Getting Joel Piroe in position for his Leeds United debut on Saturday was not a formality.
His transfer from Swansea City went through late on Thursday evening, which left time for one training session the following day. There was paperwork to wait on, including a work permit, so manager Daniel Farke kept an open mind.
But when permission for Piroe to play away to Ipswich Town came through, Farke did not mess about. Piroe was straight into his starting line-up, part of a four-pronged attack with a value of close to £70million ($88m) in fees paid. A goal and 89 minutes on the pitch helped see Leeds to a 4-3 win. Farke was left with the warm glow of a manager who liked what he had seen from his new signing.
Piroe settling so quickly was a safe bet, because his credentials said he should.
He knows the Championship inside out having played in it for the past two seasons — the most familiar of territory. He was fully fit on the basis of competitive appearances made for Swansea over the past month and his education in English football was gained with a Swansea side who built performances on relatively high levels of possession. There cannot have been many signings who Farke felt more confident or certain about, or who needed so little time to adjust.
The assumption with Piroe was that he was coming to Elland Road as a No 9 and in all likelihood, time will show that he has. But his interplay makes him more than a poacher or penalty-box player and Farke fielding him as a No 10 against Ipswich, albeit in a forward-line quartet who bobbed and weaved about the pitch, was a good demonstration of his versatility.
Realistically, Leeds will get the most out of Piroe at the tip of their attack, but those initial 89 minutes showed Farke can gain traction from him in a deeper role, one which the 24-year-old Dutchman seems to have a competent grasp of.
Leeds’ rotation up front was very difficult for Ipswich to handle and gave the Championship as a whole something to think about for the regular season’s remaining 42 games.
Farke set his team up in his usual 4-2-3-1 but put Piroe in behind Georginio Rutter (image below) rather than letting the newcomer lead the line.
It was a bold call in as much as Rutter, until his strike on 11 minutes, had not scored a competitive goal for the club or done much to justify the £30million ($37.7m at current rates) paid to Germany’s Hoffenheim for him in January. But as the match developed, the setup gave Leeds multiple strengths going forward: pace and creativity out wide in Luis Sinisterra and Willy Gnonto, finishing and clever graft from Piroe and, as a result, more effective involvement from Rutter.
Ipswich’s manager, Kieran McKenna, described it as a collection of “much higher-level players”.
Forwards can easily become isolated in games, but the extent of Piroe’s involvement was underlined by him seeing more of the ball on Saturday than midfielder Archie Gray.
In his role as a No 10, Farke was relying on him to both drop deep and push on, to get the balance right between the two responsibilities and provide a link in central areas. Piroe’s touch map below shows how much he mixed up his positioning, with a high number of touches in his own half and all but six outside Ipswich’s box.
Farke’s side did not have huge amounts of control in an end-to-end contest at Portman Road, but they carried a threat throughout and were clinical in exceeding their expected goals (xG) figure of 1.6.
There were several examples of how Piroe’s dropping deep helped build attacks.
The following sequence, taken from the first half, starts with him edging back into Leeds territory to receive a pass from Luke Ayling and turn into space.
Gnonto, on the right flank, is anticipating that ball and sets off down the line as Piroe prepares to turn. Ipswich’s shape is compromised and he threads a nice pass between two defenders, right into Gnonto’s feet. Rutter only needs to hold his run a little longer and Leeds would be in behind, but he goes too soon and trips the offside flag, surrendering a great position.
Even simpler interventions had an effect in allowing Leeds to exploit their attacking talent.
In this next instance, they are pinned in by the corner flag with the ball at the feet of Cody Drameh, who has little choice but to lob a pass forward. However, Piroe has come back close to his own penalty area and is on hand to chest the ball off to Sinisterra who, in turn, hooks a high, crossfield delivery out to the right wing. Gnonto uses his speed to go after it ahead of his marker, with Ipswich in no position to properly defend their half of the pitch.
Farke’s players have turned a highly defensive situation into a problem for Ipswich in a matter of seconds.
What Farke did not want, though, was for Piroe’s link-up work to compromise his core strengths of shooting and finishing.
As it happened, he took all of 19 minutes to score his first Leeds goal and put them 3-1 up, a deficit Ipswich were never likely to overturn. His strike relied, to a large extent, on goalkeeper Vaclav Hladky spilling an effort from Sinisterra (next images), but what is notable about the attack is Piroe’s speed in shifting from an area inside his own half to a poacher’s position six yards from the Ipswich net as soon as Gray launches a pass out to Sinisterra.
When the chance presents itself, Piroe is exactly where a centre-forward is supposed to be.
But for two good saves by Hladky after the interval, Piroe would have finished his debut with a hat-trick.
The first of those opportunities shows the way in which Farke’s forward line tried to change roles in certain moments, with Rutter dropping off and providing service for Piroe (images below). Piroe times and angles his run nicely to buy some space in behind one of Ipswich’s centre-backs while maintaining a decent angle to shoot from. Hladky reacts quickly to turn the ball into the side netting.
Piroe’s movement as a whole made him hard to pick up.
His next chance was created by Sinisterra but also made by Piroe dropping off and causing Ipswich’s defence and midfield to lose sight of him. A burst of acceleration (next sequence) as Sinisterra stands Ipswich up on the edge of their area creates room to shoot and Hladky again does well to meet Piroe’s strike and keep it out at his near post.
“I think his statistics speak for themselves,” Farke said afterwards, explaining why Leeds had gone in heavily for Piroe in a deal that could cost £16million. The statistics really do, but numbers are one thing. Seeing a player in the flesh, an actual demonstration of their quality, is another. And the first sight of Piroe in Leeds colours gave a glimpse of everything the club hope to get from him.
“He has quality and he doesn’t have to prove it,” Farke said.
Which, when it came to it, was precisely the sort of signing Leeds had been lacking for too long.
(Top photo: George Tewkesbury/PA Images via Getty Images)
