Daniel Farke reacts after Leeds United lose pre-season opener to Wrexham

Leeds United manager Daniel Farke admitted his side "should have won" despite suffering a 3-2 defeat to Wrexham in their opening pre-season friendly of the summer.

The Whites kicked off their United States tour at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa with a youthful starting XI, but a late Wrexham winner condemned Farke's side to defeat after an entertaining contest.

Farke blended senior experience with academy talent for the opening fixture of pre-season.

Youngsters Jayden Lienou, Alfie Cresswell and Callum Mills were all handed starts alongside established first-team players Ethan Ampadu and Joe Rodon.

However, Leeds endured the worst possible start after conceding just 31 seconds into the match.

Joel Piroe recovered from missing an early penalty to level the score before Sean Longstaff restored parity again just before half-time, leaving the sides level at 2-2 heading into the break.

Wrexham eventually claimed victory with a late counter-attacking goal.

Despite the defeat, Farke insisted Leeds produced enough chances to win the game.

"I am always struggling once there is a loss to be in a good mood afterwards, if I am honest," he told LUTV.

"But today, no complaints. We played against Wrexham who played a relatively strong side, a few weeks ahead in their preparation. For us, we gave many, many debuts away today, also full debuts."

The Leeds boss admitted he was disappointed for the club's academy players, who were unable to mark their first senior appearances with victory.

"I am just a bit sad and feel a bit especially for our young lads, that they couldn't celebrate their debut and their full debut with a win."

Farke felt Leeds controlled much of the match despite the final result.

"If you have a look at the game, normally we should have won this game," he said.

"We had more possession, we had more chances, should have scored also more goals than them but they were effective."

The German also pointed to the demanding nature of Leeds' pre-season schedule.

"You could feel today, lads were tired. We have trained the whole week, more or less two sessions per day. We had even a session this morning and to play without many important players so for that, no complaints."

Farke stressed that results remain secondary during pre-season, with building fitness and integrating new players taking priority.

"Pre-season you build a foundation for the whole season. It is most important that you do lots of physical work."

"You need this endurance, this fitness level during the whole season. We have proven last season how important this is."

The Leeds manager also highlighted the importance of spending time together during the club's American tour.

"You have to integrate the new players. And the best way is always like once you are 24/7 together and you have lots of communication."

"We need, of course, to work on our game. We had many, many good pre-seasons in the last years and it was quite often then also the basement for a really good season. Hopefully we can also keep working hard and for that we also have a successful season ahead."

Leeds United will continue their pre-season tour of the United States as Farke looks to build match fitness and further integrate his squad ahead of the new Premier League season. The Whites will hope to bounce back in their next friendly after an encouraging attacking display despite defeat to Wrexham.