Daniel Farke came out batting for one of his more criticised Leeds United players after he hit a home run out of the park in the Boxing Day triumph over Championship strugglers Stoke City.
He will never be ‘unbelievably mobile’, Farke says. Nor is he likely to become ‘lightning quick’ any time soon. Dan James’ status as the fastest sprinter at Elland Road remains.
But give Joel Piroe the ball in the six yard box, and watch what happens next.
Leeds number ten scored twice at Stoke, the Yorkshire giants leapfrogging neighbours Sheffield United into the Championship’s summit as the New Year approaches.
Say what you want about the languid, sometimes lethargic Dutchman, but his record speaks for itself.
Since arriving at Swansea City from from Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven in 2021, Piroe has scored 64 goals in just 127 second-tier starts. Add in assists – he’s managed 15 for Swansea and Leeds respectively – and Piroe averages a ‘goal contribution’ every 0.6 matches.
Why did PSV Eindhoven sell Leeds United striker Joel Piroe?
While Piroe might lack the physicality or the hold-up play of Mateo Joseph, supply him with service and watch him rack up the numbers.
But how do PSV feel about the development of a centre-forward who emerged through their academy? A striker who made only 11 Eredivisie appearances before being sold on to Swansea for an initial fee of just £1 million?
Well, according to Dutch reporter Rik Elfrink, regret is in short supply. PSV did like Piroe, but not enough to believe he was capable of becoming the club’s go-to number nine.
“Piroe seems to be coping very well with the English league, with a lot of physical competition and especially a lot of matches,” Elfrink tells the Eindhovens Dagblad. “The striker takes care of his body as best he can and never really has any [injuries].
“PSV liked Piroe and weighed up the pros and cons for a long time [about whether to] keep him. But they thought he was just not capable of becoming the regular striker of PSV.”
Given the performances of talismanic targetman Luuk de Jong at the Philips Stadium – 65 goals in 108 games since the start of 2022/23 – it is certainly hard to imagine Piroe developing at the same rate as he did in South Wales, when first-team football often became a twice-weekly activity.
Swansea, meanwhile, would make a £9 million profit when selling the former Netherlands Under 20 international to Leeds after two prolific seasons.
And while Piroe has found goals a little harder to come by at Elland Road – he has less in a year-and-a-half than Piroe managed in his first Swans season alone – Daniel Farke feels his Stoke display was a reminder as to what he can do when provided with the right type of service.
Daniel Farke backs Piroe after his Stoke City heroics
“We want him to score goals and to be good with the pressing and counter pressing,” Farke said during his Friday press conference, speaking ahead of the weekend’s trip to Derby County. “We want him to link the play well and to work a lot for the team.
“We want him to be good between the lines and to be flexible with his movements around the other attacking players.”
“There are so many things you look for as a manager,” Farke adds. “[Piroe] has delivered today on many, many topics. It’s important for a striker to deliver end-products.
“He works a lot for the team. He’s an experienced player and we won’t change him as an individual player. We won’t make him a lightening quick player or an unbelievably mobile player.
“Joel Piroe is Joel Piroe and what he does best is scoring goals and we hope he can deliver in the up-and-coming months.”
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