Simon Walton has told BBC Radio Leeds that Leeds United got nothing from Junior Firpo during their defeat to Leicester City on Thursday as the defender made his first start of the season.
The trip to the King Power Stadium proved to be utterly miserable viewing for supporters. Leeds were shambolic defensively during the first-half and conceded twice to the side who started the evening bottom of the table.
The damage was done before the break. And Leeds barely managed to lay a glove on Brendan Rodgers’ men during the second-half.
Leeds got nothing from Junior Firpo
Jesse Marsch was forced into one change ahead of the game with Pascal Struijk missing out. That presented Firpo with the chance to make his first start of the campaign.
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Firpo was beaten several times down the left flank. And he rarely looked like venturing forward. Walton certainly did not hold back in his assessment of his performance against the Foxes.
“I think sometimes the counter-argument to that is, ‘yeah, but he’s good going forward’. But there was no attacking threat either,” he told BBC Radio Leeds.
“As a full-back, if you’re not particularly good defensively, you have to provide something going forward. And unfortunately tonight, we didn’t get either. We didn’t get anything at either end from him.”
There was a little bit of cautious optimism ahead of Firpo’s return. He seemed to improve towards the end of his first season at Elland Road. And he played extremely well in the first-half of the first pre-season game in the summer.
Obviously, that was pre-season. And he has been injured for most of the time since.
But his performance was not down to rustiness on Thursday. Many of the same issues which shone through last season came to the fore again against Leicester.
Marsch previously suggested Struijk may be available for this weekend. After tonight, we are keeping everything crossed that he will indeed be back.