Leeds United’s start to life without Georginio Rutter was a very worrying one.
The Whites were held to a 0-0 draw away at West Bromwich Albion and while that is a point they didn’t get at a ground last season, the performance was dreadful.
Joel Piroe was the man tasked with replacing Rutter in that number 10 role, with this the first Championship game Leeds had been without the Frenchman since the opening day of last season, with his move to Brighton all but done.
And it would be fair to say Leeds looked a completely different side without him, creating virtually nothing from open play.
In fact, Pascal Struijk was the only one who looked like scoring, winning a couple of dangerous headers from set-pieces. Other than that, it was poor.
Leeds fans react to Piroe performance
This was a real chance for Piroe to stake a claim for that number 10 spot while Leeds look for some potential Rutter replacements, but he could not have been much worse.
He completed just six passes, lost possession 13 times, though that second statistic does not tell the story of the amount of times he miscontrolled the ball.
Piroe’s decision to shoot from 25 yards when Leeds had a four vs four counter-attack situation was a good summary of his display, and one supporter does not want to see him in the starting XI again.
Another said: “Piroe looks like a square peg trying to fit in a round hole every time I watch him. I don’t think our lack of system, or tactics helps, but he hasn’t worked out for Leeds.”
One fan believes Piroe just simply isn’t cut out for the system played by Daniel Farke, suggesting he looks like a ‘square peg in a round hole’ regardless of where he plays.
However, another simply wasn’t surprised to see him flop. He said: “Piroe at 10 didn’t work then…who’d have thought it?”
Piroe has just sent a transfer message to Leeds
One thing that performance from Piroe should teach those at Leeds is a number 10 simply has to come in before Friday’s trip to Sheffield Wednesday.
Though it is very difficult to see now considering who has left, perhaps cutting your losses and selling him wouldn’t be a bad decision either.
Piroe looks uncomfortable wherever Farke plays him and while he clearly has an eye for goal, his negatives far outweigh his positives.
If a replacement for Rutter wasn’t important enough, it really has to be now.
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