Junior Firpo — He’s magic don’t you know?
Junior Firpo, much maligned for most of his time at Leeds (and Barcelona for that matter) but has he really been that bad? Well, yes, and, err, no. Yes, there have been some shocking performances from him — away at Brighton, home to Villa etc. but, if we are being nice and we’re doing well so let’s be nice, there’s always some mitigation we can point to — mainly the fact that in a lot of these games he was returning from injury, coming into a struggling side, into a defence conceding a lot of goals, and often facing up against some of the best wingers the world has to offer.
Of course, he has been injured far too often for us to simply excuse him. One of the key attributes to use when judging a player is availability and with Junior it is damn impossible to give him a tick in that particular box. Now, I’m not going to get involved in previous debates I’ve seen on socials regarding whether the Leeds medical team is up to scratch but it is possible Junior was returning too quickly — either from a physical standpoint or a mental one, or probably both.
And it’s that point which ultimately brings us round to the Victor Orta-sized elephant in the room — why did we sign a player at a stage of his career when he essentially needed both mental and physical rehabilitation as one of only two signings on the back of a ninth-placed Premier League finish? I understood the limitations of the club in that window — both in the standards demanded by Bielsa and the financial restrictions of the club/Radrizzani but it was far too risky a proposition to have been even seriously considered never mind signed off on. Our only natural left back, a recovery project in a team that showed worrying signs even in pre-season, there’s plenty culpable for such an error of judgement.
Back to his actual performances for Leeds, it would be wrong to say there haven’t been good ones in each of his three seasons in West Yorkshire, albeit always within the same pattern — injury, couple of ropey displays, couple of better ones, ‘hang on, this is why Barcelona bought him,’ injury…. And repeat. The problem with those few decent performances is that they were few and far between and also didn’t really have much of an impact on the club’s fortunes in a pair of disappointing Premier League seasons. That can’t be said to be the case this season, however — let’s go back to New Year’s Day and what was seen very much as something of a must-win game, off the back of two straight defeats and facing up against an out-of-form Birmingham City managed by the hapless Wayne Rooney. Just under twenty minutes in and Elland Road was holding its breath, Sam Byram going off injured and being replaced by Firpo — is this another sign of a season in danger of collapse? Well, 75 minutes, three goals, three points and two Firpo assists later, Leeds were ready to roar once again and roar we have.
Firpo has started in each of the seven league games since then, seven wins and just one goal conceded, while the left back has also added another couple of assists. Much has been made of the Ampadu-Rodon axis being the main part of this but I’d argue the change in dynamics Firpo (and Bamford) has brought about, as well as the performances of the pair, has been more influential. There were seemingly attitude-related issues surrounding Djed Spence being sent back to Spurs but Farke had also decided on the dynamics he wanted from his full backs at that stage — Archie Gray as his first-choice right back being able to narrow/invert and help facilitate build-up in deeper areas as well as offering the odd overlapping threat while the left back was needed to be higher up the pitch, to combine with Summerville, overlap and create the space for the Dutchman to operate in. As dependable as Byram had been up to that point, the improvement via the change in dynamics that having a left footer who is naturally attacking brought about was obvious and instantaneous — the assists vs Birmingham the icing on the cake of our general play in that game, and since.
What we can see here is an attack-minded left back who’s technically superior to most of his peers in this league, he’s dependable in build-up in the middle third and offers a big threat in the final third. Up against lesser wingers than those he faced week in-week out in the Premier League, there has also been little to crab him for defensively, barring the odd moment that you just get from Junior Firpo from time to time.
Of course, the worry remains that you are never too far from a Junior Firpo injury but playing in a role that brings the best out of him in a league that is beneath him technically, and for a side winning every week has finally given us all evidence as to why exactly he was deemed good enough for Barcelona to sign and, initially, trust. If Firpo stays fit for the remainder of the season, Leeds go up, it is that simple.
Written by Kris Hilliam (@Kris_Lufc7)
