Daniel Farke needs to make a big decision in goal this week with Leeds United’s ‘first choice’ goalkeeper Lucas Perri returning to the squad, as Karl Darlow remains in place.
When Leeds made their way out of the Championship, it was a non-negotiable that they sought a new goalkeeper signing for their survival battle.
Lyon’s Lucas Perri was the man they landed on in mid-July, paying the Ligue 1 club around £15.6million in total for his services.
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Who should start in goal for Leeds United against West Ham: Karl Darlow or Lucas Perri?
After defeat to Burnley, there are questions to be raised regarding Daniel Farke’s team selection. One of those is in goal.
Karl Darlow has by no means been catastrophic to the point where Farke can’t wait to drop him – in fact, his performances prior to the break more than justified faith in him.
Karl Darlow has impressed in some of his performances for Leeds United this season. (Action Images via Reuters/Matthew Childs)
However, Perri was brought in to be Leeds’ undisputed starter, and it’s a position that Farke can ill afford to become muddied again after last season’s issues with Illan Meslier.
Not reinstating Perri would indicate a real lack of faith in a near-£16million signing. Then, if Darlow drops a clanger, it ultimately sees both ‘keepers devoid of confidence.
Perri kept three clean sheets in Leeds’ first three games, while Darlow has shipped two in the last three games. Of course, there’s plenty of context behind the goals beyond the goalkeeper.
One strength of Darlow’s recently has been a discernible weakness of Perri’s, which is their distribution. The Brazilian has struggled playing out from the back. He currently holds the third-lowest pass success (47.7%) in the Premier League this season.
Perri has often gone long, which factors heavily into his low pass success. He’s been playing a lot of ‘percentage balls’ into the strikers and hoping Leeds gain territory through second balls.
Darlow, meanwhile, has allowed Leeds to play shorter to the centre-backs. That’s according to Jamie Carragher, who spoke on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football about ‘keepers allowing teams to play shorter football.
The 34-year-old was used as a positive example against Burnley, despite one stray pass leading to Burnley’s opening goal.
“Darlow is fantastic on the ball. You can see him here splitting the centre-backs,” he said on MNF. “Perri actually started the first three. Darlow comes in, but you can see it’s a complete contrast really in terms of what they’re like as a goalkeeper.
“He’s (Darlow) really confident on the ball; he was almost like a centre-back before. He’s now breaking the lines there and this is what made Leeds actually, I’d say, play well in the game.
“People will obviously be critical in saying these teams shouldn’t be playing out from the back. But we wanted to show the first few clips of Karl Darlow, to actually show he’s more than competent with the ball and that actually is just a poor pass, and he’ll be really disappointed with that.”
Lucas Perri is first choice, and needs to come in for Leeds United v West Ham
Darlow’s form this season has been more than enough to keep him in. He can’t do much about the goals he’s conceded in the last three games, other than not punt the ball out for a throw.
That being said, Perri is first choice. He needs to be treated as the undisputed starter. Because, keeping him out would send a bad message to someone who is ultimately a good ‘keeper.
He didn’t have much to do in his first three games outside of getting peppered by Arsenal. But, he still should regain his place.
What these five Darlow outings have shown us is that he’s good enough to step in whenever needed.
Read more: £25million man must be dropped for Leeds United v West Ham…