Noel Whelan lauds Leeds striker Pierre-Michel Lasogga’s improvement

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Pierre-Michel Lasogga has been brilliant lately for Leeds United, and the striker has been praised by Noel Whelan.

Noel Whelan has told BBC Radio Leeds that he has seen a massive improvement from Pierre-Michel Lasogga lately, and added that Leeds boss Paul Heckingbottom will be delighted with the striker.

Before January, Lasogga had endured a mixed loan spell with the Whites. After a lightning start, poor form and injury meant that the German went almost three months without a goal – and it seemed that his time at Elland Road was destined to come to an end in unspectacular and uninspiring fashion.

However, the 26-year-old has looked transformed lately. As well as two goals in the dramatic defeat to Millwall in one of Thomas Christiansen’s final games in charge, he scored in each of the first three games of Heckingbottom’s tenure and put in another encouraging performance in the win over Brentford on Saturday.

And after the victory over the Bees, Whelan lauded the forward, insisting that he has definitely seen a change in his performances over the last few weeks.

“I look at Lasogga and I see an improvement in him, massively, because he’s working defenders, not just standing there, he’s running them into channels. He’s running at players more. He’s holding the ball up,” he told BBC Radio Leeds.

“There seems to be a new breed of confidence in the man. He knows he hasn’t got blistering pace. He’s not going to be able to run past people, but what he is doing is he’s turning some bad balls into good balls just by effort and showing that willingness to chase and close down people. And it doesn’t go unnoticed.”

“The effort levels that he’s putting in now, the manager’s got to be really pleased with. He looks like he’s playing with a bit more of a smile on his face,” he went on to add.

Lasogga has done extremely well to bounce back from the criticism that came his way around the turn of the year, and Heckingbottom will be desperately hoping that he can maintain this form until the end of the season.

Leeds’ play-off hopes still appear slim but have received a boost with their last three results. On paper, five points may not appear a brilliant return, but coming back from 2-0 down against Bristol City – with Lasogga scoring Leeds’ first – leading twice against automatic-promotion chasing Derby County and beating a Brentford side who remain above the Whites in the table ensures that they go into Friday’s game with Middlesbrough with a huge amount of momentum.