Fans have been left disgruntled with Leeds United's attacking fluidity in the final third

Leeds United face a Bournemouth team which has scored 14 goals in their last five games and conceded none - and Daniel Farke is not prepared to sacrifice defence for attack despite concerns over his team’s final-third play.

While only Arsenal have a better defensive record than Leeds heading into the weekend, criticism and frustration from fans has been aimed at Farke for a lack of attacking bite.

The Whites have only scored two goals in a single game once in eight Premier League fixtures, with just two netted over the past four winless matches - although one of them was Arsenal away, a 2-1 defeat amid a noble performance.

"It's where we are as a as a club; we are in the second year after promotion. We couldn't afford to buy in for the offence players like all the other teams have," said Farke.

"When we speak about Arsenal, they [buy] offensive players for £100m, £120m, £140m. We are also not in the category like Brighton, who buy £40-60m players.

"We're lacking a bit of effectiveness, that's fair to say. Last season, in terms of expected goals, we should have been way higher. But we still scored many goals last season and also during this season - of course, not the last two games.

“I think it's quite normal that you sometimes also have a period when you find it difficult to find the back of the net, especially once you're not the top side like Arsenal or Liverpool with all their offensive players.

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“Then you work a bit, of course, in order to improve the individual quality of the players. You work on your processes. This is what you can do. But what we can't afford to do is go further on without our defensive strength.

“We are not the big dogs right now in this league, and for that we can't give our defensive solidity out. Because even if we change right now and bring more offensive-thinking players on the pitch, our quality there is not that we dominate all the other teams.

“So we need to rely on this [defence], and for that it's a fine balance on the mid and the long term.

“On the route when we develop into a top half club who wants to fight one day in a few years, perhaps for Europe or whatever, then we need to do this [be more attacking]. We want to do this, it’s also my big wish because my biggest dream is to play for something.”