Adaptation has been the key to Junior Firpo’s steady Leeds United rise in recent weeks. Not only from going backwards at Barcelona to 100mph in the Premier League, but with his diet and the ruthless cycle of give and take in professional football.
The left-back is in the midst of his best run of form in Leeds colours since arriving from Camp Nou in July 2021. Injuries, errors and yellow cards set the bar low for his second campaign with the Whites, but Firpo has proved to be one of the silver linings in a recent United run which has struggled to deliver points.
Opportunity did not knock in the league for Firpo this season until mid-February when Pascal Struijk sat out Manchester United’s Elland Road visit with a concussion. It was a long wait for a run of starts, but he’s taken his chance with both hands.
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There were episodes like Leicester City away and the start of Cardiff City away which were reminders of last season’s troubles, but by the end of that January Welsh trip there was something stirring in Firpo. The all-out-attacking chase suited him and he was impressive, denied a maiden goal only by a Joel Bagan handball on the goal line.
Chants from the fans about invading the pitch if Firpo scored began to seep out in Cardiff. They continued on the day that first Leeds goal eventually landed at Accrington Stanley. The cup promise was a precursor for what later came in the league.
Firpo hasn’t been a player-of-the-year candidate since he came into the side, but he’s been steady and dependable in a team where those attributes haven’t always been guaranteed by others. Gluten has a lot to answer for.
“I changed some things in terms of the food, in terms of the things I can eat or I cannot eat,” he told LeedsLive. “I'm not coeliac, but I am gluten intolerant. So we stopped eating gluten and that helped me a lot.
“After that, I was taking some supplements, some vitamins I wasn't taking before and I start to take now, but I don't know if it’s for that (his improved form) [or] because right now I'm more used to the Prem, more used to the rhythm we play here, but this makes a huge difference for sure.”
Rhythm has a lot to answer for too. In the two years Firpo had with Barcelona he started 21 of their 104 matches in all competitions. It’s easy to see why he may have felt a little undercooked going into a Premier League campaign under Marcelo Bielsa.
The left-back was not standing still with the Catalan giants, he was going backwards and it’s taken him a long time to find his feet. Longer than anyone may have expected.
“Every player needs time to get set up to the league, but in my case, I wasn't playing constantly at Barca, when I was there, so it was even a little bit more difficult for me arriving from playing not too much and arrive here to start to play everything,” he said.
“By the way, it’s what every single player wants. Every single player wants to be able to play every single minute. Maybe for me, it wasn't the right thing [at the start].”
Pitch time has not been a walk in the park for Firpo at Leeds either. The demands of the competition, frequency of matches, duration of minutes and intensity of tactics broke his body.
Injuries became a common occurrence. Firpo would start 22 of last term’s 42 games, while this season has seen 11 starts in 32 matches across all competitions. When fitness and form abandoned him, times were tough for the Dominican, but he had the right circle around him to help.
“Always as a footballer, the worst thing that can happen is not being able to play or being able to help the team and this gets you to a frustrated point where you don't know what you need to do to get better, especially when you pick an injury, you came back playing and after you pick another injury in that short time,” he said.
“That's quite hard mentally, but luckily I have a really good circle around me. I have a really good wife and kids that helped me a lot.
“I have really good friends. I can say I'm really lucky I have all my people around me since day one, since I wasn't a footballer, since I wasn't doing anything, I just was at school. I have the same friends that I have for school so that's really important."
As hard as times may have been for Firpo, his zenith in Leeds white finally came less than three weeks ago. The goal in that must-win Southampton match just released the pressure from every Elland Road vent.
It was pandemonium. Close friends like Marc Roca made a beeline for him, Wilfried Gnonto would take a booking for his trot from the dugout to celebrate. It was a moment Firpo finally felt football was opening its arms to welcome him back into the fold.
“That was really special,” he said. “I scored a few nice goals in a few important stadiums, but probably that one is my most important goal for everything. Even if I didn't score that goal, on that day I was just feeling everything will go good and we will win the game.
“Just scoring the goal was like ‘okay, now finally the football is giving me all the effort I put into this club and wasn't giving back to me [before].’ I realised, at that moment, football was starting to give me something back as well.”
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