Leeds United man can benefit despite losing coveted role says ex-Whites goalscoring hero
A Leeds United player who has lost a coveted role has received big backing.
Leeds United's Joel Piroe has gone from Golden Boot winner and first-choice striker to an option off the bench but an ex-Whites attacker has told him how to benefit from the change.
Last season Piroe did not start the campaign as Daniel Farke's number 9 because youngster Mateo Joseph hit the ground running so well in pre-season and duly got the nod up top.
But when goals did not flow for the Spaniard, Piroe's reliability in front of the net made a change more and more inevitable.
Once Piroe wrestled back the starting striker role he very rarely let it slip from his grasp again during the 2024/25 season.
The result was 36 starts, 10 substitute appearances, 19 goals and seven assists.
Piroe won the division's Golden Boot award and Leeds won the title and a place in the Premier League.
Promotion can be a double-edged sword for many players who earn it, because it's exactly where they all want to be but even as one playing a vital role in the achievement you can find match minutes so much harder to come by.
All newly-promoted teams must strengthen, in almost all positions.
Leeds new they had to be more physical and brought in a pair of strikers with different profiles to Piroe's.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Lukas Nmecha joined, bringing big league experience and physicality.
The match minutes tell a story. Calvert-Lewin has 359, Nmecha 148 and Piroe 147, but the latter has not started since the 5-0 defeat at Arsenal and has come off the bench only once since. He wasn't even in the squad for the Fulham game at Craven Cottage.
Farke has made it clear that Piroe is the best finisher he has worked with, which is the highest of praise considering the talent the German has had at his disposal in his career.
Leeds' new style of play and Premier League game plan calls for something different, however, because without the aerial prowess and hold-up ability of Calvert-Lewin then they will struggle to make chances that need finishing.
Former Leeds forward Jermaine Beckford, who scored eight times in his 34 top flight appearances for Everton and plundered 85 goals in 152 games for the Whites, describes Piroe as 'lethal' in the penalty box.
Beckford sees Piroe's best route to involvement as a number 10, false 9 or second striker.
But just because he's not featuring in games as often as he would like, it does not mean the 26-year-old has to stand still.
"I always used to love having new strikers coming in, because it would do a couple of things for me," Beckford told the YEP.
"One, it would teach me new ways of playing, because no two players play the same way, no two attackers play the same, no two defenders. So I would watch them, and I would learn from them, what they do differently to me. How do they do that? Can I incorporate that into my game?"
The second key to Beckford's mindset was to see new strikers as competition. He would try and make it as difficult as possible for them to supplant him.
“You're not just going to walk in. It's going to be hard.”
"So you're here to take my position," he said. "I've just finished up as top goal scorer last season. You're not just going to walk in. It's going to be hard.
“And if you're there, you're going to be there because you earned it, and it's going to be for the benefit of the team as well. Because when you come in knowing that I'm behind you, chasing you on every single missed pass, every single missed shot, every single time you've lost the ball, I'm there. I'm hungry. I'm ready and waiting to pounce.
“So if you give me an opportunity, I'm going to take that opportunity."
What Piroe has in his favour is - touch wood - a remarkable level of consistent availability.
He played in every single Championship game last season and all but one in the 2023/24 campaign. He was on the bench for that game he didn't play in.
At Swansea City he made 96 appearances in two years. It's an injury record, or an injury-free record rather, that both Calvert-Lewin and Nmecha would have killed for in recent years.
"He just needs to find a way to incorporate all of that into his game and just make sure he's reliable, robust," said Beckford.
"Being fit constantly as well is a huge plus for him. Not being injury prone and looking after himself well, recovering properly, that's always good. And it's just about being a positive influence around the place as well. If you're not in the starting 11, just be positive, be bubbly, show that you're here for the greater good, the bigger picture, for the team to do well."