Daniel Farke: Coaching Analysis

Daniel Farke has won the Championship three times, twice with Norwich and once with Leeds, and each time the same question followed him up: could his football survive the Premier League?

In 2025-26 he finally answered it. Leeds finished 14th with 47 points, safe with three games to spare, and Farke had his first top-flight survival as a manager. He got there not by doubling down on the possession game that won him those titles, but by changing it.

That is the real story of Farke for a fellow coach. He is one of the most consistent stylists in the game, and 2025-26 proved he is also one of the most adaptable.

The road here

Farke's coaching apprenticeship was served at Borussia Dortmund II, where he spent two seasons managing the reserve side, developing young players and refining a possession-heavy style built on patience and ball circulation.

Norwich appointed him on 25 May 2017 as their first overseas head coach. He won the Championship title in 2018-19, was relegated in his only full Premier League season, won the title again in 2020-21, and was dismissed in November 2021 after a poor start to the second attempt at the top flight.

Two short chapters followed. He was appointed by Krasnodar in January 2022 and left on 2 March, with his staff, following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. He then took over Borussia Mönchengladbach in June 2022 and was sacked a year later after a tenth-place finish.

Leeds appointed him on 4 July 2023 on a four-year contract. His first season produced 90 points and still ended in play-off final defeat to Southampton. His second produced 100 points and the Championship title, won on goal difference with a 2-1 victory at Plymouth on the final day.

Then came the season that changed the reputation: 14th in the Premier League, and the mid-season reinvention that made it possible.

How his teams play with the ball

Championship Farke is a possession manager to his core. "I like to have the ball. If I could choose, I would have the ball for 90 minutes." His Leeds side had the second-highest possession share in the Championship, building from a 4-2-3-1 that became a 2-3-5 or 3-2-5 in sustained attacks: two or three players securing the ball at the back, a midfield line of three, five ahead of the ball stretching the last line.

The build-up is patient by design. Circulate, move the opponent, wait for the gap, then play through it. Width comes high and early, and the number 10 works the pocket between the lines.

Premier League Farke kept the principles but changed the proportions. Leeds did not try to dominate the ball in 2025-26. His summer homework told him set pieces had been a weakness in the second tier, so he recruited for them: Anton Stach and Sean Longstaff to deliver, Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Jaka Bijol and Lukas Nmecha to attack the deliveries. Dead balls became a primary route to goal.

The pivotal moment came at Manchester City on 29 November. Two down at half-time, Farke sent on Bijol and Calvert-Lewin, switched to a 3-5-2 and went more direct. Leeds drew 2-2 and more than trebled City's expected goals output in the second half. Before that day Leeds had lost six of seven; from it, they lost only five of their final 25 league games.

The lesson is not that possession failed. It is that Farke separated his principles from his preferences. Good positions, forward intent and a free man still governed everything; the route to them changed.

How his teams play without the ball

The 2025-26 turnaround was defensive as much as anything. Switching to three central defenders was the big call of Farke's season, and it paid off. With James Justin, Bijol and Pascal Struijk across the back line, Leeds defended in a compact 5-4-1, conceding the wide areas last and the central ones never.

A back five suits a team that has surrendered possession share. The extra centre-back means crosses are attacked by numbers, the spaces between defenders shrink, and the wing-backs can engage high without leaving the channel open behind them.

From that base, Leeds struck forward through their front two and their set-piece game. Corners and free-kicks carried a constant threat with three aerial targets recruited for exactly that job.

What holds it together is discipline over adventure. Farke's Championship teams pressed to win the ball back and restart possession. His Premier League team picked its moments, protected the box first and trusted that the chances would come from structure, restarts and transitions.

The players he picks

Farke recruits to a plan, not to a name. The 2025 summer window is the cleanest example a coach could ask for: a weakness identified (set-piece threat), then delivery specialists signed alongside the targets to meet the deliveries.

In possession phases he needs technicians. His Championship sides were built on centre-backs who could pass through pressure and a 10 who could receive between the lines. In the Premier League he added a different profile on top: physical, aerial, direct.

Calvert-Lewin is the emblem of the adaptation. A traditional number 9 whose strengths are old-school, back to goal, attacking crosses, running the channels, he was revived by a manager willing to build service around him rather than asking him to become something else.

Farke also gives his players time. He kept faith with a settled core across three seasons at Leeds, and the group that won 100 points in the Championship formed the spine of the team that stayed up. Continuity of selection is part of the method.

On the training ground

Two verifiable habits stand out. The first is the summer audit. Farke reviewed where his promoted team would fall short, identified set pieces, and made them a recruitment and training priority months before a ball was kicked. The weakness was fixed before it could cost points.

The second is in-game courage built on preparation. The half-time switch at Manchester City was not a gamble; it was a rehearsed alternative. A team cannot change from a 4-2-3-1 to a 3-5-2 mid-match unless both shapes live on the training ground all week.

His Dortmund II background shows in the teaching. Farke's teams are drilled in positional detail, where to stand, when to move the ball, which pass is on next, and that level of shared picture only comes from repetition against realistic pressure.

For a grassroots coach the takeaway is the plan-B principle: your team needs a second shape it has actually trained, not one you shout at it for the first time when you are losing.

What you can steal for your team

Farke offers grassroots coaches two complete playbooks, the possession game and the pragmatic game, and the judgement to know which one your Saturday requires.

If your team can keep the ball, coach it properly. Our guides to possession with purpose and playing out from the back cover the principles his Championship sides ran on, and the Zone Split Build Up drill gives you the first session.

Then build the second shape. A back five that stays compact and attacks crosses will keep weaker teams in games they have no right to draw. Start with our guide to coaching the 3-5-2 and rehearse the switch in training before you ever need it on a matchday; our guide to managing game states covers when to pull the trigger.

And take set pieces as seriously as Farke does. At grassroots level, where restarts decide tight games, one good routine and one reliable deliverer are worth points every month. Our guide to attacking corners pairs with the Near Post Crowd drill for a routine you can install in one session.

For complete session plans covering both playbooks, join Coach Notes Pro.