When we began to be linked with Pierre-Michel Lasogga during the summer we didn’t know much about the bulky German striker but we certainly do now, a stunning debut today against Burton Albion. Victor Orta, take a bow.
Lasogga has wages of around £55k that we are contributing to, and that in itself says the calibre of player is high, especially for Championship level. He looked a class above this level today, bullying the Burton defence the entire time he was on, and what impressed me most was his variety. He didn’t look like a target man, a player who likes to link up or a player who likes to go in behind, he looked like he was the full package. We like to let our imaginations run wild at times and he will face much better centre back pairings than Ben Turner and Jake Buxton.
He started with going close with a header and then he battered home his effort after being put through by Eunan O’Kane. Minutes later he rattled the post with a lowly effort then had a shot deflected over the bar. Into the second half and he powered home a stunning header after hanging in the air and almost had a hat-trick, saved although it was maybe just going over anyway. He was taken off and replaced by Jay-Roy Grot but if anyone was worried about the style changing because of Lasogga (I was) we shouldn’t have worried. He made it better.
He was powerful but his link up play was top notch. He set up Kemar Roofe for the 4th goal although he had a lot to do after being slipped in by the German powerhouse. He took the ball under pressure all over the pitch and always found a pass, literally. He had a 100% passing accuracy rate today which is brilliant for a striker. He also stretched the defence when we needed him to and made some very clever runs, ones that we aren’t used to seeing at Leeds United. What a start for the striker, and so far…no Wood, no problem.
