Leeds United and Daniel Farke have every right to be fuming with Sky Sports reveal: View
Rearranged fixtures and traffic could seriously hinder Leeds United’s drive for promotion as the Championship season draws to a close, dealing a devastating blow to the team and Daniel Farke.
Knowing about the changes to the Sky Sports schedule will undoubtedly make Leeds United manager Farke very angry.
The players and manager of the West Yorkshire club want to ensure that this setback is quickly forgotten, therefore they will not be happy about Sky Sports releasing its live TV games for April. The team lost their first league game of 2024 on Saturday against Coventry City.
Leeds now have to fit four games into a span of 17 days, as Sky Sports seems to be picking them as their top pick for the run-in. Sky Sports recently released the schedule at which they will be providing live coverage starting this month on the Official EFL website.
Moreover, none of these Saturday games will begin at 3 p.m.; instead, the games on that specific day of the week will begin at 12:30, so there may need to be some adjustments made to match preparation.
Leeds United preparation has been disrupted by Sky Sports
It’s true that managing football teams is never an easy task, and Farke can surely agree with that now that he knows how much of a pain these fixture changes will be.
| Leeds United’s remaining fixtures 2023/24 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Opponents (Home/Away) | Date | Kick-off time |
| Sunderland (H) | Tuesday 9 April | 20:00 |
| Blackburn Rovers (H) | Saturday 13 April | 12:30 |
| Middlesborough (A) | Monday 22 April | 20:00 |
| Queens Park Rangers (A) | Friday 26 April | 20:00 |
| Southampton (H) | Saturday 4 May | 12:30 |
Leeds still has five games left in the season, as the schedule above shows. Their next game is on Tuesday at home against Sunderland.
The Whites will play two of the remaining five games in the same week later this month.
Players usually have a day off after a game. As such, following their away game against Middlesborough on Monday, April 22 at 8 p.m. at the Riverside, they will need Tuesday, April 23, to be off from training in order to give the players time to recover and help them avoid injuries in the upcoming games.
For Leeds United supporters and Farke alike, it goes without saying that prayers will be said for the prevention of any injuries sustained during those practise sessions.
Though Leicester has three and Ipswich has four players on the injury list, the Whites have the shortest list at the moment with just two players out of action.
Fixture changes could give Leicester and Ipswich the upper hand in promotion battle
Given the previously indicated training and physical dilemma that Farke has now been left with as a result of Sky Sports’ fixture manipulation, Leicester City and Ipswich Town should be able to take the lead in the race for automatic promotion and try to capitalise on this exceptional advantage.
Ipswich is one point behind Leicester in the league, but both teams, who triumphed this past Saturday, hold the top two positions.
One may argue that Ipswich has the best remaining schedule because their games are more evenly spaced out over the upcoming weeks (20 days versus Leeds’ seventeen). The Suffolk-based team also has to play their last four matchups after this.
They are also undefeated against every opponent they have left on the schedule for this season, having drawn and won four of them.
In contrast to the other two, Leicester must endure the additional hardship of playing an extra game.
However, they have one thing in common with Ipswich despite their run-in: they have yet to lose to any of their remaining opponents.
Long away days for Leeds United fans coming up
The impact on supporters cannot be overlooked, even though the main attention is on how Daniel Farke and his team’s conditioning are severely hampered by the abundance of fixtures.
The away supporters of Leeds have already endured eight months of strange kick-off times on their fixture calendar, so it seems sense that they would be incensed that there won’t be another Saturday kick-off at 3 p.m. for the remainder of the campaign.
Even though they still have three home games left before the season ends, supporters will need to make two lengthy journeys during the turbulent period between April 22 and 26.
On a weekday, they will have to travel to North Yorkshire to play Middlesborough at 8:00 p.m. A loss at Riverside Stadium may mean a very long night, as the game is expected to end shortly before 10 p.m. and it would take around three hours to travel back by automobile.
The fans will then have to travel considerably further to Loftus Road in West London, just four days later.
On a good day, the drive could take four hours. As a result, if spectators wish to avoid paying more for train tickets, they will need to travel eight hours one way on a weekday in order to see the game, which starts at 8 p.m. and will probably end at 10 p.m.
Leeds United’s hearts may be made or broken that particular week, but with the team having had such a successful start to 2024 and both of their opponents having had inconsistent play recently, supporters will undoubtedly have hope that Farke can continue to work his magic, as he has done the entire season, and bring a happy conclusion to this wild ride of an EFL Championship season.
