Daniel Farke's encouraging message for 'greedy' Mateo Joseph amid Leeds United goal struggles

Daniel Farke insists the ‘goals will come’ for Mateo Joseph so long as Leeds United’s leading man keeps doing what he’s doing.

Joseph has been given a serious vote of confidence by Farke this season, starting every Championship game even with Joel Piroe and Patrick Bamford fit. And the 20-year-old has certainly repaid that faith with a string of excellent all-round performances, even if the goals are somewhat lacking.

An instinctive near-post finish against Hull City remains Joseph’s only goal of the season but he proved once again in Saturday’s 3-0 victory over Coventry that there is much more to leading the line than scoring. It was he who held the ball up to set up an attack which led to Piroe ending the contest, the umpteenth such time in which his work has benefited others.

“I’m happy with what Mateo’s delivering,” Farke told reporters on Monday. “As a striker you’re only 100 per cent if you score game after game, but I don’t rate him in output of just goals. His link-up play is excellent and how he holds defenders.

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“For example the third goal [vs Coventry], Joel Piroe, everyone is speaking about Ao Tanaka and the really good assist of Willy [Gnonto]. But I praise Mateo, under pressure keeps the ball against aggressive forward defending to keep possession and bring the midfielders into a good position. Without this it’s not possible seven seconds later Joel Piroe scores.

“I’m happy with Mateo and the workload and the goals will come. He’s so greedy to score. I have to keep in mind he’s still a young player, it’s still more or less his first season starting the games. It’s not easy to fulfil all expectations for a club with such a heavy shirt. He can’t be the finished end product at the moment but he’s moving in the right direction.”

Joseph has been far more creative than many expected, with his three Championship assists more than anyone else at Leeds while moments like the hold-up play for Piroe’s goal go missing in the stats. The Spanish youth international’s lack of goals would only be of real concern if those around him are not producing either, but there is no sign of that.

Farke was keen to see Crysencio Summerville’s contribution shared between the squad and that looks to be the case, with Leeds’ 12 league goals shared between eight players and Piroe the current top-scorer on three. Joseph will hope to improve his tally sooner, rather than later, but is doing more than enough to keep his starting spot.