Worse than Bijol: Farke must drop Leeds dud who made just 29% of his passes

Leeds United remain unbeaten when starting with a 3-5-2 formation after they picked up a 1-1 draw away against Brentford in the Premier League on Sunday.

A late Dominic Calvert-Lewin equaliser secured a point for the visitors after his former England international teammate Jordan Henderson had put the Bees 1-0 up.

Despite the positive result in the end, picking up a point at a tough place to play, there were several players who underperformed for Daniel Farke.

Leeds United's worst performers against Brentford

Ao Tanaka was one of those players who failed to show the best version of himself, after scoring in back-to-back games against Chelsea and Liverpool in the last two matches.

The Japan international lost three of his four duels in the middle of the park, per Sofascore, as he struggled to deal with the physicality of the Brentford midfield, before being substituted before Leeds equalised.

Jaka Bijol was also among the worst performers for Leeds because it was his flick that created the shot for Henderson, whose effort then came off the centre-back’s boot and deflected past Lucas Perri.

1

Ao Tanaka

2

Lucas Perri

3

Jaka Bijol

4

Anton Stach

5

Noah Okafor

As you can see in the table above, we have ranked Noah Okafor in fifth place among the worst performers, which is because he failed to score with the four efforts that he had on goal, missing one ‘big chance’, as he failed to take advantage of the opportunities that he created for himself.

Anton Stach was also wasteful in the middle of the park. The German giant failed in two of his three attempted dribbles and only completed one of his six cross attempts, per Sofascore, whilst he also had a staggering five shots blocked.

We have ranked Lucas Perri as the second-worst performer in the game, though, and he should finally be dropped from the starting line-up by Farke.

Why Farke should drop Perri for Leeds

The £13.9m summer signing from Lyon should finally be dropped from the starting line-up after another underwhelming display between the sticks.

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Football FanCast’s Chalkboard series presents a tactical discussion from around the global game.

Leeds changing their formation to a 3-5-2 and playing a more direct game was always going to mean that Perri would have to go longer and have a lower pass success rate, because there are more hopeful, or 50/50, longer passes that have to be played.

However, he has registered pass completion rates of 32%, 31%, and 29% in the last three matches in the Premier League, per Sofascore. For context on how bad that is, Rodrigo Muniz (31.6%) is the only player in the entire division who has a lower pass accuracy than 46.6% with at least one match played, per WhoScored.

Perri completed eight of his 28 attempted passes against Brentford, 29% of them, and there were several times where he played a long pass that left Calvert-Lewin scratching his head because it went nowhere near him or straight out of play.

He was even worse than Bijol against the Bees because the central defender at least won 60% of his duels and completed 82% of his attempted passes, per Sofascore, which shows that he did a lot of good work in the match as well as making an error for the goal.

Perri, meanwhile, conceded one of the two shots against him and lost possession a staggering 21 times from 36 touches of the ball, per Sofascore, which illustrates how poor his distribution was.

Appearances

11

5

Save percentage

54%

62%

Goals prevented

-0.62

-2.69

Pass accuracy

49%

59%

Long pass accuracy

26%

31%

Possession lost per game

17.9

15.0

As you can see in the table above, Karl Darlow has been more reliable with the ball at his feet for Leeds in the top-flight this season, whilst both of Farke’s goalkeepers have underperformed as shot-stoppers overall.

The Wales international got a run of five matches earlier in the season when Perri was missing through injury, and was even nominated for Premier League Save of the Month in September.

If Darlow can improve his consistency as a shot-stopper, given that he can make saves like the one above but is on -2.69 goals prevented overall, then he could be a viable number one for the Whites.

Perri’s underwhelming distribution with the new formation and style of play is less than ideal, which is why Farke should drop the Brazilian flop to see if Darlow is a better option with this fresh set-up because of his superior ability on the ball.

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