Poor Junior Firpo.
The Leeds United left-back cannot seem to catch a break at the moment. He missed the start of the campaign due to injury. And he endured a torrid evening on his first league start of the season away at Leicester.
Unsurprisingly, the 26-year-old dropped back out of the side for the games against Fulham and Liverpool. And he will probably have to bide his time with Pascal Struijk impressing at Anfield.
Firpo dealt another blow with dreadful penalty
With that, Firpo was named in the under-21 side for their Papa John’s Trophy clash with Crewe Alexandra on Tuesday. Unfortunately, it proved to be a frustrating night for the Whites.
Leeds could not find the back of the net during the 90 minutes. And the goalless draw meant that they were out of the competition before the subsequent penalty shootout.
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Nevertheless, Leeds went strong in their lineup for the shootout. Mateusz Klich stepped up first and scored. And after Harry Christy saved Crewe’s second effort, Firpo had the chance to put Leeds 2-1 ahead.
Unfortunately, the full-back managed to put his effort some way wide. For some, it was a penalty which would perfectly sum up his time in Yorkshire so far.
It was one of seven missed spot-kicks in a bizarre shootout, with Crewe edging the contest 2-1.
Here is a clip which features the kicks, with Firpo up second in the video…
Leeds defender deserves plenty of credit – even if penalties aren’t his thing
You feel obliged to defend Firpo at this point. For some, that terrible penalty will be the only kick they will have seen from the defender last night.
So it is only fair to point out that Firpo deserved a lot of credit for his display over the course of the evening.
Of course, Leeds were up against Crewe, who did rotate their ranks.
But Firpo would have gone into the game knowing that there was almost nothing he could do with his performance which would convince Jesse Marsch to pick him ahead of Pascal Struijk this weekend.
So it would have been easy to breeze through the 90 minutes and act like someone who, little more than a year ago, was playing for Barcelona.
Firpo did not do that. He worked extremely hard during the game, trying to make things happen in the final third. There was some nice link-up play with Willy Gnonto. And he also made one goal-saving header in the final moments.
He looked as enthusiastic about the game as anyone else in Leeds kit.
Struijk will surely keep his place against Bournemouth. But the young players should take a lot from Firpo taking the game so seriously.
Penalties may not be his thing, but no-one can accuse Firpo of not trying extremely hard to turn his fortunes at Leeds around.