While Daniel Farke is currently taking a lot of heat for his inabilities as a Premier League manager, the Leeds United players he continues to select must also take their fair share of responsibility for what is currently happening.
Against Aston Villa last time out, Elland Road regulars such as Pascal Struijk and Joe Rodon didn’t cover themselves in glory at all, with the Dutchman – in particular – looking physically weak, despite only winning three of his eight duel attempts.
Additionally, Sean Longstaff, who stunned earlier in the season with a goal and assist against AFC Bournemouth, looked noticeably flat against the likes of Youri Tielemans for the energetic away side, leading to him ceding possession 13 times.
Farke also has a role to play here, given that he works with the side week in week out to try and pick up wins, with the German clearly unable to inspire his team out of their bad patch.
Yet he wouldn’t have predicted how poorly Lucas Perri would have started in England, as the Brazilian still looks uncomfortable in the Premier League.
Perri’s poor start at Leeds
Leeds’ return to the top flight would have been met with just as much excitement and trepidation from die-hard fans at Elland Road.
Indeed, fans would naturally have been delighted that their beloved team had finally returned to the big stage.
But they would have immediately worried about their goalkeeping situation in a division, with an error-prone Illan Meslier sidelined in the promotion race.
Unfortunately, despite spending £13.9million on his services this summer, the aforementioned Perri hasn’t looked like a steady pair of gloves at all since his arrival, with a disastrous eight goals already given up in November alone.
The former Lyon keeper also took plenty of blows after Villa’s defeat, when he stood frozen in his place for Morgan Rogers to hammer home that delicious free-kick.
Former Leeds player Jon Newsome even went so far as to call Perri a complete “waste of money”, and it could be argued that he has also been a complete waste of time and energy, given his high price tag and his billing as a top-flight keeper capable of making Meslier a worry of the past.
Yet for all the abuse he’s received, he’s not currently the biggest waste of time in Farke’s camp.
Leeds are more wasteful than Perri
At least in Perri’s case he doesn’t have much competition down his neck, with Farke surely extremely hesitant to throw Meslier into a relegation fight, alongside another reserve figure in Karl Darlow.
Therefore, the hope will be that the South American can get out of this mess, having started his troubled career at Leeds with a promising clean sheet against Newcastle United.
On the contrary, Sebastiaan Bornauw already seems resigned to a place on the periphery, due to recurring injury problems worrying him at West Yorkshire, and the likes of Joe Rodon, Pascal Struijk and Jaka Bijol are other options for Farke to call upon at the heart of the defence.
For a cool £5.1 million, Leeds would have hoped to hit the jackpot with the assured Belgian, who had 140 Bundesliga appearances to his name, before moving to England, with former Wolfsburg sporting director Marcel Schäfer previously hailing the former German top-flight titan as a consistently “strong” presence for his side.
During those 140 games, Bornauw helped himself to a steady, if slightly unspectacular, 27 clean sheets, meaning he would also have been seen as a handy utility signing when the deal was completed, as Leeds prepared to use their entire squad to beat the drop.
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Leeds numbers from Bornauw |
|
|---|---|
|
Statistical |
Bornauw |
|
Games played |
1 |
|
Minutes played |
90 |
|
Games missed due to injury |
4 |
|
Transfer cost |
£5.3 million |
|
Salary costs |
£45,000 per week |
|
Sourced from Transfermarkt/Capology |
|
Instead, he has been largely injured since swapping Germany for West Yorkshire, with just one forgettable appearance so far coming in the EFL Cup against Sheffield Wednesday.
Even though Perri was largely calamitous, at least he made his presence known. With Bornauw already appearing to be digging a significant hole in Leeds’ wage bill, for the little action he has been getting into, with Leeds-based content creator Lewis Deighton rightly calling the unfolding situation “absolutely laughable”.
Surprisingly, his £45,000-a-week salary means he earns more than the aforementioned Joe Rodon and Ethan Ampadu – who each earn a lower salary of £40,000-a-week – although both figures continue to be all over the Farke regime.
It’s very clear just how badly Leeds dropped the ball this summer with some unconvincing signings, as the under-pressure German is now potentially paying the ultimate price for his work.
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