Alan Shearer has praised Junior Firpo for grasping an opportunity at Leeds United in the absence of Pascal Struijk.
Leeds started the season with Struijk as the club’s go-to left-back, despite the Dutchman naturally being a centre-back.
That’s a tactic that Jesse Marsch favoured right up until his final game in-charge against Nottingham Forest.
It was the same for Michael Skubala, until Struijk was forced off against Manchester United with concussion at Old Trafford. Since then, Firpo has started three consecutive Premier League games, scoring the winning goal in Saturday’s crucial 1-0 win over Southampton in Javi Gracia’s first game in-charge.
Is Firpo a guaranteed starter at Leeds now?
It remains to be seen what Gracia will do at Leeds when he has both Struijk and Firpo available, as well as Liam Cooper and Max Wober, who could be seen as a go-to pairing at centre-back and left-back.
However, Firpo is in form right now and the 26-year-old is fully deserving of a place in the starting line-up.
He made it into Alan Shearer’s Premier League Team of the Week, with the BBC pundit praising Firpo for grasping an opportunity.
“Only playing because Pascal Struijk was unavailable, he grabbed the opportunity with a crucial goal and clean sheet against Southampton.”
The big updated Junior Firpo quiz – Can Leeds United fans score 20/20?
Granted, at the point Firpo came back into the starting line-up, it was because of an injury to Struijk.
However, you could argue that, right now, he’s in the line-up on merit and has potentially been one of Leeds’ best players since Marsch’s sacking.
Struijk was struggling in the games building up to his concussion and, as Shearer states, Firpo has grasped an opportunity.
There is still a long way to go in convincing all at Leeds that Firpo has turned a corner, but for now the shirt is his at left-back.