Leeds United were dealt a number of blows in the summer transfer window earlier this year after they failed to earn promotion back to the Premier League last season.
The Whites fell just shy of automatic promotion, finishing third, and then lost 1-0 to Southampton in the play-off final at Wembley, condemning them to at least one more season in the second tier.
That failure meant that a number of their top players decided to move on in search of top-flight, with Crysencio Summerville, Georginio Rutter, Glen Kamara, and Archie Gray all joining teams in the top five major leagues.
Appearances
45
Goals
6
Assists
15
Big chances created
22
Key passes per game
1.9
Pass accuracy
69%
As you can see in the table above, losing Rutter was a big blow after his consistently impressive performances in the 2023/24 Championship season.
The Frenchman, who was deployed as a centre-forward and as an attacking midfielder at different points, provided a huge threat as a creative presence through the middle of the pitch, but struggled as a goalscorer.
How Leeds United's strikers performed last season
The former Hoffenheim man scored his six goals from an xG of 12.34, with 17 ‘big chances’ missed, and this shows that he massively underperformed as a finisher.
Rutter did not even come close to making the most of the high-quality opportunities that either his teammates created for him or he created for himself, which meant that the goals and finishing quality had to come from elsewhere.
Patrick Bamford started 15 Championship matches during the second half of the season, playing 33 times in total across the campaign, and found the back of the net eight times from an xG of 9.52.
This shows that the former England international also underperformed his expected tally, albeit not by as much as Rutter, and was not a reliable finisher for the Whites.
Academy graduate Mateo Joseph emerged as a first-team option for Daniel Farke and made 20 appearances off the bench in the Championship, in which time he scored one goal from 1.74 xG.
Ahead of the 2023/24 campaign, Leeds splashed out a fee of more than £10m to sign Dutch centre-forward Joel Piroe from Swansea, and he had mixed success last term.
Appearances
45
Starts
31
xG
12.74
Goals
13
Ground duel success rate
42%
Aerial duel success rate
27%
As you can see in the table above, the left-footed marksman was the team’s best-performing finisher out of the striker options, with 13 goals from 12.74 xG.
However, his lack of mobility and weakness in duels, as shown by his poor success rate on the ground and in the air, let him down in general play.
Piroe struggled in the play-off final against Southampton for that very reason, losing eight of his ten duels and failing with three of his four dribble attempts, and an exit from Elland Road in the summer was on the cards at one stage.
Leeds considered Joel Piroe sale
At the start of July, the Daily Mail reported that Leeds were ‘expected’ to cash in on Piroe or Bamford during the summer transfer window earlier this year.
It was claimed that there was interest from ‘abroad’ in both players and that the Whites were set to move one of them on, presumably to make space for another signing in that area of the pitch.
In the same sentence of that article, it was reported that Rennes were interested in signing Glen Kamara – a deal that eventually went through this summer.
Interestingly, The Star claimed that Piroe was offered to Sheffield United as part of a player-plus-cash deal to bring Gustavo Hamer, an attacking midfielder, to Elland Road, after a £13m offer had been turned down for the former Coventry City star.
The Yorkshire Evening Post then posted an update on the story and claimed that Leeds denied offering the Dutch attacker to the Blades as a makeweight in a move for Hamer, but it may never be known which side was telling the complete truth.
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Whether that report, or the initial one about the club being ‘expected’ to sell him, was true or not, Farke will be glad that the Whites kept hold of Piroe as he has been a key player on the pitch this season.
Joel Piroe's record-breaking importance
The former Swansea star, who was hailed as “brilliant” in the box by pundit Sam Parkin, appears to have found his best role at Elland Road as a dangerous impact substitute.
In the last game before the current international break, Leeds beat Queens Park Rangers 2-0 in West Yorkshire and the £15k-per-week earner came off the bench to score the second goal in the game.
That was his sixth goal as a substitute for the Whites in 2024, which is the most by any Leeds player in history in a calendar year – giving him more than a month to add even more goals to that record.
Joseph has produced two goals and three assists in nine league starts as a mobile number nine who can stretch defences and give the team an option in behind and down the channels, and that has allowed Piroe to thrive in a new role off the bench.
Appearances
15 (seven starts)
xG
4.11
Goals
6
Assists
2
Goals off the bench
4
Assists off the bench
1
As you can see in the table above, the Dutchman has been far more productive as a substitute than he has as a starter, with two goals in seven starts and four goals in eight outings off the bench.
Due to his lack of mobility and his struggles with duels, throwing the forward on with 20 or 30 minutes to go when the team needs a goal, to get back into the match, win, or make sure of the three points, makes a lot of sense instead of having him in from the start.
He can focus on being in the right positions to find the back of the net instead of having to tussle with defenders for 70 minutes before being taken off as the game becomes stretched.
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Therefore, Farke will surely be glad that Piroe was not sold during the summer window, as the record-breaking star has emerged as a vital cog in his Leeds machine.