'One-in-two' Leeds United hero refuses to sugarcoat job demand but offers advice to struggling star

How do Leeds United solve a problem like Mateo? Or rather, how does Mateo Joseph solve a problem like the one that is quite obviously weighing on his mind right now?

Prolific all the way through the age groups as a youth player, deadly for Spain Under 21s and so clinical at Chelsea in the FA Cup last season when it felt as though his big chance might have arrived. It didn't arrive then, but it did in the summer when with Patrick Bamford working his way back from injury Joseph stormed into pre-season training like a man possessed. The number 9 shirt wasn't his but the role was and he had it until October when, with goals looking far likelier from the boot of Joel Piroe, Joseph lost out to the Dutchman.

Since October Joseph has failed to score. Sixteen Championship games and an FA Cup tie have come and gone without him hitting the net. Granted only four of those have been starts but after 1,182 minutes of 2024/25 senior action Joseph has just two goals to his name. The season's reality so far has not reflected the promise of the summer when there was a swagger to the 21-year-old. There was an inevitability almost. Now there is only drought.

Lee Chapman knows a little bit about drought from his long career in the game but a lot about inevitability, having scored 85 goals in 175 appearances. He liked what he saw from Joseph in that cup tie at Chelsea, when he had little time to think before drilling in a low shot for his first and then watched Jaidon Anthony's cross float through the area for what felt like an eternity before heading in expertly. That he hasn't shown such a predatory goalscoring ability often enough is a concern for the Spaniard's Elland Road predecessor.

"I saw him last year at Chelsea in the fifth round of the FA Cup, and he scored two really well taken goals so he's got the ability, but he's got to do it more often when he's playing for a team like Leeds United," Chapman told the YEP. "He's got to be averaging one in two, one in two and a half games, which he's not doing. I think this season he's got two goals, in 26 games, which is not good enough for a team that wants to get promotion this year and then survive in the Premier League. He's got to really up that average big time."

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Joseph has missed six big chances this season. What that says firstly is that he gets himself into the right place at the right time to at least stand a chance of scoring. It also tells you why the youngster has looked so frustrated and anguished in recent weeks, when things have not gone his way.

Chapman's advice for the player and for the club is to try and address what's going on between his ears. "It's a mental thing a lot of the time," he said. "What you can do is, at previous clubs before Leeds sometimes I would go through spells of not scoring for six or seven games, and you just have to put the effort in during the week, in training, you have to stay behind for extra finishing practices, get the coaches to set it all up for you and just keep working hard and working hard. Sometimes the manager might put on a practice game against the reserves whereby you've got more chance of scoring, so the manager can get involved as well.

"It all depends on the personality of the player involved. How fragile he is, do you need to give him a kick up the bum, do you need to put your arm around him? Nicolas Jackson at Chelsea missed three in the first half against Bournemouth and has been doing it regularly through the season and last season, missing chances every game. For a top team that wants to win things it's not acceptable, so you've got to put your arm around him, or get him motivated somehow, put extra training sessions in during the week. You've got to get him scoring, and if he doesn't, I'm afraid then possibly it might be time for him to move on and try somewhere else."

There is little chance that Farke gives up on Joseph any time soon. He rates him, continues to use him and has not demanded a new number nine in the January transfer window. Something he also routinely says about his players however is that he cannot do it for them, it's up to them to take their chances to shine. Joseph is clearly trying, maybe even too hard at times. He's doing other things too though. He has assists, he's made chances, he can do the other bits of a number 9's job and plays his part fully in defensive work.

According to another ex-Leeds goalscorer, Brian Deane, you can build your confidence by doing the things that Joseph is doing well. Deane scored 45 times for Leeds and would regularly study videos of his goals or whatever else he had done successfully to reinforce positivity. When it came to matchday he would try and work his way up to scoring.

"The main thing is to keep reinforcing the positive things that you've done," he told the YEP. "That's the biggest thing. And I suppose the other thing is, just when you get onto the pitch, it's like small steps. So make sure you get your first touch right in the game, the first pass. You make everything like that. It's like building to go up a set of steps. You kind of build the foundation from the warm-up. It starts before, because you start preparing in your mind. And it isn't easy. All forwards will know what it's like to go through a drought. But just one thing will change it, and that's what you've got to focus on. You've got to focus on finding what that one thing is that will change it. Your mentality, your warm up, do you need to do just a little bit more without it becoming obvious that you're trying harder?"

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Chapman agrees that being tidy on the ball or holding it up or making good passes can benefit a striker's confidence but in his mind only one thing really counts.

"It helps," said Chapman. "It's nice to do that. But ultimately, for a striker, it's all about goals. And you know, if I had a great game, I set up a couple of goals and we won three or 4-0 but I didn't score, I'd be really disappointed. I wouldn't be happy with my performance, because for me, it was all about scoring goals. And I think any decent, any top striker, is judged by his goals. I'm afraid that's just the way it is."

One argument when it comes to Joseph is that he's still young, learning his craft and needs time and experience in order to develop. It makes sense. Lots of strikers have found themselves toiling away in the men's game for a season or two before truly finding the magic touch in front of goal that sets them apart as prolific. Chapman isn't particularly buying into that theory when it comes to Joseph.

"He has to be [prolific]. He's 21 now, you can't say he's a 17, 18-year-old, and you've got to give him time. He has to be doing it now, 21 years onwards you have to be hitting the target. You have to be scoring 20 plus goals a season if you want to be a striker in a top side. Leeds at the moment they haven't got that many options, have they? So a lot of the stress is on his shoulders. They can't sort of leave him out and then rely on other players to score, because they haven't got that many strikers who can score goals. Bamford always seems to be injured at the moment. He's obviously got serious injury issues.

"If Joseph doesn't start scoring soon then maybe they've got to look at getting someone else in. I mean, it's a harsh reality. At Leeds I always felt the fans were behind me. I know I didn't feel any pressure at all. I think that's why I scored so many goals. I don't know if he's getting any comments from the Leeds fans or if they're putting negative pressure on him. I'm not sure, they never did that with me, so I would be surprised if they were doing it. But if they are, then he might be thinking about it. When a chance comes to him, instead of just putting it away, he might be thinking about 'am I going to miss this?' You can't do that as a striker. You've got to be totally blinkered and positive about scoring."

The good news for Joseph is that Bamford is expected to be out until the end of the month and even when the elder statesman is fit again it will take time and probably goals - something the once-capped England international has failed to add this season from limited appearances - to bump the youngster back down the pecking order. And as Chapman says, it might take just one goal in the meantime to let Joseph believe he can do as a senior pro what he did at youth level and act accordingly.

"It could be a fluke goal," Chapman told the YEP. "It could just come off your knee, and it bounces in, and then all of a sudden you've got that confidence back. And the confidence of a striker is so fragile, you know, it can go very quickly, but at the same time, it can come back very quickly. He needs to get a goal. And if he can get a couple in the next game even better. But he needs to get a goal very, very quickly."