Leeds United goalkeeper Karl Darlow made his first appearance of the Premier League season on Saturday due to Lucas Perri’s injury.
The Wales International made three judgments, including an impressive judgment of a free kick, before Gabriel Gudmundsson found the upper corner of his own net in the 94th minute.
Perri’s injury provided the former Newcastle United Stopper an opportunity to strut in the Premier League, but that also meant thatilla Meslier made the bench for the first time this season.
Why Illan Meslier is a paria of leeds this season
The French goalkeeper played 214 games for the West Yorkshire’s outfit in all competitions, according to Transfermarkt, and was the number one option for the 2020/21 season until it was abandoned towards the end of the last mandate.
Meslier left 2.73 more goals than expected on the basis of the XG shots against him in the championship last season. He also made three mistakes which directly led to goals for the opposition.
His errors finally convinced Daniel Farke to bring Darlow into as a number one of the last seven games, which helped the whites win the title.
Then, this summer, Leeds decided that Meslier was not good enough to be the first or second choice in the Premier League, as evidenced by their move to sign Lucas Perri as a new number one with Darlow as his backup.
The French goalkeeper is a pariah in the current team, only to be called if Perri and Darlow are not available, and it is because of his poor performances on the last field.
Leeds has another star who could be about to become the next Meslier by Joel Piroe, who had a difficult start for the Premier League season.
Why Joel Piroe could be the next Meslier Illan for Leeds
The Dutch striker, who signed Swansea for an amount of 10 million pounds Sterling in the summer of 2023, was huge for the Whites in the Last Championship, scoring 19 goals in the division.
Piroe was the top scorer in the League, ahead of Borja Sainz and Josh Sargent, and an integral part of the Farke team with the threat of goal he provided in the last third.
However, a concern before the Premier League season was that the center-center center-left does not have the physical profile of a new number typical of the division, because it tends to fight out of possession.
|
24/25 championship |
Joel Piroe by 90 |
Row to the centile vs sts |
|---|---|---|
|
Success rate |
31.8% |
Bottom 27% |
|
Successful dribbles |
0.41 |
35% below |
|
Falls have won |
0.44 |
9% below |
|
Duels have won |
2.24 |
3% below |
|
Duel success rate |
26.9% |
10% below |
|
Air duels have won |
0.90 |
Bottom 12% |
|
Air duel success rate |
21.4% |
Bottom 17% |
|
Statistics via fotmob |
||
As you can see in the table above, the attacker of £ 40,000 per week was very poorly ranked among his positional peers in the division in a multitude of physical and outside possession.
Piroe was described as “anonymous” by journalist James Marshment in February, which he can, unfortunately, be when Leeds does not have their whole way with the ball, because they will not often do it in the Premier League.
The Dutch striker won 9% of his duels and failed to score a goal or create a “great chance” for the team in the first two games of the Premier League season, by Sofascore, before being a unused replacement in the 0-0 draw with Newcastle and missed the defeat against Fulham by an injury.
Dominic Calvert-Lewin and Lukas Nmecha, who scored the only goal of the club this season against Everton, were signed to compete with Piroe for his position in advance in the summer transfer window.
Consequently, Piroe may well be in danger of becoming the next Meslier to be pushed out of the team because of its lack of adequacy for the Premier League, because of its physical attributes and the signatures that have been made in its position.
