Leeds United writer Beren Cross has claimed that Junior Firpo ‘frustrates’ manager Marcelo Bielsa with his positioning.
Over the summer, the Premier League club paid a fee reported to be in the region of £13m to bring the left-back to West Yorkshire from Barcelona.
However, up to this point in his Leeds career, Firpo has struggled to settle in, which has led to some strong criticism of his performances – even from his own fans.
While speaking on a Leeds United Live Facebook video, Cross claimed that the defender’s display in the 3-1 home win over Burnley was ‘very solid’.
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But despite an apparent ‘step forward’ this weekend, Cross claimed that Bielsa still spent some of the game shouting at Firpo, with the defender running around like a ‘kid in the playground’.
He explained himself, saying: “Much like [Jack] Harrison, it’s not really been Firpo’s season. But today was again, without being exhilarating and astounding, very, very solid. And it feels like another step forward for him.
“And I think you can see he frustrates Bielsa at times with his positioning, and I mean, we joked at one point he was playing like the number nine off [Tyler] Roberts.
“And from where we’re stood, you have to kind of make some assumptions on what Bielsa is saying and who he’s saying it to, but it looked very clear like he was shouting at Firpo, saying ‘what are you doing up there?’
He then concluded: “We know he loves to roam forward, he can’t help himself. He’s almost like a kid in the playground.”
TIF Thoughts on Junior Firpo and Leeds…
Despite the supposed annoyance Firpo causes his manager, Bielsa has still trusted him to start at left-back for the majority of the club’s games this season.
This may suggest that the Argentine believes he can mould the former Barcelona man into a player who is better suited to his philosophy.
Saying that, it’s not as if Leeds are blessed with many options at left-back, so he may just be in the team because alternatives are so limited. Even so, if the game against Burnley was another example of Firpo showing signs of improvement, perhaps this signing will work out in the end.
At the end of the day, that particular win was a huge step in the right direction for the Whites, who now sit eight points above the relegation zone.
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