Mateo Joseph was guilty of missing a massive chance for Leeds United on Tuesday night after coming off the bench for Daniel Farke’s side against Watford at Elland Road.
Joseph was left on the bench for a third successive match despite coming on as a sub against Sheffield United to score last time out, but he did get around 20 minutes of action during Tuesday’s 2-1 victory.
He only played for 12 minutes but Joseph had the best XG of any player last Friday. Despite his eight starts and 11 Championship games in total, Joseph only has two goals. The star does have three assists.
On Tuesday night, there were more signs of that as the Spain U21 ace had a golden opportunity to put the game beyond doubt and secure a 3-1 victory. A cross from Dan James found Joseph to perfection.
Simon Grayson predicts how many goals Mateo Joseph will score
But instead of planting a close-range header to either side of Watford stopper Daniel Bachmann, Joseph did something harder and that was failing to find the back of the – planting his header at the goalkeeper.
Former Leeds manager Simon Grayson was asked by a fan on BBC Radio Leeds if he feels Joseph can get to 20 goals for the 2024-25 campaign having only netted twice so far. He replied by predicting a number.
“Do I think he’ll get 20 goals? No. The only reason I say that is I don’t think he will get the opportunities or game time to score 20 goals. Do I think he will get between 10 and 20? That wouldn’t surprise me.”
What Grayson said about Joseph’s miss against Watford
It was a bad one. A striker that prides themselves on numbers and goal scored has got to be eating up those chances with ease, yet Joseph inexplicably cushioned his header into the palms of Bachmann.
If Joseph is to get his name back into Farke’s starting line-up, then it is moments like that chance that will tempt Farke to recall him in place of Joel Piroe. Grayson shared his thoughts on Joseph’s miss at full-time.
“Great ball from Dan James. He’s headed it down which is the right thing to do, but he’s headed it at the keeper instead of back where it comes from. It would have skidded off the turf. 9/10, he scores that.”
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