Adam Pope slams Mateo Joseph after ‘awful’ Leeds United moment v Sheffield Utd
Adam Pope was less than impressed with Mateo Joseph after his missed chance in the Championship clash between Leeds United and Sheffield United on Monday.
Daniel Farke’s men managed to beat their Championship title rivals in a pulsating 3-1 win at Bramall Lane.
The two Yorkshire sides were facing off in what was one of the biggest games of the season so far and even though the Whites were 1-0 down until the 72nd minute, they still managed to leave Bramall Lane victorious thanks to impressive performances from players such as Ao Tanaka.
Joseph didn’t start the game against the Blades but was brought on in the 58th minute as Daniel Farke sought to swing the game in his side’s favour.
But there was one moment from the Spain U21-international that left Pope aghast.
Joseph missed a shot to get Leeds level
To be fair to both teams, the game was fairly 50-50 throughout with Chris Wilder’s men being the better team in the first-half whereas Farke’s ran away with the second.
Even though it all worked out with Leeds managing to bag two goals late on to take the game away from the Blades, their worries could have been eased sooner if Joseph managed to put his only chance of the game into the back of the net.
| Stat | Amount in game |
| Shots on target | 0 |
| Shots off target | 1 |
| Key passes | 0 |
| xG | 0.06 |
| Goals | 0 |
The striker picked the ball up on the edge of the box and somehow managed to balloon it over the bar even though the right-hand side of the net was wide open for him to shoot.
This miss caused a reaction from both Jon Newsome and Pope who were live on BBC Radio Leeds (24 February) with the the former starting up the conversation by saying the Spaniard shouldn’t be missing those chances as a striker.
Pope then simply replied: “[It’s] awful Jon.”
Farke needs a new striker at Elland Road next season
No matter which league Leeds find themselves in next term, alongside a new goalkeeper, it feels like a new number nine is what they need to take their squad to the next level.
Farke’s men have been one of the most dominant forces in the Championship and while there isn’t all that much that could be upgraded, a clinical number nine should be on top of their priority list.
Indeed, the West Yorkshire outfit already have Patrick Bamford, Joel Piroe, Joseph and Joe Gelhardt who already play in that position.
However, if they become a Premier League team next term and want to stay that way, they need to add a lot more firepower to their ranks.
Take Ipswich as an example, Kieran McKenna managed to add Liam Delap to their ranks during the summer transfer window and his goals are one of the main reasons why they’re not down and out of the relegation battle just yet.
Cameron Archer and Adam Armstrong were two options that were explored in the winter window and either one of them would have been a solid addition.
However, those moves never came off and even though Piroe has bagged a fair few goals, it’s unlikely that he’ll have what it takes to lead an attacking line in the top flight.