All be it in the Championship, Junior Firpo has enjoyed his best run of form as a Leeds United player this season.
Firpo had looked destined to leave Leeds last summer after relegation, but for a variety of reasons, he ended up remaining at the club.
The 27-year-old picked up an injury that ruled him out for almost the entirety of the first half of the season, but also insisted he turned down offers having found a home on and off the pitch at Leeds.
Since the turn of the New Year, Firpo has made that left-back position his own ahead of Sam Byram, providing an impressive five assists in 16 starts.
In his first two seasons at the club, Firpo had only provided four assists, showing just how much his form has improved, though at a lower level.
Firpo shares why Farke is the best manager he’s had at Leeds
It is fair to say Firpo has worked under his fair share of managers at Leeds. His first two seasons at Elland Road were just a complete mess on and off the pitch for the club as a whole.
Including a brief caretaker period for Michael Skubala, Farke is the sixth manager of Firpo’s Leeds career. Having arrived from Barcelona, he really struggled with the intensity of Marcelo Bielsa, while the narrowness of Jesse Marsch’s system was a killer for full-backs. The less said about Javi Gracia and Sam Allardyce, the better.
Amid his upturn in form, Firpo was asked on the latest episode of the Official Leeds United Podcast about the impact Farke has had on him, to which he was quick to praise the German for how his style benefits full-backs.
“For me he has been unbelievable. I think he is the manager that suits better my style of play, out of all of the managers I have had here. It is not just because he is here now. It is the truth because of how he thinks about full-backs or how full-backs can play.
“I think the same for them [Rutter and Gruev] about how he thinks about football. He suits us a lot. I was like before that, I want to see how he works against Premier League teams because it is different, but then we went to Chelsea and it worked quite well. We still looked really good, so I love it.”
