Pundit says one moment summed up ‘fantastic’ 24-year-old Leeds player’s display

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Jon Newsome has suggested that Joel Piroe fluffing his lines when almost played through on goal against Southampton showed that it was just not the Leeds United forward’s day on Saturday.

Newsome was speaking to BBC Radio Leeds after Daniel Farke’s men were soundly beaten by the Saints, conceding three times before the break after a calamitous first-half display.

Joel Piroe has made an outstanding start to life at Elland Road. There was real pressure on his shoulders following his brilliant spell with Swansea. And so far, he has stepped up with four goals for the Whites.

There have been a couple of games where Piroe has been quiet in the number 10 role. And Saturday was definitely one of those occasions, with the Dutchman failing to really make any sort of notable impact during the first-half.

Joel Piroe has off day in Leeds’ loss at Southampton

He did send a shot through a crowd of bodies and straight at Gavin Bazunu after the break. But perhaps the opportunity he will kick himself over most came when he was played in by Georginio Rutter.

Piroe went to take the ball on the half-turn on the edge of the box. However, he completely fluffed his lines and the ball ran trickled to Bazunu. And Newsome hinted that that moment summed up his day.

“I mean, look at Piroe, he’s been fantastic so far,” he told BBC Radio Leeds. “Little ball played through to him. He’s on the half turn, he’s unopposed. Have a touch, stick it in the back of the net. And it bobbles over his foot and he hits himself in annoyance. Just not your day, is it?”

Of course, Daniel Farke will do a lot of analysis on what went wrong for Leeds at St Mary’s. And there were plenty of lessons to be learnt from the game.

However, it is hard to be too critical of any one single player. Ultimately, the team across the board were so poor. It said everything that the worst thing Leeds did in the second-half was actually score, based on the fact that the momentum then swung back to the home side.

Questions will continue to be asked about Piroe being used as more of a number 10. While he is scoring goals at a decent rate, it may not be a huge problem.

But he will probably go through a quieter period at some stage. And at that point, fans will start to wonder why he is not being used further forward.