Plymouth Argyle v Leeds United: Why Daniel Farke is tired of talk about weary footballers

The Whites are involved in a promotion race with Southampton and Ipswich Town (surely Leicester will go up) with little margin for error. Meanwhile they are trying to keep going in the FA Cup, where they and Sheffield Wednesday are Yorkshire’s last men standing.

So Tuesday night at a Plymouth Argyle side who drew at Elland Road and have shown signs of picking up form under new coach Ian Foster will not be a stroll in the park. But it is hardly a double shift at the coal face, either.

Complaints about too much football are widespread from footballers these days. It is why Leeds' fourth-round replay could be their last at this stage of the FA Cup.

Replays have been eaten away over the years, to the point where from this season's fifth round onwards all ties will be decided on the night, just like Tuesday's game.

Re-replays are long gone, buried shortly after Leeds' four-game 1991 epic with Arsenal because of the demands not on players, but police.

You can bet your life the big clubs will be back for third and fourth-round replays later this year.

There seems little doubt the very top footballers are being asked to do too much to regularly be at their best – there was hell on at Inter Miami’s weekend pre-season friendly in Hong Kong because Lionel Messi did not risk an injured hamstring – but sometimes you just need someone to speak a bit of commonsense. Leeds manager Daniel Farke's pre-match press conferences are usually a good place to hear some.

For any player feeling hard-done-by at having to turn out at Home Park – or any journalist because we do like a whinge too – Farke put it all in perspective.

"If you speak too much about it (tiredness), the players believe it's actually real," he says, once the world's smallest violin stopped playing.

"When you started to play football it was because you wanted to play football. When we were all younger we wanted to play every day. Our parents and grandparents, aunties and uncles, couldn't tell us, 'No, you're tired, you can't play football.'

"Every football player loves to play football and there are lots of coaching and support staff nowadays to make sure you're ready.

"We want to win every football game and I'm never tired to be in a football game because this is what we are all about. We love this sport, we are addicted to the sport.

"We want to have these games and to be successful in the Cup too."

For players tuned up for the unrelenting rigours of the Championship, rest is not always the best thing anyway.

"Sometimes it's important for players to come a bit more into rhythm," argues Farke. "We did that with Patrick Bamford. At Peterborough, although he'd started the league game before we got the feeling he should also play in the Cup because he hadn't had too much game-time so far. It could be the same with several other players.

"In terms of the load, we need to find a good balance. These players are used to delivering every three days and sometimes a break can stop your rhythm.

"Sometimes it's beneficial to let a player stay in his rhythm but it all depends on each individual – how much load he had before and how much he will probably have afterwards. It's always about finding a good balance in team selection."

Then there is the element that a mental break from the league, in this case a televised knockout tie, can be good psychologically.

"In the league you know one point or three points can make a big difference in the final table so every game is important but in the cup it's more or less a do-or-die game – if you don't have a replay," adds Farke.

"After the game you normally know you've progressed to the next round or you're out so it's a different type of pressure but also a pressure we enjoy.

"Perhaps the pressure is not so big as in league games because no one expects us to with the FA Cup.

"It's (more than) 50 years since we won the FA Cup and it was perhaps a bit of a different scenario (Leeds were a game away from winning the First Division too in 1972). As a Championship team it's probably not realistic for us to win the FA Cup but who knows?

"We have the chance to go into the last 16 teams so we have the chance to win this cup. We want to be one of these last 16 teams.

"We have to concentrate to be successful against a really good side."

Despite all this, there will be changes at Home Park but anyone knocking on the door of the manager's office and asking for a rest can expect very short shrift.

Anyone who does not like playing football can always find something else to do.