Should Lucas Perri not be available for Saturday’s trip to Fulham, Karl Darlow will play his first Premier League game for almost four years. It would be his first in a Leeds United jersey.
Unconfirmed reports on Wednesday suggested Perri is a doubt for the visit to Craven Cottage this weekend after picking up an issue in training. Daniel Farke is expected to iron out the situation in Thursday’s press conference.
If Perri is indeed not available, then Darlow is next in line to pull on the gloves. It could also mean Illan Meslier returning to the matchday squad for the first time this season.
While the Frenchman has 107 games at Premier League level, he is fully out of favour at Elland Road after being dropped during the run-in period last season following persistent errors.
Darlow himself produced a blunder in the League Cup defeat to Sheffield Wednesday, failing to save a penalty in the shoot-out too. However, compared to Meslier, he is considered the safer pair of hands by Farke, who will not be expecting to use him much this campaign.
Darlow has been a part of a Premier League squad for eight seasons, including this one, with the prior seven coming at Newcastle. However, the Wales international has only made 52 appearances in that time, the most in a single season being 25 in the 2020/21 campaign.
Before this season the goalkeeper, who turns 35 next month, last made a Premier League bench on New Year’s Eve in 2022 - against Leeds. Of course, he has since been in three more following the Whites’ promotion.
Darlow’s last outing in the top flight came in November 2021 - in which he conceded three times during a 3-3 draw with Brentford. In fact, the last time he started a Premier League game in which his side won was back in February 2021, a 3-2 win over Southampton.
He has played 10 games since that result. His last clean sheet came against Everton in January 2021, which was 13 top-tier games ago.
In Darlow’s 52 games in the top division, he has kept nine clean sheets (17.3% of his matches) and conceded 84 goals (1.6 goals per appearance). During his outings for Newcastle, Darlow was playing in a struggling side, looking to stave off relegation. Leeds find themselves in a similar position this term.
His save xG across his Premier League career is -5.5, meaning he conceded around five goals more than he was expected to given the types of shots he faced. His long pass completion score is 41.3%.
Such scores are never high for a goalkeeper given defenders usually win headers from goal kicks but it means the ball comes back towards Darlow's goal almost 60% of the time he goes long.
There is a reason why Leeds were keen to get a new number one this summer and why Darlow could not be first choice. But with Meslier now firmly third pick, Darlow would be the goalkeeper Farke turns to when Perri is not available.
Here at LeedsLive, we are dedicated to bringing you the bestLeeds Unitedcoverage and analysis.
Make sure you don't miss out on the latest Leeds news by joining our free WhatsApp group. You can get all the breaking news and best analysis sent straight to your phone by clickinghereto subscribe.
You can also subscribe to our free newsletter service. Clickhereto be sent all the day's biggest stories.