Daniel Farke has some big selection decisions to make for Leeds United’s final day clash with Southampton, and potentially even the play-offs.
The Whites’ humiliating 4-0 defeat to Queens Park Rangers on Friday night has raised some serious question marks, but ultimately, Leeds can still achieve their goal.
Aside from perhaps Junior Firpo, who did his best to get Leeds back into the game with two brilliant crosses, not a single player from that starting XI covered themselves in glory.
Illan Meslier was shaky between the sticks, the back four were all over the place and Ilia Gruev twice allowed QPR too much space to shoot for their opening two goals.
Having been back to their best at Middlesbrough, Leeds’ front four were all considerably off the pace, too. Jon Newsome in particular thought Crysencio Summerville was the worst he’d seen him in a long time.
Farke simply has to drop Joel Piroe vs Southampton
During Leeds’ run of form between the turn of the New Year and March international break, Farke had seemingly found a really settled starting XI.
Archie Gray’s long-term position will almost certainly be in central midfield, the 18-year-old was at right-back, with Glen Kamara in the middle and Patrick Bamford up front.
Though Kamara can frustrate with his complete refusal to ever take a shot, he brings control to the midfield with his neat passing game. Bamford, meanwhile, brings out the best of those around him, according to Willy Gnonto.
For whatever reason, Kamara has played just a handful of minutes over the last three matches but Bamford was absent on Friday as a result of injury.
Joel Piroe was the man brought into replace him, and it would be fair to say he had a shocker. The 24-year-old has never been a lone striker, and proved it again with a distinct lack of quality in either hold-up play or duels.
Bamford may well not be fit enough to return on Saturday but Farke simply cannot repeat the same mistake by starting Piroe. It was the same against Blackburn Rovers, a game Leeds also lost without scoring.
Saturday’s game against Southampton still has the potential to be huge depending on what happens tonight, and Leeds will not win if Piroe is a striker.
If £7m man Bamford isn’t able to return, there is only one man who should be taking that start berth, which is Mateo Joseph. He’s the most like-for-like replacement Leeds have. No brainer.
Has the signing of Piroe worked?
Piroe has certainly scored some big goals this season, including winners against the likes of Preston North End, Bristol City and Middlesbrough.
A return of 12 in 30 Championship starts is also not a bad record, but considering the price tag of an initial £10.5 million, it would be difficult to call him a success.
During the first half of the season, Piroe played in a deeper role just behind Georginio Rutter. On some occasions it worked, but there were also countless away games where he was completely innocuous.
That led to him being dropped from the starting XI on New Year’s Day and since then, he has struggled to get his place back, with just five starts. Four of those came as a result of Bamford being injured.
As mentioned, Piroe has just been so ineffective as a lone striker and given that he hardly set the world alight playing slightly deeper, he has to go down as a poor signing. It just feels as if he does not fit Farke’s system at all.