Former Leeds United manager Neil Redfearn has challenged Joel Piroe to add more consistency to his game and believes the extra competition for places will further push the Dutchman to do better this season as he is no longer an automatic starter in the team.
The Yorkshire giants got their Championship season going on Saturday when they beat Hull City 2-0 at Elland Road to move to fourth in the league table with second-half goals from Mateo Joseph and Piroe.
Piroe has only made one start in the first four Championship games for Leeds in the ongoing campaign and came on from the bench against Hull to seal the points for the Whites at Elland Road over the weekend.
The Dutchman expressed his delight after the game and the relief the Leeds team felt after scoring their first league victory at home for this season against the Tigers.
“It’s a relief to have your first home win of the season”, the forward said via the Yorkshire Evening Post.
“We back ourselves, we’re happy with how the group is and we believe in each other completely.”
Neil Redfearn Feels Extra Competition Will Help Joel Piroe
Former Leeds boss Redfearn is of the opinion that the fact that Piroe is no longer a certainty in the starting eleven will push the Dutchman to do better and be on his toes as he can no longer count to be an automatic selection in the team.
He stressed that the forward is now aware that he needs to ‘turn up’ and play well if he wants to force his way back into the eleven again.
“I think he has realised he needs to play well and turn up as he is not going to get in automatically”, the ex-Leeds manager said on BBC Radio Leeds.
“When he first arrived at the club, he was an automatic selection, played a lot and scored a lot of goals but he has realised that he can’t rest on that.
“He has got to pick up the baton and run again and I thought, he looked really sharp.”
The former Leeds manager backs Piroe to be the finisher to power the Whites’ promotion campaign
Redfearn insisted that Leeds need finishers in their team if they want to challenge for promotion this season and Piroe has the natural ability to be one of those players for the Whites.
However, the former Leeds boss is keen to see the Dutchman curb his habit of drifting away in games and challenged him to be more consistent and dominant to become the main man for the Yorkshire giants this term.
“His goal was excellent; it was a finisher’s goal and I am looking through the numbers and I am thinking where are the finishers here as it is the finishers who are going to give Leeds the chance to get promoted”, Redfearn continued.
“He is genuinely a finisher, Piroe, but he just needs to play at that level all the time.
“He can’t go missing in games, he has got to play at that level and be as dominant as he was today [Saturday] when he came on.”
