Regardless of his lack of goals this year Joel Piroe has most certainly made many clubs take notice of his prowess to create and score goals. His last League goal came on December 11th last year in the home defeat to Nottingham Forest. Although he did get one against Southampton in the FA Cup in another home defeat.

Seven games without a goal is the longest Joel has gone without success since signing for Swansea City. He relies upon service in to his feet, and that most certainly has been lacking in recent times. As a forward he has plenty of on the ground ball skills, although his heading ability and anticipation in the opponents area can hardly be described as dangerous. However, and it’s a huge however, what do we really expect from a player who came to Swansea with certain quarters stating he was an awful choice. Joel has proven those dissenters very wrong.

It’s what happens in life.

The twenty two year old is potentially the biggest asset Swansea City have as stock, that is a commodity for transfer. Those that profess to know his worth state five million pounds would secure his services. That’s a great return for a player with such a lot of negativity around him when he signed. Others I’ve no doubt would say he’s worth far more. For that to happen we need to see more productivity from Joel Piroe in aerial duels, especially in front of goal. And most certainly his anticipation and awareness of his positional decision making within the final metres of the opposition area.

This is possibly why Joel Piroe is in a dry period goal scoring wise, but his contribution elsewhere is extremely decent. His offside awareness is quite poor over the season, but with four assists and a determined way of retaining possession you can forgive him for that. His disciplinary record is very good too, only two yellows this season, and a passing success rate of around seventy five percent is excellent. Especially when you take in to account where he generally receives the ball and the attention defenders give him in the final third of the pitch.

Sunday’s game against Bristol City couldn’t come at a better time for Joel Piroe, he is a match winner, we saw that against Coventry and West Bromwich Albion as an example. He rises to the challenge in the more intense and talked about fixtures that’s for sure. And Sunday is one of those games, so for me this is where Joel Piroe’s luck in front of goal changes. His desire will be massive in this game, the teams intention to put to bed that disastrous performance away at Stoke will be huge as well.

Swansea City v Bristol City will be topped off with a frenzied atmosphere, thousands and thousands screaming for the win. Players feed off this desire, it inspires them and pushes them on. This game kicks off at 1pm at the Swansea.com stadium. And you get the feeling it will be Joel Piroe’s day.

Photographs licensed from Reuters

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