Former Leeds United man Dom Matteo has dismissed the notion that Joel Piroe plays too deep to be fully effective in Leeds’ attack this season.
With relegation from the Premier League, most fans agreed that Leeds’ attack needed more firepower under Daniel Farke, especially after the loss of Rodrigo.
Leeds did so with serious ambition, bringing in Joel Piroe from Swansea City for an upfront fee of £10.5m.
How is Piroe playing?
Goals have not been an issue for Piroe so far, with four in six Leeds appearances since joining from Michael Duff’s side, helping Leeds to wins against Ipswich, Millwall, and Watford in the process.
The only issues that stem from Piroe’s play so far is that he’s in attacking midfield, but looks more of a second striker, meaning when Leeds are in build-up, he can look an ill-fit for the role – rather than someone more suited to playing as an attacking midfielder, rather than a deep-lying striker.
Dom Matteo shuts down suggestion
Former Leeds man Dom Matteo has now spoken to Leedlive about the qualities that the Dutchman possesses, and has dismissed the idea that he needs to be playing as the club’s number nine in order to find his best, most consistent form.
He said:
“We talked about getting an out and out goalscorer. He’s certainly lived up to that. It’s one of those with Piroe, he just knows where to be. People say he is playing too deep, I don’t agree.
“He times it perfectly to get into the box and the ball comes to him. His timing is really good. The best thing about him is he knows where to be.”
It’s so clear to see from Piroe’s goals at Swansea and his goals so far at Leeds, that he is best suited playing off a focal point like Georginio Rutter.
He never scores as the line-breaking forward, but mostly does so through third-man runs and peeling off to the back post, where his goals for us have stemmed from.
Playing him with his back to goal is counter-intuitive to what he does best, which is finding space behind the opposition midfield.
It can be frustrating to see him not involved in large portions of games, but that is the player we have, and we need to play to his strengths.
