Primary Position – Left-back

Other position(s) – None

Last season’s form – Games 7 / Goals 1 Assists 1

Born in the Dominican Republic in 1996, Firpo joined Real Betis’ youth setup in 2014 and made his senior debut for the Reserves in 2015 in a Segunda Division B game. He made his first team debut for the club in February 2018 and went on to make 24 appearances for the Spanish side in the 2018/19 season, registering three goals and five assists. Barcelona signed the youngster at the start of the 2019/20 season for a fee of €18 million plus €12 million in add-ons. He managed just 17 appearances and 1010 minutes for the Spanish giants in his first season, notching one goal and two assists. His minutes dwindled even further in 2020/21 with just 285 minutes of playing time.

With Alioski departing Elland Road, the Whites needed an attacking left-back to slot into the vacant position and Firpo certainly promises plenty of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) potential. A physical, aggressive player, he should have no problems adjusting to Bielsa’s demanding style and while little can be read into his Barcelona numbers, his statistics at Real Betis were impressive. In the 2018/19 season where he scored three and assisted five, he averaged 0.88 shots per 90 minutes which was bettered only by Dallas last season amongst defenders. He also created 0.88 chances per 90 minutes. He has been priced at 5.0 which is 0.5 higher than all of Leeds’ defensive assets barring Meslier which does make it an interesting dilemma. On the other flank, Ayling posted promising underlying numbers last season with 0.61 shots and 0.68 chances created per 90 minutes so he might offer better value than Firpo at 4.5.  

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