• 9 months ago
The YEP's Graham Smyth and Joe Donnohue discuss young Leeds striker Mateo Joseph's recent development and impact at Elland Road.
Transcript
00:00 And then you've got Matteo Joseph who's building a little bit of momentum now after what's probably
00:05 been a season of patience for him. He's really needed to be patient. It's been little cameos
00:10 here and there. He really took his chance at Chelsea. He looked very good to me against Stoke
00:17 and so he's now put himself in that conversation as a genuine goal-scoring threat that you can
00:23 bring on. Matteo Joseph in particular, his breakthrough has been one of the more positive
00:30 aspects of the last couple of weeks. Still very young, still just 20 years old. Comes across as
00:36 really humble and really grateful for the opportunity and he's had to work his way to
00:41 get there. I mean, I remember his debut for the 21s was away at Blackburn, I think. It was definitely
00:48 at the Lancashire FA. I remember him coming on, fresh from signing from Espanyol, playing on an
00:54 awful pitch but his pressing was really spot on. He was only on for about 10 minutes but you could
00:59 see there was some real zip to his game there. Since then, he's really filled out, he's shot up
01:05 and he's, I don't know, he looks like a professional footballer now. He looks like
01:10 someone who can hold his own against senior defenders. I think this season, initially,
01:17 he had to be patient, as you said. The game when he came on, on Boxing Day against Preston,
01:22 I thought, I mean, I personally thought he showed glimpses there that he's someone who's going to
01:27 work really hard for the team. You've also got the run out from the start against Plymouth in the Cup
01:33 which again, I think we both sat there and thought he's given a really good account of himself there.
01:38 He's certainly done himself no harm in terms of being considered a senior option.
01:43 And then, obviously, the Chelsea game, takes his goals really well,
01:46 then comes off the bench against Stoke and is really, really bright. And what Daniel Farker
01:52 was saying in his press conference ahead of the Sheffield Wednesday game was he is going to get
01:57 more and more minutes if he continues to do stuff like that. And that's exactly what you need to be
02:01 hearing as a young player. You can't underestimate how difficult it is to make an impact off the
02:06 bench in 10, 15 minute cameos and the one or two starts that you get in the Cup. To do that is
02:12 really, really impressive.

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