{"id":190817,"date":"2025-06-17T05:05:24","date_gmt":"2025-06-17T05:05:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/190817\/"},"modified":"2025-06-17T05:05:24","modified_gmt":"2025-06-17T05:05:24","slug":"ao-tanaka-shares-details-of-behind-scenes-leeds-united-chat-with-daniel-farke-you-missed-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/190817\/","title":{"rendered":"Ao Tanaka shares details of behind-scenes Leeds United chat with Daniel Farke, ‘you missed again’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ao Tanaka turned out to be the surprise \u2013 and indeed, the signing \u2013 of the season for Leeds United after a stunning campaign following his bargain \u00a33.4m arrival at Elland Road.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bought on deadline day from German second-tier side Fortuna Dusseldorf, there was measured optimism among the fanbase. This was a Japan international, but had only ever played club football at a lesser level.<\/p>\n

Japan\u2019s J-League, with boyhood club Kawasaki Frontale and then Dusseldorf in Germany, unable to ever win promotion to the top tier. A move to Leeds<\/a> would be a big leap for Tanaka<\/a>, not that it ever showed.<\/p>\n

Farke admitted he had tried to sign Tanaka 12 months earlier<\/a>, and the Leeds manager has nicknamed Ao \u2018Tiger Tanaka\u2019 after James Bond\u2019s You Only Live Twice<\/a>. Now, Tanaka has been speaking to Japanese media.<\/p>\n

\"LeedsPhoto by Robbie Jay Barratt \u2013 AMA\/Getty ImagesAo Tanaka shares details of chat he had with Daniel Farke<\/p>\n

The Japanese midfielder was named in the Championship<\/a> Team of the Season following his stunning 24-25 season. But it was not until January that the midfielder actually opened his account for The Whites.<\/p>\n

Tanaka tells Japanese outlet Hochi.News<\/a> of how he was called into Farke\u2019s<\/a> office before his first goal and ordered to play defensively in midfield \u2013 but after his long-range strike against Hull, that all changed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was only called into the manager\u2019s office once during the season. In the middle of the season, when I started to be put in man-to-man defence , he would say, \u2018Let\u2019s do this, I want you to do this.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\"LeedsPhoto by Carl Recine\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cHe basically told me to stay stable in the middle as an anchor, manage the risks, keep the ball and play. I almost never went into the (opponent\u2019s penalty) area. Personally I wanted to score some goals.<\/p>\n

MORE LEEDS UNITED STORIES<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter I scored, he kept telling me to score more goals. We get divided into rondos and shooting practice. Basically, the last line, fullbacks, and Ilia Gruev also do rondos, but I was the only one who always shot. <\/p>\n

\u201cEven if I was the anchor, I was always shooting practice. If I missed, he\u2019d be like, \u2018You missed again!\u2019 He was the only one who was nagging me (laughs). In that sense, it was good that I scored five goals.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LeedsPhoto by Robbie Jay Barratt \u2013 AMA\/Getty ImagesWith Ethan Ampadu, Ao Tanaka can start getting forward<\/p>\n

Ilia Gruev is a reliable option. But the Bulgarian is unable to dictate a midfield in the way skipper Ethan Ampadu can and with Jaka Bijol now expected to sign, it lessens Ampadu\u2019s responsibility at centre-back.<\/p>\n

If Ampadu can play regularly in midfield next season \u2013 avoid injury, and avoid having to play alongside Joe Rodon at centre-back \u2013 then it will give Tanaka more freedom to join in the attack and score goals.<\/p>\n

Unlocking Tanaka and giving him freedom will be an underrated, subtle change that Leeds need next season in their bid to avoid relegation. Whether Farke will allow him to do that, remains to be seen.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ao Tanaka turned out to be the surprise \u2013 and indeed, the signing \u2013 of the season for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190818,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[12409,748,1385,393,4884,1860,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-190817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-ao-tanaka","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-daniel-farke","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-leeds","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114696966968417043","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190818"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}