Ao Tanaka sat in the far dressing room and cried.The Japanese midfielder did not shed tears of joy after helping Leeds to a crucial win at Middlesbrough earlier this month.”I said to Ao, ‘Why?'” said his manager, Daniel Farke.”I don’t know boss, I’m empty.”
It’s April.With four games remaining, difficult and harsh painfully No one seems surprised as the championship promotion race heads towards a conclusion.”It’s difficult for all my players at the moment,” said Farke, whose side, like Burnley, could be promoted by Easter Monday.”We work for the most emotional club in the UK and the outside world is always in awe.”
The underlying problem is that three cannot fit into two, so Leeds. Burnley and Sheffield United will miss out on automatic promotion to the Premier League.Instead they poured themselves into joining Sunderland and Bristol City in the playoffs.Coventry, Middlesbrough Maybe two from Millwall and West Brom.
If Sheffield United are to avoid this fate, they need to close the five-point gap with Burnley and Leeds that has opened up after Chris Wilder’s last three defeats.The Blades’ trip to Turf Moor on Monday evening could loom large, especially as they have such a low goal difference.
“Anxiety crept into the players and they made mistakes that they haven’t done all season,” said Wilder, who was in a heated tunnel after last Saturday’s reverse at Plymouth.”We have to do it a lot better. This is boys’ football.”
His Burnley counterpart, Scott Parker, has worked with a personal psychologist for several years and believes many of the mistakes that have led to season-defining moments are “more mental than technical”.
Like Farke and Wilder, Parker knows what it takes to lead a team from the secondary.He is from the Championship with Fulham and Bournemouth,Farke both at Norwich and Wilder with Sheffield United held the same number.
Burnley have conceded 13 league goals and kept just 29 clean sheets.That’s thanks in part to the brilliance of James Trafford, and it’s easy to see why Newcastle are so keen on the Burnley goalkeeper.
Burnley, like Leeds, need a maximum of seven points to go up.The highly-prospect German’s transformational decision to replace Karl Darlow and Illan Meslier in goal has been an academic footnote to a fine campaign, with Farke’s side on a six-game winning streak recently stumbling.
Patrick Bamford, who secured automatic promotion for Leeds last season after losing to Southampton in the final, was without Patrick Bamford, who picked up a knee injury last April.A year in his No.9 is finally catching up, and with Joël Piroe’s goals drying up at inopportune moments, Bamford could prove to be the striker at just the right time to lead the line.“Patrick is not afraid of the spotlight,” Farke said.”His experience and talent can help us.”
Inexperience doesn’t exactly hold Régis Le Bris back.Sunderland’s head coach, who has only managed at first-team level for the past three years, cannot speak English.Formerly a long-serving Lorient youth coach, the Frenchman is now bilingual and has tactically built a team that can beat anyone, if only slightly out of sorts.
If opponents Enzo Le Fée, Frank Lampard’s latest team will not be underestimated if they are not interested in facing Jobe Bellingham and Le Bris’ dynamic young players in the playoffs.Coventry’s decision to sack Mark Robin in November was initially self-destructive, but Lampard is competing with two former England midfielders, Parker and Middlesbrough’s Michael Carrick, for football’s promised land.
Will Coventry’s final home game against Middlesbrough on May 3 prove decisive?“When I came in, we were 17,” Lampard said.”Now we’re down to the last day of the season.”
Bristol City’s manager Liam Manning faces the worst move imaginable by other clubs, New York City FC and Belgium’s Lommel, if Carrick’s players fail.
Last October, Manning’s world has been shattered by the death of his son Theo, but he stunned colleagues by returning from compassionate leave to offer City’s real hope for the Premier League’s inaugural season.
As for Nahki Wells, Manning’s influential 34-year-old Bermuda forward “Big egos, not a big name, just a team hungry to grow. The manager humbled us and got everyone to perform at a high level.”
Manning’s final tackle against West Brom’s Tony Mowbray was particularly thrilling.Mowbray is doing well right after a year of grueling treatment for colon cancer.They face an important Good Friday derby at Coventry.
Alex Neil can’t discount the promotional conversation.Millwall’s manager had little doubt of the flamboyant Scot’s ability in 2015, although he never quite lived up to the unfulfilled potential he showed when he guided Norwich to promotion at the age of 33.
“We gave ourselves a chance,” Neal said.”We have to play without fear now. There’s really nothing to fear.”
