Jay-Roy Grot shone in Leeds United’s under-23 side’s victory over Huddersfield Town on Monday night.
Had Jay-Roy Grot not gone into this transfer window having already played for two different teams this season, it may not have been a surprise if Leeds had looked to either loan or even sell the forward this month.
Grot has endured an extremely difficult time since arriving at Elland Road in the summer. The 19-year-old has come in for a lot of criticism when he has played and he is still awaiting his first goal for the senior side.
And after he made virtually no impact in the FA Cup defeat to Newport County earlier in the month – missing a brilliant chance when he was through on goal in the early stages – Thomas Christiansen may have wished that he could have taken the teenager out of the firing line and loaned him out for the rest of the season to get him some game-time and some confidence back.
He has been dropped by the first-team since, but instead of leaving, he has dropped down into the under-23 side while the senior squad head to Spain for a mid-season training camp.
And the early signs hint that the demotion could prove to be something of a masterstroke.
Grot was selected for the under-23 game against Huddersfield Town, and he put in a very encouraging performance as the Whites beat their Yorkshire rivals 1-0 at Elland Road.
After a quiet first-half where the Dutchman showed some nice touches and some intent when running with the ball, he stepped his game up in the second-half and inspired the home side to a win.
He won a penalty after the Huddersfield defence found that the only way to stop one of his excellent runs was to bring him down. Unfortunately, Oliver Sarkic – who seemingly had to see off Grot’s pitch to take the spot-kick himself – saw his effort saved.
Luckily, Grot did find the back of the net with a drilled finish soon after. And in truth, he deserved to be the player to make the contribution that would settle the game.
Christiansen will undoubtedly be delighted to see the impact that Grot made, but perhaps the best thing the Leeds head coach can do is to leave the forward in the under-23s for a while and let him get some real momentum going rather than bring him back to be a peripheral figure in the first-team.
For the first time since his first few appearances, Grot is showing some potential, and perhaps Leeds have now unearthed a path that could see them get the best out of the forward in the future.
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