Brenden Aaronson hits back at £10m Leeds United star’s critics after his ‘unforgivable’ error

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Brenden Aaronson has bad memories about Loftus Road. So do most of Daniel Farke’s Leeds United squad, for that matter.

The last time the team sitting top of the Championship travelled to this particular corner of the capital – eleven months ago to be precise – Leeds United suffered their heaviest defeat of the Daniel Farke era.

Queens Park Rangers exploded out of the blocks with two goals in the opening 22 minutes. Marti Cifuentes’ side would add another couple before the end.

QPR 4-0 Leeds.

A repeat scoreline in Saturday’s early kick off would hardly be fatal for Farke’s promotion hopes. The Yorkshire giants are currently two points clear, after all. But a second successive away defeat a week after losing at Fratton Park would set the nerves jangling.

Leeds were strangely wasteful in that 1-0 reverse by Portsmouth. The main culprit on the South Coast, meanwhile, was none other than the man leading the charge for the Golden Boot.

Joel Piroe missed one ‘unforgivable’ chance just after half-time with the game goalless, firing wildly over the bar. The £10 million signing from Swansea City had already squandered one presentable opportunity by that stage too.

He struck the midriff of Portsmouth goalkeeper Nicolas Schmidt after a Manor Solomon effort had been parried into his path.

Joel Piroe gets Brenden Aaronson backing ahead of QPR vs Leeds United

Brenden Aaronson knows all too well what it is like to feel the pressure of the critics digging into your shoulders. He cannot understand in any world why anyone would be questioning Piroe’s effectiveness, however.

The striker’s record in 2025 speaks for itself. And no one, not even the most lethal marksman on the planet, is immune to the odd skewed finish here and there.

“With Joel, he’s been a goalscorer all year,” Aaronson protests. “You cannot really look at the guy and be like; ‘Oh, you should have scored that’ when he’s scored every game this season basically.”

With 15 goals and six assists, Piroe has 21 goal contributions in 27 Championship starts this term.

Aaronson, in contrast, has only one in his last 12 league outings.

Daniel Farke backed an under-fire Brenden Aaronson after the 2-0 midweek win over Millwall – this was, the manager said, his ‘best performance in weeks’ – but Leeds could do with the former Red Bull Salzburg schemer rediscovering peak form at a venue in which the visitors have been on the losing side on five of the last six occasions.

“We have bounced back from losses and I think that goes to show the team that we have,” Aaronson adds, Leeds following up their three defeats across the league season with a victory straight off the bat.

“We didn’t score that many goals [against Millwall], but I think we just dominated the game entirely and could have had even more goals.”

Aaronson wary as Leeds travel to Marti Cifuenes’ struggling QPR

QPR are on a run of four successive defeats. Seven in their last nine.

However, Cifuentes has masterminded impressive victories already this campaign over the likes of Norwich [3-0] and Watford [3-1], while also taking points off Sheffield United, Burnley and Sunderland.

“They have gotten a lot of big results this year, against big teams,” Aaronson points out. “It has been kind of our tough team to play against. But I think we showed that we are focused.

“I think we know we are going to have to be really focused for the game and have to give our 100 per cent intensity to win. You go there and you know what to expect in a way. You know it is going to be a tough game. We know what we are going to have to do. Everybody is going to have to put in a shift.

“Everybody has just got to let it out on the pitch. And I think that when we let it out on the pitch, our quality will shine through and we will have a great game.

“We need to keep going like this. I think we have a lot of tough fixtures coming up, but we need to keep doing what we are doing.

“We have been amazing all season at getting results away from home, at home, and we have got to keep like this and just continue focusing, knowing how hard these games are going to be.”