Leeds United were handed a sobering reminder of the reality of the Premier League when Arsenal hammered five past them at The Emirates on Saturday.
Whilst supporters will not have been expecting an easy game, by any means, the 1-0 win over Everton may have provided a bit of cautious optimism heading to North London.
Unfortunately, Mikel Arteta’s Gunners were firing at their very best and made the game look a bit too easy at times, with Viktor Gyokeres and Jurrien Timber both grabbing two goals, alongside Bukayo Saka’s strike.
There was no single individual player to blame for the result, but Daniel Farke will surely be disappointed with several individual performances across the pitch. Ilia Gruev was given a chance in light of Ethan Ampadu’s injury, for example, but failed to take his opportunity.
Why Ilia Gruev should be dropped
The Bulgarian midfielder was selected ahead of summer signing Sean Longstaff to start at the base of the midfield, but did not look ready for the task at hand.
Gruev played the full 90 minutes in the middle of the park, in a team that was defending for the vast majority of the time, and only won one duel, out of three contested, per Sofascore.
The left-footed lightweight did not offer any, or at least enough, protection in front of Pascal Struijk and Joe Rodon to prevent the Arsenal midfield from linking up with the forward line as easily as they did.
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This is why, with the prospect of a physical Newcastle midfield on the horizon, Farke should drop Gruev next weekend. However, he is not the only player whose position in the XI should be in danger, as Joel Piroe must also be ruthlessly ditched.
Why Joel Piroe should be dropped
The Dutch forward, who was handed a 4/10 rating by the Yorkshire Evening Post, does not look up to the physicality of dealing with Premier League central defenders.
In two starts against Everton and Arsenal, Piroe has lost nine of his ten physical duels and has not won a single ground duel, per Sofascore, to go along with one shot on target and zero chances created for his teammates.
With the caveat that he was up against two top-class players, it was too easy for William Saliba and Gabriel to nip in ahead of him to get to balls first, without him even being able to compete for them.
The introduction of Lukas Nmecha, in both matches, has shown Leeds what they need in a centre-forward at that level. He came on in difficult circumstances against Arsenal, but still put himself about and used his frame well to relieve a bit of pressure at times.
Minutes
58
33
Shots
0
0
Passes completed
9
5
Key passes
0
0
Ground duels won
0/0
1/2
Aerial duels won
0/2
1/1
As you can see in the table above, Nmecha competed in and won more duels in 33 minutes on the pitch than Piroe managed in almost an hour at The Emirates, as the former Swansea man lost 100% of his duels.
Leeds will be battling against relegation this season and that means that there will be a lot of games where they cannot expect to dominate the ball and have it all their way. As Gary Neville put it in the Sky Sports commentary, the front three that started the game – including Piroe – looked like they needed everything to be perfect for them to perform.
Whereas, Nmecha is a physical forward who can play off scraps and make things happen by causing problems for opposition defenders, which is why he may be a better choice to lead the line against Newcastle after the midweek League Cup clash with Sheffield Wednesday.
Therefore, Farke should ruthlessly ditch Gruev and Piroe for the clash with the Magpies to better stand up against the physical battle that they could be faced with.