Joel Piroe becomes scapegoat as Leeds United away slump continues v Preston
Joel Piroe’s presence up front is not the root cause of Leeds United seeing their poor record away from home continue against Preston North End.
After Mateo Joseph’s intervention produced a last-ditch own-goal to salvage a point in United’s 1-1 draw at Deepdale on Saturday, calls for the 20-year-old Spaniard to start ahead of Piroe will only increase.
Piroe started up front for Daniel Farke’s side, playing the full 90 minutes, but his lack of output in the final third was arguably a reason why it took so long for the Whites to get back into the game from 1-0 down.
The Athletic journalist Adam Crafton even posted on X to say: “Leeds cannot continue starting Piroe in away games.”
Joel Piroe can thrive in the right system at Leeds United
While Piroe’s – and by extension, Farke’s – biggest issues in front of goal do seem to have come in away games, there’s no denying whatsoever that the 25-year-old is the best finisher at the club, bar none.
Home defences packing themselves deep and looking to cause sucker-punch blows on the counter-attack, which Preston did effectively for almost 93 minutes, can leave Piroe, or any other striker, isolated.
The answer, however, is not simply to drop Piroe to the bench in favour of Joseph, with the latter showing that he – like the Dutchman – is also more effective in front of goal when games are stretched late on.
Instead, Farke needs to get the best out of Piroe by playing the right combinations of players around him – namely the likes of Daniel James, Wilfried Gnonto, and Largie Ramazani in attacking midfield.
Brenden Aaronson has been in scoring form himself of late, but unlike Georginio Rutter – whom Piroe played in tandem with for much of last season – he’s hardly a playmaking number 10.
Putting Gnonto into a central role, which worked when the pair started together against Sunderland, would give Piroe a much more creative presence to play off, and with the sheer pace of Ramazani and James out wide, few teams would look forward to coming up against that front four.
In other Leeds news, Jon Newsome wasn’t happy with how the Whites have handled one player’s current contractual situation.
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