If Leeds United end up getting rid of an under-fire Daniel Farke in the near future, they will need to heed a lesson of years gone by.
As was seen after Marcelo Bielsa’s exit – who lifted the Championship title aloft much like the German – the grass isn’t always greener when you dismiss an under-pressure manager in the Premier League.
Indeed, a flurry of managers in the form of Jesse Marsch, Javi Gracia and Sam Allardyce all didn’t work, which culminated in relegation.
The West Yorkshire giants would then land Farke to pick up the pieces, but even he will know he is on thin ice now regarding his job security, with four defeats picked up in the Premier League from his last five league clashes.
Leeds hang just one point above the dreaded drop zone, with Farke’s atrocious record in the top division of just nine wins from 60 matches, not doing a lot to raise spirits.
He hasn’t been helped, arguably, by some unconvincing transfers coming through the door in the summer, with Leeds splashing out £98m on some hit-and-miss purchases.
Where Perri ranks among Leeds' recent signings
The West Yorkshire outfit’s spending power was somewhat pushed to the background when weighed up next to fellow promoted side Sunderland, who sit eight points better off than Leeds, owing to £162m being forked out.
Still, Leeds have managed to steal some headlines with their own notable business, with Noah Okafor already two goals down donning his new white strip, after leaving AC Milan behind for a fresh adventure in the Premier League.
In much the same vein as Sunderland landed Premier League experience centrally with Granit Xhaka, Leeds also went down the shrewd, top-flight-calibre route themselves when acquiring Sean Longstaff’s services, with journalist Daniel Storey even going as far as to hail the capture of the Newcastle-born star for just £12m as “one of the best signings in the Premier League”.
Unfortunately, though, as Leeds have grown accustomed to over recent years when landing duds such as Luis Sinisterra and Rasmus Kristensen, they have also fallen victim to some underwhelming signings from the summer just gone, with Lucas Perri – in particular – sticking out as a costly blunder already in between the sticks.
Even the most casual observer of the Championship last season would have known that Leeds were far from satisfied with the amount of errors Illan Meslier was making in goal, during a crunch promotion run-in, with pundit Adrian Clarke stating last season that the error-prone Frenchman “has to go” if Premier League action was back on the menu.
The Championship title-winners listened to Clarke’s advice, with all signs pointing in the direction that picking up Meslier’s replacement in Perri for £13.9m from Lyon was a smart use of money, considering Meslier’s fellow compatriot had an encouraging ten Ligue 1 clean sheets under his belt when making the switch to England.
Games played
6
Goals conceded
12
Goals conceded*
2.0
Saves
12
Touches*
43.7
Accurate passes*
20.5 (58%)
Clean sheets
2
Unfortunately, though, under the intense heat of being near the foot of the Premier League, Perri has largely crumbled, with moments of “superb” goalkeeping, for which he was praised by journalist Graham Smyth after clawing away a goal-bound effort against Nottingham Forest, often then met with moments of Meslier-like indecision.
Consequently, Perri has now let in a concerning 12 strikes from six Premier League games, among other worrying numbers, with the outstanding ‘keeper they thought they’d obtained from Lyon yet to come to the forefront.
Purchased for a steep £13.9m, this is an almighty concern that he doesn’t look all that much of a notable upgrade on his former Lorient counterpart, with former Leeds player Jon Newsome even coming out after the crushing 3-1 defeat against Nottingham Forest to state that Perri looks like a “waste of funds”.
Journalist Adonis Storr has also been openly critical of Perri by stating that he always “parries straight to opponents”, which led the Tricky Trees to have a field day against the ropey Brazilian.
If Perri remains this unconvincing in goal in the long run, Leeds will find it hard to beat the drop, with one of his defensive teammates at the City Ground also in with a worrying shout to be one of the Whites’ worst bits of business from their recent bumpy Premier League history.
Leeds dud fast becoming one of their worst signings
In Perri’s defence, at least he has two clean sheets next to his name to have something to smile about.
On the contrary, fellow summer arrival Jaka Bijol is yet to collect a Premier League clean sheet from his limited opportunities in Farke’s first team mix, having been branded as “monstrous” centre-back by Como scout Ben Mattinson when plying his trade for Udinese.
Winning 4.8 duels won on average last season per Serie A clash, the hope would have been that Bijol would instantly get up to speed with the high intensity of the Premier League and be the gritty warrior Leeds need to comfortably survive.
After all, he cost even more than Perri to obtain at the £15m mark, with only Anton Stach and the aforementioned Okafor costing more this summer at £17.4m and £18m, respectively.
While Stach has that sweetly struck free-kick against Wolverhampton Wanderers to hold onto, and his Swiss counterpart has those two Premier League strikes also in his favour, Bijol’s start to life in England has been strangely stop-start.
Indeed, the Slovenian centre-back has only managed to line up for three Premier League clashes to date this season, with many wondering whether Leeds had made an almighty error splashing the cash on Bijol, only for him to warm the substitutes bench behind Pascal Struijk.
However, Farke might well have been better placed to leave the shoddy number 15 on the bench for the foreseeable future, when analysing his disastrous Premier League appearances so far, as Bijol was caught ball-watching for Forest’s decisive match-winner on Sunday afternoon.
Perri is hardly loving life under scrutiny at Elland Road, knowing he now has an out-of-sorts Bijol in front of him, with Leeds last keeping a clean sheet in league action when Struijk partnered Joe Rodon, and the Slovenian was left rooted to the bench.
Minutes played
90
82
Goals conceded
3
3
Touches
89
79
Accurate passes
81/86 (94%)
65/71 (92%)
Tackles won
0/0
1/1
Interceptions
0
1
Clearances
3
4
Blocked shots
0
0
Ball recoveries
6
1
Total duels won
1/3
4/6
At their current rate, with 20 goals already leaked, Leeds could be on their way to conceding even more goals than the 78 strikes they gave up during the 2022/23 season when relegation was on the cards.
That same season, Leeds had to put up with a weak Robin Koch in defence, who once cost £12m from Freiburg in another shambolic defensive purchase.
At his current downward slope, Bijol is likely to be remembered more for being a Koch-like blunder than a bright spark like Okafor, with the Slovenian having to buck his ideas up soon, or be viewed as £18m that was rashly chucked away.
Thankfully, he does have time on his side to rewrite his Leeds narrative, as Perri and Bijol hope the slide can be eventually arrested, with or without the manager that brought them to this country remaining in the dug-out.
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