Leeds United bleep test winner says aggressive new boy has already 'landed one' on him

Joel Piroe had a 'wonderful' summer. He needed it.

After 46 games, the customary ups and downs of any Leeds United season in any division and mind-scrambling series of title celebrations, Piroe wanted to go away and think of anything but football.

Once the yellow and blue smoke of the bus parade had cleared, he cleared off.

Piroe went to Japan and spent time with team-mate Ao Tanaka but it was food and not football on the agenda.

You can see he has come back refreshed because he looks it. He's wearing it.

But if further evidence was needed, the Dutchman went and won the annual bleep test at the outset of pre-season training.

"It was great to have like three, four weeks to just completely ignore everything and just have a rest, just do whatever I want to do and relax from the tough season we had and the highs we rode," he told the YEP.

"Just to get settled as well again, to be mentally prepared for a new season.

Joel Piroe on his fitness levels during leeds United pre-season

“In terms of fitness, I would say [I focus on it again] after three weeks. It's not that you will just completely sit still, myself I like to do bits and tennis and padel, so you always stay moving. But five or six weeks before the first training session you start preparing. We all had the programme so it's not difficult.

"I wouldn't say I've been bad at [the bleep test] or especially really good but I do feel like I came back really fit."

Piroe featured in Saturday's friendly against Manchester United but he says full match readiness is still to come.

But speaking after an intense training session on Monday in Germany, the forward admits that the 'worst' of the fitness work is now behind them.

"I would say when you're able to play at least 70 minutes without really feeling really tired, then you feel ready," he said. "So that will probably be in a couple of weeks.

“But you do feel that the training sessions are getting easier. It's maybe not as tough as it was like a week ago, you just feel like you're proper building up.”

There is more than just the elite physical level of the Premier League to get used to.

Leeds will play an adapted version of the style Daniel Farke employed to win the Championship.

Against Manchester United they set up in a 4-3-3 with more of an emphasis on being difficult to play through.

Leeds United’s new set-up

There were similarities and reminders of last season's football but it was still a pretty stark contrast to the previous 4-2-3-1, possession-greedy style.

"Of course, it's a bit different," said Piroe.

"We played more with a flat three in the build-up in midfield. So sometimes that means the gap is bigger between the forward line and the midfield line, and it's up to us to fill it in how we want to do that, with a dropping winger or second half hour I played as a dropping striker. And I think you could see that there are loads of variations and good possibilities and chances for us."

And there are new realities facing a number of players. Every player, if Piroe is to be believed.

Promotion does not only mean that the level of external competition goes up another several notches, but internally things are already becoming more difficult when it comes to starting positions.

Leeds have recruited players from Serie A, Ligue 1 and the Bundesliga who are all coming to Elland Road with sights set firmly on significant involvement.

"Everyone knows, or well knew it before we went into the holiday," said Piroe.

"We're basically a team where there's not really one player who says 'I already showed what I've got in the Premier League, so I'm certain that I will play every game.'

“You know, there was always going to be lots of competition. I think that's supposed to be as well.

“You'll see day by day that we're getting even more competitive with each other.

“And let's say, the first couple weeks, we allowed everyone to settle in a bit as well - if you're making mistakes, whatever, it's still okay. But right now we're trying to get the mentality right where we don't want easy mistakes and just try to be as clean as possible and as competitive."

That competitiveness was seen in a Jaka Bijol challenge on Piroe, just a few days after Lukas Nmecha told the YEP that 'it hurts' playing against the giant centre-half.

"Yeah he has landed one on me as well," said Piroe with a rueful grin.

"He was lucky there, just a little scratch on the ball but other than that it was all me [that he got]. He's a very aggressive defender that wants to be one that presses forward. So that's something you do want to have on your team."

Leeds United’s competition for places

Besides the daily difficulty of going up against the Slovenian and Leeds' other defenders in a beefed-up squad, Piroe knows that there will be challenges upon challenges this season.

Getting into the team is one in and of itself. Once in the team, the difficulty presented by the best league in the world is obvious.

"The most difficult bits will be to reach the same numbers as last season or previous seasons," he said.

"Of course I expect the defenders, the whole teams to be much better, and they will try to make it harder to create chances to score goals.

“Having said that, I do think that we should believe in ourselves that we are more than capable to do that as well."

Chances were at a premium for Piroe against Manchester United but it's likely Leeds will be able to do a lot more attacking against German lower league opposition in their two friendlies this week. He'd like those attacks to end in his first goals of the summer.

Piroe declared: "I think we will be focused especially on attacking, having the patterns right, So what I want for myself is to get in good spaces, to have chances and to be able to score some goals.

“I think that's what I would say lacked a little bit against Man Utd, for myself I wasn't really there in the end phase so it's something I want to focus on."

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