Leeds United: Daniel Farke must hook Joel Piroe at half-time v Plymouth Argyle
Leeds United must look to substitute Joel Piroe at half-time of their Championship clash with Plymouth, as the team lead 1-0 at the break.
Manager Daniel Farke went with an unchanged starting lineup for the game at Home Park after the 4-0 win over Swansea in midweek, where Piroe scored the second after being called into the side at the last minute when Patrick Bamford suffered an injury.
And the Dutch forward got the nod again, leading the line ahead of Georginio Rutter on Saturday lunchtime, but he has really struggled in the opening 45 minutes.
When the two have played together this season it has mostly been with Rutter playing as the number nine and Piroe dropping off, but as it were against Swansea Farke swapped them around for this game.
But Piroe looks sluggish in attack and his lack of mobility is really shining with such pace, agility and movement behind him shining.
Rutter in fact picked up the assist for Wilfried Gnonto’s goal early on, with a high pass over the Plymouth defensive line picking out the Italy international for his fifth goal in five games. He also hit the post late on in the half to show he is being influential.
Joel Piroe has been awful for Leeds United
However, Piroe has done very little to help the team. In fact, you could argue he is hindering the team and making it harder for the attack.
But he has managed just one shot which was blocked, and has failed to register any dribbles, key passes or successful aerial duels. He only managed to complete 13 of 14 passes in the opening 45 minutes too.
You’d expect far more than that from someone who cost in excess of £10m.
With Joe Gelhardt and Mateo Joseph on the bench as offensive options, they surely can’t be any worse and Farke should look to make the change as soon as possible to give the Whites the best chance of winning this game.
In other Leeds news, Phil Hay shares if talks ongoing for star man to sign new deal after Wilfried Gnonto.
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