{"id":489104,"date":"2025-10-10T19:31:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T19:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/489104\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T19:31:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T19:31:14","slug":"graham-smyth-cant-believe-utter-madness-he-heard-about-leeds-uniteds-joel-piroe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/489104\/","title":{"rendered":"Graham Smyth can\u2019t believe \u2018utter madness\u2019 he heard about Leeds United\u2019s Joel Piroe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Joel Piroe and Dominic Calvert-Lewin are two of the three first-team strikers for Daniel Farke at Leeds United in 2025\/26<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Daniel Farke believes Joel Piroe is the best finisher he\u2019s seen<\/a> but the Leeds United<\/a> top scorer of last season remains in the periphery after starting the first two games of the league season.<\/p>\n

Some\u00a0Leeds fans think Piroe will perform in the Premier League<\/a>\u00a0this year, but Lukas Nmecha and Calvert-Lewin are also strikers at the club to consider. Despite all being fairly tall, Piroe is vastly different as a profile from the other two.<\/p>\n

He may have the finishing touch over the Englishman, but Farke has started the former Everton striker in the last four games now. That doesn\u2019t look likely to change, even if Calvert-Lewin is frustrated at himself behind the scenes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Graham Smyth defends Dominic Calvert-Lewin vs Joel Piroe decision at Leeds United<\/p>\n

Graham Smyth has spoken to the Inside Elland Road Podcast and said: \u201cI think there\u2019s almost a bit of a conundrum here in that I saw somebody saying Piroe should be given a chance which, to me, is utter madness. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf you play Piroe instead of Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Leeds do not get half the chances that are being created at the minute. The reason that Leeds are getting these chances \u2014 a lot of them is because Dominic Calvert-Lewin is a focal point. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a platform. He\u2019s a battering ram against centre-backs. He\u2019s winning the first ball or he\u2019s doing enough that Leeds can win the second ball. Because the defender hasn\u2019t had a comfortable free header or he\u2019s laying the ball off. He\u2019s bringing people into play, he\u2019s running in behind, he\u2019s stretching the defence.<\/p>\n

MORE LEEDS UNITED STORIES<\/p>\n

\u201cAll of these things he\u2019s doing, and I can I know that people will be saying he needs to score goals; he does need to score goals as well. There\u2019s absolutely no doubt about that. And that\u2019s the other thing that that he and Leeds need to remember.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s that you are going to be in a relegation battle. You cannot spurn really good chances all season and expect to get away with it because it that\u2019s not how you stay up. You do have to take your chances.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut again, without Dominic Calvert-Lewin in the team, are Leeds even getting these chances? Are they are they even playing that far up the pitch? And, in a lot of cases, I\u2019m going to say no \u2014 they\u2019re not. <\/p>\n

\u201cI just don\u2019t see Joel Piroe being able to battle with centre-backs the way that Dominic Calvert-Lewin is. I think he\u2019s been massive for the way Leeds have been playing. And I think you have to persist with him. I think you have to accept the rough with the smooth a little bit.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut, at the same time, you hope and you expect that he\u2019ll start to tuck them away and that he\u2019ll end in at least double figures because he\u2019s a number-nine. He\u2019s been paid a great deal of money. He\u2019s got double figure seasons in the Premier League before.<\/p>\n

\u201cLeeds need him to do that. So there is an expectation, but again you have to accept that, if he was capable of scoring two in every Premier League game and all the rest of the work that he does, he\u2019s not playing for Leeds United this season.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"JoelPhoto by James Gill \u2013 Danehouse\/Getty ImagesJoel Piroe\u2019s Premier League and Netherlands ambition<\/p>\n

Piroe wants to play for Leeds<\/a> and wants to shine in the Premier League. He said: \u201cFor me, the priority is still club football at the moment and international football would be a bonus. <\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to say too much about whether I think it\u2019s right or wrong that my name is mentioned more now. When you play in the Championship, you know that you\u2019re not looked at as much. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut, of course, it\u2019s nice to hear that you\u2019re not forgotten. I think that if I show myself in the Premier League, they can\u2019t ignore me anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Dutchman has not been capped for his country yet, but no player has scored more Championship goals (73) since his first season in English football back in 2021. Adam Armstrong is second with 55 in that time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joel Piroe and Dominic Calvert-Lewin are two of the three first-team strikers for Daniel Farke at Leeds United…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,33761,393,4884,12413,1860,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-489104","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leeds","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-dominic-calvert-lewin","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-joel-piroe","13":"tag-leeds","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115351539213324908","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}