BBC pundit says Leeds’ attacks were breaking down whenever £10.5m player got the ball last night 

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Daniel Farke will have learned a lot about who might be Premier League ready from his Leeds United squad last night.

The Whites are currently at the centre of an intense battle for automatic promotion but made the trip to Stamford Bridge to face Chelsea in the FA Cup fifth round on Wednesday.

Farke made a number of changes to his starting XI for the match yet Leeds still ran Chelsea all the way until the 90th minute, with Conor Gallagher’s late goal the only difference between the sides.

A number of players including youngsters Archie Gray and Mateo Joseph will have ended the match feeling proud of their performances, though there were a couple who struggled.

Speaking on BBC Radio Leeds post-match, pundit Jon Newsome highlighted Joel Piroe as one of them, claiming that a lot of Leeds’ attacks were breaking down when the ball got to him.

Newsome critical of Piroe performance

He said: “I don’t like to sit here after we have got beat and pick at people because overall we played really well and as a team collectively we were great. But my job is also to highlight where we weren’t so good and I thought Piroe didn’t have his best game.

“He looked cumbersome, got caught in possession. His effort and work rate was there, I have never questioned that but I just thought he struggled.

“I am surprised Daniel didn’t make the changes a bit sooner because he looked like he was struggling and every time it went down to him, he was where it was breaking down.”

After a lightning quick start to his Leeds career after his arrival in the summer from Swansea City for £10.5 million, it has become more and more clear that Piroe, perhaps, isn’t quite made for this system.

The 24-year-old was pretty ineffective when filling in for the injured Patrick Bamford as a number nine recently, but has also gone missing in a lot of games playing in a deeper position.

If Leeds do get promoted, his display will have certainly given Farke food for thought as to whether he is capable of making the step up.

With that said, he may now even find it difficult to get a start between now and the end of the season, with Bamford now seemingly ahead of him in the pecking order, and Joseph showing exactly what he can do last night.