Micah Richards slams Junior Firpo after his struggles in Leeds v Brighton
Leeds United left-back Junior Firpo had a game to forget against Brighton on Saturday, and he was hauled off after the first half.
Micah Richards was not too pleased with the performance of the Spaniard against Tariq Lamptey, branding him an “absolute disaster” on BBC Match of the Day.
The Brighton winger made life hard for Firpo, and Marcelo Bielsa had to bring on Pascal Struijk in his place for the second half.
Richards said on MOTD: “He (Lamptey) was different class, he’s in the wing-back position. When you’re in the wing-back, you’ve got to be able to make runs behind, and you’ve got to be able to run at people, and Firpo had an absolute disaster against him.”
Poor
The summer signing is yet to have an excellent game for Leeds since joining from Barcelona in the summer, and life in the Premier League is not going as he would have planned.
Firpo struggled against Mohammed Salah during the Liverpool clash, and it appears managers have identified his lack of pace as a weakness to exploit anytime he is in the team for Bielsa’s side.
The hosts often attacked the Whites through the left side of the defence, and the full-back could not find an answer to Lamptey’s attacking threat.
He was booked five minutes into the clash and he still proceeded to foul the Brighton star two more times as he had no choice.
Leeds were lucky not to have been reduced to 10 men heading into the break, and Bielsa knew a red card was on the cards if he allowed the Spaniard continued the game.
Struijk did better and could hold on to the starting berth in the position for now as Firpo did very little to impress.
He was arguably the worst player on the pitch at the AMEX Stadium, and he needs to improve quickly if he wants to show that he has a future at Elland Road.
In other Leeds United news, a major update on Whites January bid to sign attacker has been provided, with pen-to-paper imminent.