As Leeds United sits at the bottom of the yellow card table, journalist Joe Donnohue of the Yorkshire Evening Post has reported on how Daniel Farke is removing the old “Dirty” reputation off the team.
Leeds is the only English Football League team to have received just 29 yellow cards under Farke’s direction; their lone red card was the result of two bookable offences.
By comparison, Southampton has 49 bookings, Leicester and Ipswich have both received 44, and Stoke City leads the bookings table with 50 after 19 games.
Donnohue stated in an August 5 article for the Yorkshire Evening Post that “Dirty Leeds” had long resided on Elland Road, but under Daniel Farke, the very nickname that has come to be associated with the Whites has never been more inaccurate.
United has received the fewest yellow cards of any team in the second, third, or fourth tiers of English football. In their 19 Championship games thus far, they have only received 29 cautions (plus one red for two bookable offences), making them the cleanest team in the division.
Whether supporters of the team like it or not, Leeds have never been known to win over referees on a financial basis. However, this season, the young team led by Farke is the officials’ preferred choice.
Is this a positive or a negative?
In other words, if players have fewer bookings, they are less likely to receive a suspension—whether it is for a series of yellow cards or a red card. This implies that, with injuries being the primary problem, Farke is almost always able to use his first choice side.
Due to his four yellow cards this season, Crysencio Summerville was on a tightrope as suspension might have been imposed, but the season’s 19th game was the cutoff point for booking accumulation, and that game was against Middlesbrough.
On the other hand, a more pessimistic perspective might contend that it indicates these Leeds players lack the bit of bite that is occasionally necessary to succeed at this level, especially when the going gets tough.
To the pleasure of those inside Elland Road, some of the most famous Leeds teams in the past prospered on their reputation as “Dirty Leeds,” mastering the dark arts of football that would eventually lead to opposition supporters. Is that anything they miss now?