The Leeds United players would have trudged off the Elland Road pitch dejected after the final whistle was blown yesterday, the Whites now winless in two after a disappointing 1-1 draw with Coventry City.
Daniel Farke’s Championship promotion candidates were arguably unfortunate not to come away from the contest with all three points, with Leeds’ xG coming in at a far superior 1.65 – as per Sofascore – to the Sky Blues who mustered up a meagre 0.49 on the other hand.
Yet, football matches are not just decided on statistical dominance alone and that was evident when Bobby Thomas’ header cancelled out Crysencio Summerville’s opening strike to give Mark Robins’ away side a share of the points.
Leeds had a number of players fall short of their usual standards in this one, including ex-Swansea City forward Joel Piroe, who had another game to forget to add to his recent collection of creatively blunt performances.
Joel Piroe’s performance vs Coventry in numbers
Piroe has now gone three games in a row without a goal or an assist, but it was not through a lack of trying for the Dutchman at Elland Road in this match.
The lofty 6 foot 1 striker had two efforts fail to find the back of the net, with just one managing to find the target to trouble the opposing goalkeeper Bradley Collins who was busy all afternoon.
Leeds just were not at their free-flowing best despite a barrage of late opportunities going begging, with Piroe also shying away from winning his fair share of aerial challenges.
He would win zero of his aerial duels, whilst only successfully winning two of eight ground duels in a match where very little went right for the number seven.
Piroe was not alone in walking off the Elland Road turf frustrated with his efforts come full-time, however, with Djed Spence equally poor on his first start at home in a Leeds shirt as he flopped at left-back.
Djed Spence’s performance vs Coventry in numbers
Spence would have hoped making this loan switch back to the Championship again would be the best possible opportunity to re-energise his faltering career, the 23-year-old full-back having played at this level in the past during Nottingham Forest’s promotion-winning exploits back in the 2021-22 season.
Failing to really settle at Tottenham after a major move materialised off the back of his Forest spell, the Leeds number 39 was poor against Coventry yesterday, acclimatising still to his new surroundings.
Farke gave Spence a 78-minute run-out in this one, with the 6 foot defender lacking in drive and verve venturing forward – successful in zero of his attempted dribbles in the game, alongside notching up three crosses which all went astray from their intended target.
Moreover, the ex-Forest man would only win three duels in the game to further expose Leeds’ lightweight approach to the game with the Sky Blues more dogged and brutal approach.
Coventry defender Thomas – who scored the crucial equaliser – won all but one of his duels to showcase the determination of the visitors to pull off a surprise result.
Spence’s performance did see Yorkshire Evening Post journalist Graham Smyth give the defender a 6/10 rating in his post-match thoughts, stating that the full-back looked ‘rusty’ alongside defensive teammate Pascal Struijk who also received a 6/10.
The 23-year-old loanee will just keep plugging along behind the scenes with the Whites, hopeful of getting back to his previous second-tier best at some stage as the loan progresses.
Of course, playing at left-back is not ideal for the right-footed defender but needs-must with Sam Byram and Junior Firpo out of action and he must improve in the coming games if Leeds are to start to catch up with the top two.
