Leeds United thought they had solved their goalkeeping issues in the summer transfer window. After the events at the end of last season, many around the club expected change.
In the final run in to end the campaign, Meslier made a few errors which cost the Whites points in the race for automatic promotion. So Daniel Farke made the drastic call to bench the French keeper for Karl Darlow. The Welshman deputized till the end of the season, keeping a few clean sheets as Leeds went on to win the Championship on the final day.
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During the summer window, everyone expected Illan Meslier to leave. According to Leeds managing director Robbie Evans, there were no suitable offers to take the French stopper away from the club. Meslier outright rejected a few moves near the end of the window as clubs could not guarantee he would be the starter. Leeds also rejected offers due to low fees.
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Leeds United have two of the worst keepers in the league – stats show
Lucas Perri Credit: Imago
Leeds eventually signed Brazilian keeper Lucas Perri from Lyon for a huge fee. He was expected to come in and immediately become the number one. Perri started the first few games of the season and kept two clean sheets in his three appearances.
But Perri came with his own issues; his distribution was very faulty in the first couple of games, leading to Gary Neville calling out Daniel Farke for having Leeds build out from the back. That was not the only issue; statistically Lucas Perri is one of the worst shot stoppers in the league after just 3 games. FBref statistic ‘Post Shot Expected goals minus Goals Allowed’ or PSxG+/- shows that the Brazilian is the third worst in the league.
FBref PSxG
He has a -2.00 PSxG which means he had let in the equivalent of two goals he should have prevented.
Karl Darlow, who is expected to be the deputy to Perri, is also ranked highly on this list. And watching his last few games since he stepped in goal for the Fulham game, some of the goals he concedes have been questionable. Including the two goals in the Spurs game, and the Luom Tchaouna goal on Saturday. Darlow’s PSxG is at -1.8, which is just below Perri but a poor mark on its own.
Karl Darlow radar Credit: DataMB
Should Illan Meslier be given a chance?
Daniel Farke has indirectly hinted that Perri is first choice and Darlow is second choice. Illan Meslier is the third choice keeper. And considering how the summer unfolded, it will be very unlikely that the French keeper sees any game time this campaign. But the Leeds United goalkeeping situation is not panning out like everyone expected it to in the summer.
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