Big Leeds summer signing may have HUGE problem after what Jamie Carragher just revealed

Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has described a much-criticised Leeds United star as ‘essential’ to the way the Whites play and has backed Daniel Farke to resist calls to drop the star and pick a major summer signing in his place.

The Whites’ promising start to life back in the Premier League has slowed up in recent games off the back of successive defeats. The loss to Tottenham Hotspur before the international break signalled the end of Leeds United‘s proud year-long unbeaten record at home, while defeat at Burnley on Saturday was comfortably their most disappointing setback of the campaign so far.

The loss at Turf Moor came despite Leeds dominating all the necessary statistics except the only one that counted, with Leeds far superior in terms of possession, passes completed, shots at goal, and shots on target.

And with Scott Parker’s side making the most of their opportunities, Leeds were left cursing their luck at full-time and ensuring Friday night’s home clash against West Ham now becomes must-win – or at the very least, a must-not-lose!

Annoyingly for Farke, both of the Clarets’ goals were preventable. The first, a header from Lesley Ugochukwu off a wicked Kyle Walker cross, should really have been cut off at source, with Burnley creating a simple overload on the throw-in.

On closer analysis, that throw-in had been conceded off a really cheap concession by Karl Darlow, who misplaced his pass straight out to touch. Burnley’s second, a scorcher by Loum Tchaouna, came after the Frenchman revealed his early shot caught the Wales international on the hop after he noticed the keeper had not set himself.

Off the back of that, calls have grown for Farke to axe Darlow and recall fit-again summer signing Lucas Perri, who has missed the last five games but was back on the bench at Turf Moor.

However, Carragher is adamant that the experienced 34-year-old needs to remain as the Whites’ No.1, describing the 10-cap Wales star as essential to the way Farke likes his team to play….

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What has Carragher said about Karl Darlow?

During his analysis of Leeds United’s style on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football, Carragher described former Newcastle man, Darlow, as “fantastic”.

“Darlow is fantastic on the ball. You can see him here splitting the centre-back,” Carragher said. “He’s 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 play well in the game, talk about their XG numbers as well, a lot better than Burnley. But Burnley won’t care because they end up winning the game.

“But what’s interesting is a lot of the time this season, we haven’t seen teams, especially the promoted teams, make mistakes sort of round the back, trying to play from the back. So it was interesting the fact that this actual goal comes from a poor pass.

“Now people may be critical and saying, these teams shouldn’t be playing from the back. 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’d be really disappointed with that.”

Carragher’s assessment, coupled with an admission from Farke that Perri lacks match fitness and when factoring in the manager’s often bloody-mindedness when it comes to dropping players, may mean that the Brazilian may need to wait a little bit longer to reclaim the first-team gloves at Elland Road.

In fairness, Darlow has not done much wrong and has made some quality saves during his time in the first team, not least his excellent save to beat away a Harry Wilson free-kick at Fulham and a looping header at Wolves.

Indeed, per FBref, Darlow is in the top 82nd percentile for touches of the ball among his peers in Europe’s top five leagues.

On the flipside, however, stats show his save percentage is only 60%, which marks him in the bottom 2% percentile.

Perri, by contrast, is a significantly better shot-stopper, boasting a 73.8% save rate, and placing him in the top 75 percentile. It is worth noting, though, that the majority of those stats were racked up in Ligue 1, which is seen as a weaker league than the Premier League.

Latest Leeds news: Meslier, Piroe futures clarified; Bijol recall claims

Another summer signing Farke may be considering handing his chance to is Jaka Bijol, with a vast majority of Leeds supporters now calling on the manager to axe Pascal Struijk and bring in the £18m capture who is busting a gut to prove himself after a frustrating season so far.

On the outgoing front, we understand Leeds are likely to block Celtic’s cheeky request to sign Illan Meslier on a free transfer in the January window, but sources are adamant a deal is there to be done if certain conditions are met.

One player who won’t be allowed to leave Elland Road in January, though, is Joel Piroe, TEAMtalk understands, and with Farke insistent that the Dutch striker is still someone he relies on and having stressed to the player that his chance will come over the season.

Who has been Leeds’ best signing since they were last relegated from the Premier League?