid Premier League relegation, having beaten Chelsea 3-1 earlier in the week. Whites head coach Farke said: "Very happy of course, all the credit goes to the boys.

We got so much praise for our different formation but at 2-0 down we wanted to change the challenge for Liverpool. We wanted mobile wingers, sometimes wide, sometimes in the pocket and to press in a different way. The lads executed in a brilliant way, assist for Willy, assist for Brenden, Ao with an equaliser after I was a bit furious with him for opening our block [for the Liverpool third.] Sebastiaan Bornauw, we wanted to create a bit of chaos, playing as a right-back without the ball and a striker with it. We needed to change something. It caught Liverpool a bit by surprise and we were able to create a few more set-pieces and could use one to equalise. After this exhausting week, to change base formation and it works, it's amazing."

"Tight game in the first half, they had a bit more possession but we put pressure on them, similar to the first half against Chelsea. We didn't allow many chances, I don't remember Lucas Perri making a save. If you want to win points against the top sides in the world you need top energy against the ball, but also with the ball. In the second half you could realise we were running out of energy a bit in possession and had two mistakes sadly to assist their two goals. My boys have this attitude, never know when they're beaten and whatever is thrown at them they always try to find the answer.

“To come back from 2-0 down was outstanding. Perhaps a bit over-motivated, 2-2, stepped out of our block in the pressing without a trigger and allowed them to score a top class goal. To find another answer and equalise. It's just a point but the lads should be really proud and can take lots of confidence."

‘How it should be handled’

Liverpool boss Slot felt it was harsh that the penalty incident was reviewed by VAR. But Farke disagreed. He added: “I haven't even watched the scenes back, but I would think if the VAR comes in and then the referee decides to watch it again, and then decides, oh, it's a penalty, I think it's how it should be handled.

“Because it's more or less like if a referee reviews, assesses time to review it in a proper way, and gives a penalty, then the penalty should have been given, even if it was a mistake before or not. But, yeah, definitely, then a penalty.”