The winners and losers from Leeds United’s 4-0 victory over Watford are listed below. The team put on another outstanding display to advance to the Premier League.
Leeds has gone 14 league games without a loss and has kept six consecutive clean sheets as Joel Piroe and Manor Solomon added to their totals to win for the 20th time in the Championship. Dan James’ brace stole the show.
In addition to some outstanding performances, Leeds also put a lot of pressure on Burnley and Sheffield United in preparation for tonight’s games. Below, are the winners and losers from the game.
Joel Piroe, the winner of Leeds United’s 4-0 victory over Watford last night
In the 4-0 victory, Piroe not only put his name on the scoreboard once more, netting his fourth goal in three Championship games, but he also tied the record from the previous season with his 14th goal of the year for Leeds.
Daniel Farke claims he’s “not happy” with Piroe and believes he need to have more objectives. Piroe may be pleased with his season total, though, since he has already equaled the 14 goals from the previous year and provided twice as many assists.
Gruev, Ilia
Pascal Struijk was expected to start for Leeds United against Watford, where he played 90 minutes. In particular, Ethan Ampadu is not a long-term center-back solution, as Farke stated.
But Farke elected to keep Ampadu in defence with Joe Rodon. It meant Ilia Gruev continued in the middle of the park to provide that defensive steel in place of Ampadu, and the Bulgarian was excellent.
Meslier, Illan
Since Farke defended the £5 million purchase of Meslier following his performance against Hull, the Frenchman has been in incredible form. At Watford on Tuesday night, he made several good saves and kept six consecutive clean sheets.
Meslier made two excellent stops against Coventry, but it may not have been his best performance during that run. However, by continuing that run, he dispels more skepticism and criticism from his fans.
Despite a 4-0 victory for Leeds United over Watford, Mateo was among the losers. Joseph overcame a three-month goal drought in a win over Cardiff City, but struggled in the FA Cup against Millwall. Farke admitted Joseph missed his chance against Alex Neil’s side.
With his chance coming and going, Piroe was re-inserted on Tuesday night and the Dutchman was in fantastic form again. While Piroe continues to score goals, Joseph has no chance of returning.
Pascal Struijk
As previously said, Struijk was supposed to play with Joe Rodon, but the Dutchman was once again a substitute. Leeds have continued their streak of clean sheets, and as they say, it won’t stop.
Struijk will so remain on the bench if Leeds scores another goalless draw. Why overhaul a defence that is doing flawlessly – even if Struijk remains one of the club’s finest players?
Isaac Schmidt
Schmidt, who cost £4.6 million, was perhaps the best player to start on Saturday. Schmidt shone in his second start, with some beautiful touches and the unfortunate lack of an assist for Sam Chambers.
That may have given him hope that he would get game time against Watford, especially because Leeds were miles ahead of Watford. Instead, Schmidt was passed over by Farke and remained an unused substitute.
