Give Tyler Roberts a chance — Square Ball 18/12/24

Do the other thing!

Written by: Moxcowhite • Daniel Chapman

Photograph by: Lee Brown

There are three certainties when it comes to Leeds United matches. A centre-back will head our first attacking corner over the bar. Someone will shout “get rid of it!” any time we take a short goal-kick. And the manager’s team selection will always be wrong.

There’s no proof that Albert Einstein ever actually said: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” But there’s also no proof that he didn’t. Just as there’s no proof that Leeds United wouldn’t fare better if they switch things up by starting [Player B] instead of [Player A], a theory applicable in each season since the dawn of time, or at least 1992. You can add your own favourite LUFC selection dilemma, whether you were itching to see Eddie Nketiah instead of Patrick Bamford, or Tyler Roberts, or Mateo Joseph. Or maybe you really wished Neil Redfearn took a chance on Chris Dawson.

Under the stewardship of Daniel Farke, the lightning rod for this conversation has often been Joël Piroe. Signed as a marquee centre-forward who didn’t really fit Farke’s idea of a centre-forward, he has become the Dutch Rodrigo. Often the ‘system’ is sacrificed to fit him in the side, but he scores goals so… it’s all fine? Until it isn’t.

Piroe has scored seven goals this season, meaning he’s more than halfway to equalling last season’s total of thirteen, but he remains an enigma. He played much of 2023/24 as a number 10, despite possessing few of the skills traditionally associated with the role. After 21 games of this season, it’s debatable whether he has enough of the attributes required to play as a centre-forward, at least in a Daniel Farke team.

My hot take on Piroe is that he might actually thrive in the Premier League or in a side that requires him to do less grunt work, i.e. pressing. It feels as though football is entering an era where forwards are no longer required to be pressing machines and the Big Man Who Scores Goals™ is making a comeback. But that doesn’t work for Leeds United going into 2025, so what’s the solution?

For me, it’s to play Mateo Joseph from the start. Certainly away from home, where his energy and aggression occupies defenders in a way that Piroe doesn’t, and probably can’t. With Joseph, you might only get sixty minutes before he fades, but that should be enough in most games. Should. Leeds are almost always the protagonists, playing on the front foot and, goalscoring aside, it surely makes more sense to have a striker giving it the business to those brutish Champo defenders before the languid elegance of Piroe glides onto the pitch and sees the game off.

Almost every team that hosts Leeds at this level comes into the match with the same idea. Frustrate and deny space. It makes little sense, to me, that Farke sees fit to play a more passive forward instead. But hey, I’m not the Leeds manager. I’m not even a manager. Even in the video game Football Manager, I wouldn’t trust myself to make the right decision, often bowing to the CPU’s tactical and selection advice.

Leeds fans obviously aren’t alone in our fondness for rhetoric around which eleven strangers should wear our team’s jersey. It (mostly) comes from a place of love.

From that same place, I’m going to say that Farke should start playing Largie Ramazani more often in these tough away challenges. Maybe he will once he’s fully fit again. Farke’s Leeds quite often relied on moments of individual brilliance last season, and while that has gradually changed this year, a performance like Saturday at Preston was crying out for a moment of magic from someone capable of providing one.

We know that Dan James is quickly becoming the fulcrum of Leeds’ attack, but I’m confident that Ramazani has a bit more chaos about him than Willy Gnonto or Manor Solomon, albeit that’s based on a relatively small body of work to this point.

At the risk of being one of those people who creates a dream XI that ends up being woefully unbalanced, these away games are crying out for something different, like Joseph and Ramazani, perhaps playing in front of a midfield three of Ethan Ampadu, Ao Tanaka and Joe Rothwell. I’ve been fantasising about this totally hypothetical situation for weeks, based purely on the six or so weeks of Leeds in 2019/20 when we had Kalvin Phillips, Adam Forshaw and Mat Klich.

In summary, Daniel, you’ve got to do the other thing. That will work. And if it doesn’t, I’m sorry to say but it’s still your fault. I don’t make the rules.