Leeds’ strength in depth means promotion is theirs if they really want it — The Athletic 14/2/24

By Phil Hay

To ensure they nailed the signing of Joel Piroe, Leeds United went straight to the top, above Swansea City’s sporting director and direct to their American owners. Southampton were sniffing around Piroe too and once the decision to go after him was taken at Elland Road, Leeds made negotiations as high-level as possible.

A fee of almost £11million ($13.9m) gave Swansea both a wad of cash and the bitter taste of a top name lost to another club in their division. As a rule, and for obvious reasons, Championship clubs prefer to sell their wares to the league above. More galling again must be the realisation that for the past month, Leeds were ploughing through win after win without even making much use of the player they spent big on in August. Leeds’ winning streak stood at six games before Tuesday and Piroe had started none of them. What better way of explaining how much Daniel Farke has going for him?

The only better way might be to say that Junior Firpo now has his own song, the surest sign Leeds are in the mindset of goodwill to all men. Firpo, as it happens, is one of those in Farke’s squad who is holding the fort in isolation as Sam Byram flits between small injuries but Farke has experienced one of those purple patches where working out who to leave out of his line-up is a bigger dilemma than who to include. He is not quite free of a two-goalkeepers-on-the-bench scenario but the initial group of substitutes chosen by him at Swansea had 22 league goals between them this season, reservists to die for. That much was underlined by Patrick Bamford pulling up in the warm-up, Piroe coming into play and devouring his first chance.

Twenty of those 22 goals had been shared between Piroe and Dan James (another Swansea product), and the extent to which Swansea have inadvertently done their bit for Leeds over the years is as striking as it is coincidental. The last time Leeds saw the inside of the ground formerly known as the Liberty Stadium, Pablo Hernandez was weaving the finest piece of magic his wand of a right foot produced, scuff or no scuff. Joe Rodon has spent the past few months showing why the Premier League once valued him more highly than Piroe. James is piecing together the best campaign of his career. There were failures along the way, too, naturally: Fede Bessone, Andy Robinson, Matt Grimes. But there is not much doubt about who has done better out of a niche conveyor belt.

There was no doubt, either, about whether Farke had the bones of a competitive line-up when his first transfer window at Elland Road closed in August. What remained to be seen, and what was not properly proven until after the turn of the year, was how much Leeds’ recruitment had given him depth. Leeds are on their best run under Farke, the type of sequence he had a knack of kickstarting as Norwich City manager, and one of the themes of it has been the rise of players who were previously below the surface: A passing of the baton between Piroe and Bamford, Ilia Gruev looking Bundesliga quality and casually throwing in 90-plus per cent pass completion rates, Gruev’s presence bringing the centre-back out of Ethan Ampadu, Firpo contributing in a way which does not make the viewing public want to smash windows, Willy Gnonto emerging from the cloud he was under. No wonder Farke is in the mood for jokes about Taylor Swift and microwaves.

Farke has spoken several times about the stages he saw Leeds going through when this project began. The first, as a club, was to get a grip of themselves last summer. The second was to find some rhythm and consistency in his style of play. After that, the priority was putting themselves in contention, for the top six and then automatic promotion. It might as well be assumed that the title has gone, that the incremental increase in possibilities will stop with second place, but Leeds are so firmly in the running for second that Southampton’s only way of holding them off is by winning every game, avoiding missing a beat. Ipswich Town have missed numerous beats recently and badly need impetus to find them soon.

Results alone should be charging Leeds’ confidence, but it is the depth of the dressing room, like 22 goals in reserve, which might give Farke most optimism about what lies ahead. Southampton are as well-endowed, no disputing that, and it is hard not to think the run-in will hinge on very small margins, a few results, unless someone is about to do what they have shown no sign of doing by falling away; or unless Ipswich sort themselves out. You could ask how long it will be before people start talking about Southampton’s visit to Elland Road on the very last day of the season, potentially a shootout for the ages. Except people already have.

In the fixtures that remain, Southampton have more head-to-heads against current top-six clubs, and more of them away from home. Farke’s side look almost impenetrable at home and, for the time being, have shed the habit of mangling very winnable away games. Bamford’s late withdrawal made no discernible difference at Swansea. Crysencio Summerville scored with a deflected shot after eight minutes and Piroe smashed a finish through Carl Rushworth’s hands two minutes later, Swansea manoeuvred into position and suitably checkmated before they knew what was happening. Gnonto missed a one-on-one before scoring himself, drawing the curtains towards the end of the first half.

Gnonto made it 4-0 in the second half as, up the road in Bristol, Southampton finally blinked and lost badly to Bristol City, dropping down into a play-off position. “It was one of the most spot-on executions of a game plan this season,” Farke said. “It’s not the time to sit back, relax and be proud with it.” The mantra of clued-in coaches everywhere, admittedly, but he has form on his side, he has second place for now and in players like Piroe, he has precious insurance. Leeds have never been more certain that promotion is there if they want it.