A point on the road is always a good result for a side in their second season of Premier League football said Daniel Farke, after a scrappy 0-0 draw at Sunderland.
Farke acknowledged that Storm Boelo made it difficult for both sides to play attractive football, but Leeds also went into the Stadium of Light clash on the back of a disrupted week.
"I think it's fair to say it was not the nicest piece of football," he said. "On a day like this, you can accept this. Of course, on a warm, sunny Saturday or Sunday afternoon after a good training week, anyone can play proper football. But these games belong also to the Premier League.
"We had a difficult training week with many key players not available. Came here to a difficult ground. Not many teams have won here last season. They've qualified for Europe and are desperate today to win three points. Joe Rodon is out anyway, Nico Elvedi misses the game due to illness overnight and had to travel back. Then weather conditions where you could hardly predict the curve of the ball.
"It was one of these days where you have to accept that you can't shine that much football wise. It's more or less to dig in and grind out a result and fight for second balls and show steel. This is what we did today. And if in our situation, second year back on Premier League level, you travel back home from an away ground with a point and also with a clean sheet, that's always a good result."
The pre-game difficulties included injuries that kept Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Noah Okafor and Anton Stach from being able to take part in the full training programme. Of the three only Calvert-Lewin was passed fit to start.
"I think it's also fair to say that you could see that we had a difficult training week offensive-wise because several offensive players were just back on the training pitch yesterday in our final session. We could hardly work on our processes. Some were not available for the starting line-up. Some had not more energy to play more than 30 minutes or something like this. I think possession-wise, we can play better football and create more chances to score more goals. But overall, I think the draw is also fair outcome of this game and for us definitely a good point."
The injury issues in the attack brought Brenden Aaronson and Harry Wilson into the starting line-up and though neither of the were able to create the necessary magic, Farke was pleased to see them get significant minutes along with Jaka Bijol in central defence.
"Difficult for them, because you think, 'okay, you have not played for a while, here is your chance, go on son, use your chance, and shine a little bit.' But then it never works like this. So they need to find the rhythm. We had to change many positions. They need to get into the rhythm. Their team needs to find it, and then you go out in a game where you could hardly pass the ball proper, because the wind was like a tornado, and it's difficult to shine. I think you could feel it. I'm pleased that they have the minutes under their belt. I'm pleased that they've played their part in grinding out an important result. This will be beneficial for them.
"There will be other occasions for Harry and for Brenden, offensive guys, to shine. So no complaints, just happy that they came through and got important minutes."
