Joel Piroe’s good habits have Daniel Farke sticking to his Leeds United guns

Leeds United fans may have to get used to seeing Joel Piroe deployed in a slightly deeper position by Daniel Farke in the coming weeks. Piroe has made two appearances for the Whites since joining from Swansea City last month, with a goal coming on his debut as Leeds saw off Ipswich Town in swashbuckling fashion at Portman Road.

However, his first couple of outings for Leeds have come away from where Championship fans are so used to seeing him, with the 24-year-old occupying a deeper number 10 role to varying degrees of success., rather than the lead striker position in which he scored most of his 41 league goals at the Liberty Stadium. As mentioned above, he looked the part against Ipswich, slotting in behind Georginio Rutter and making the most of the space afforded to him.

But, he struggled to get a foothold in the game against Sheffield Wednesday last time out against a compact and rigid backline. Farke resisted the urge to push Piroe further forward despite his struggles in that game and while he does have flexibility within his group, it seems he might well be tempted to stick to his guns for now, with the manager citing the Dutchman’s knack of perfectly timing deep runs into the box.

“I think his more natural role was also at his old club that he came a bit out of a deeper position arrived really late in the box,” Farke said when asked about Piroe’s position after the Whites’ stalemate with Wednesday. “That’s how he scored for example at Ipswich, he brought himself, in the first half especially, into such a position.

“Yes, Joel can also play up front, but I also got the feeling we need players also out of midfield who can score and he also likes to come out of a deeper, deeper position. Today was a game where we needed also a bit like a pacey striker who takes the space in behind and this is a bit more Rutter and then in order to push them back.

“Joel arrives pretty late in finishing positions but you also get the feeling once you run in behind we were looking not for the cutback, sometimes a low delivery through the six-yard box instead of finding Joel at the box line. I think our final finishing pass sometimes there was some mistakes.”