It says everything about Leeds United’s recent form that many felt that Daniel Farke’s men had missed a fantastic opportunity to leave Brentford on Sunday with a second away win of the season.
In the end, Dominic Calvert-Lewin‘s late header ensured that the points were shared at the Gtech Community Stadium.
Avoiding defeat in London is rarely a bad thing for Leeds given their record in the capital. However, the win against Chelsea and the draw with Liverpool showed that the clash with the Bees was there for the taking.
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Elland Road has been a fortress this season.
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Leeds are now unbeaten in their last three. They have weathered the storm of facing Manchester City, Chelsea, and Liverpool in successive games and find themselves outside the bottom three.
However, the Whites cannot afford to be complacent. With that, there is arguably one player Farke must now keep his eye on – as he has the potential to cost the side.
The concerning statistics from Lucas Perri’s first few months at Leeds United
Lucas Perri is actually facing one of his former clubs this weekend. The Brazilian spent a few months on loan with Crystal Palace back in 2019. However, he failed to make a single appearance for the Eagles.
It has been a difficult start to life in England for the 28-year-old. And some of the statistics certainly suggest that he is not the long-term number one Leeds need if they are going to re-establish themselves at English football’s top table.
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According to FBRef, just three goalkeepers across the Premier League have performed worse against their expected goals conceded numbers than Perri.
Credit FBRef
There are only two ahead of him when you look at the numbers per 90 minutes.
Perri rightfully received a lot of credit for a couple of outstanding saves in the draw with Liverpool. The way he clawed Virgil van Dijk’s second-half header away from danger gave Elland Road another huge lift on a dramatic night.
But it is still the case that only Altay Bayindir has a worse save percentage than Perri. The former Lyon man has kept out 57.4 per cent of the attempts he has faced this year.
That is lower than Illan Meslier’s save percentage in the 2022/23 season.
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His likely opposite number on Saturday, Dean Henderson, is second in the league right now on 75.9 per cent.
Of course, Leeds’ left side has been an Achilles heel this season. Obviously, plenty of players should take the blame for that.
But Perri is third bottom for crosses stopped this season at 3.9 per cent. Admittedly, that statistic does not tell the full story, with the bottom three consisting of the number ones at Everton, Burnley, and Leeds. Clearly, the centre-backs at each of those clubs are very capable of dealing with crosses.
However, there have certainly been a number of occasions when Perri has been nowhere near as commanding as he should have been.
Lucas Perri yet to look at all convincing with his distribution
It has been a long time since goalkeepers were judged solely on how good they were at keeping the ball out of the back of the net.
They need to be dependable with the ball at their feet.
And Perri does deserve some credit. Just 22 players across the Premier League – that includes outfield players – boast a better pass completion rate over a medium distance. That is 15 to 30 yards.
But Perri then drops into the bottom 10 across the division when it comes to long passing. He has completed just 87 of 278 long passes.
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When you consider how good the likes of Lukas Nmecha and Dominic Calvert-Lewin can be in the air, that is arguably a very alarming statistic.
In Sunday’s clash with Brentford, Perri seemed to be having real difficulties finding his range. As it turns out, he was the only starter on either side to boast a pass completion rate of less than 50 per cent, according to Whoscored.
Perri completed eight of his 27 passes.
That is simply not good enough when the game could have so easily gone either way.
Leeds were absolutely right to sign a new number one in the summer. Relying on Karl Darlow felt risky in the Championship, let alone following promotion.
It also feels as though Illan Meslier‘s days at Elland Road are numbered. Celtic are reportedly interested in Meslier, and a January move would make a lot of sense.
The problem is Perri has the feel of a goalkeeper who is going to produce a heroic performance every now and then. There will be games when his long passes and launched throws seemingly cannot miss a teammate.
But it would be fascinating to know just how content Farke has been with Perri’s start to life at Elland Road.
As things stand, there has to be a question mark hanging over whether he is enough of an upgrade on what was already at the club – and, crucially, whether he was a much better option than what else was available in the summer.
It would be fantastic to be proven completely wrong.
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