Junior Firpo on second Leeds United term being 'his' year, modern full-backs and set pieces aim

The start of pre-season has suggested it just might be.

Brought in from Barcelona last summer as the club’s new first choice left-back, Firpo even found himself heading home set pieces in Thursday evening’s 4-0 victory against Blackpool.

It was, says Firpo, all part of his and boss Jesse Marsch’s plan.

But now the grand plan is to simply stay injury and Covid free, upon which the defender would be confident of hitting lift off in his second season with Leeds.

The Whites were hoping that would be the case upon the former Spain under-21 international’s first season at the club after spending 15m euros to sign Firpo as United’s new first choice left-back last July.

Firpo, though, saw his maiden year in British football disrupted by three separate bouts of coronavirus and regular injury niggles which limited him to just 19 starts.

The 25-year-old provides a damning verdict when looking back at his 2021-22 season as a whole.

“It can’t be worse,” admits Firpo, whose campaign at least ended on a high as he helped United avoid relegation via the final day ‘great escape’ and 2-1 victory at Brentford.

Firpo and his partner Julia Torralbo then got married this summer and the good times continued upon United’s pre-season friendly against Blackpool on Thursday evening, a game which followed a behind closed doors victory against Stoke City last weekend.

It is, says Firpo, wary of last season, too early to say if this will be “his year”.

Yet with injuries and Covid behind him, he is optimistic it just might be as Firpo and Leeds United now look to prove a match made in heaven.

“It will be better, 100 per cent,” said Firpo, asked if this season would be his year and better than the last one.

“It can’t be worse.

“I don’t know if it will be my season or not but I have a good feeling in the team, the signings that they are bringing in and the environment that is growing.

“I think people know how important it is what we achieved last season to stay in the league so I think this will be a really good season for all of us.”

Reflecting on what particularly held him back last year, Firpo reasoned: “I think this was a problem for me in particular.

“I had a lot of injuries. It’s difficult.

“I came here in the Premier League without playing too much in the last two seasons.

“Imagine even without injuries this is difficult but with injuries and Covid three times it is not easy.

“But I think that the team and the club and all of them help me in all aspects.

“They try to keep me working on the same level and have always given me the best option or the best thing for me so this is good.

"If this season I can be fit, I can play every single minute and don’t lose many games then it will be the best thing for me.”

Firpo certainly looked in excellent nick during his 45 minutes of Thursday night’s victory against Blackpool at York.

The second-season Whites player continually bombed forward from left-back and set up the Whites opener for Robin Koch.

Then, just 12 minutes later, Firpo even got himself on the scoresheet by netting United’s second goal when glancing home a Jack Harrison corner.

Firpo is optimistic that more strikes from set pieces can follow.

He reasoned: “Jesse and the staff always told me that I’m tall enough and I jump a lot so I can score some headers so we are working on it.

“I think we are doing good in the set pieces, in both games we did good with offensive and defensive so we keep working on that.”

Firpo the set-piece threat might become something of an added bonus.

But the Dominican Republic born footballer was bought to be United’s first choice regular left-back and is now optimistic of finally making that happen through regular game time and improvements at both ends of the pitch.

Firpo, who is clearly not shy of attacking, admitted: “I love to go forward. It’s this type of modern full-back but I always need to improve more and more defending because here in the Prem you have really tough opponents playing on the wings.

“The big teams always have really good players in the wings. We need to keep working on that.”