Leeds signed a ‘funnier’ player who was a better waste of time than Perry

Daniel Farke is currently under fire for his incompetence as a Premier League manager, but the Leeds United players he continues to select need to take some responsibility for what’s going on.

In the last game against Aston Villa, Elland Road regulars such as Pascal Strujk and Joe Rodon showed no signs of glory, but the Dutchman in particular looked physically weak, winning only three of eight meetings.

What’s more, Sean Longstaff, who scored and assisted against AFC Bournemouth earlier in the season, was noticeably calmer against the energetic visitors, including Youri Tielemans, conceding the ball 13 times.

Falke also plays a role here. It’s clear that Falke hasn’t been able to inspire his team to break out of a rotten slump, considering he’s been working every week in camp to try to win.

Still, the Brazilian always looks uncomfortable in the Premier League, so little could he have predicted how badly Lucas Perri would get off to a bad start to his life in England.

Perry got off to a poor start at Leeds

Leeds’ return to the top flight would have been greeted with equal levels of excitement and anxiety by Elland Road’s loyal fanbase.

In fact, supporters were understandably overjoyed to see their beloved team finally back on the big stage.

However, they would soon have worried about the goalkeeping situation one division above, with the error-prone Illan Meslier cast on one side during promotion preparations.

Unfortunately, despite spending £13.9m on his services this summer, the aforementioned Perry has never been consistent since joining, having already conceded a dismal eight goals in November alone.

The former Lyon stopper received a lot of reprimand after the defeat at Villa, as he remained frozen in place as Morgan Rodgers converted this wonderful free-kick.

Former Leeds player John Newsome has gone so far as to describe Perry as a complete “waste of money”, but given his high price tag and the promotion of Meslier as a capable top-level keeper, which would be a worry in the past for Meslier, it could also be said that it was a complete waste of time and energy.

But for all the abuse heaped upon him, he’s not the biggest waste of time in Falke’s camp right now.

Leeds are more wasteful than Perry.

At least in Perry’s case, he doesn’t have much competition. Farke is certainly very reluctant to throw Meslier into the relegation dogfight alongside Karl Darlow, another reserve player.

So the hope will be that the South American, who made a shaky start to his Leeds career with a promising clean sheet against Newcastle United, can play his way out of this mess.

On the contrary, Sebastian Bornau has been plagued by repeated injury problems at West Yorkshire and has already appeared resigned to a peripheral position, with the likes of Joe Rodon, Pascal Strujk and Xhaka Bihor being other options that Farke could pursue at the heart of defence.

Leeds would have been hoping to snap up the sure-fire Belgian, who has 140 Bundesliga appearances under his belt, before moving to England for a modest transfer fee of £5.1 million. Former Wolfsburg sporting director Marcel Schaefer previously hailed the former German top-flight giant as a consistently “strong” presence for the team.

Over those 140 games, Bornau contributed to a somewhat modest but consistent record of 27 shutouts. So with Leeds preparing to go down with their entire squad, Bornau would have been seen as a useful utility signing when the deal was finalized.

Instead, he has been mainly plagued by injuries since moving to West Yorkshire from Germany, with only one memorable appearance so far, in the EFL Cup against Sheffield Wednesday.

Mainly because Perry, though disastrous, at least made his presence known. Meanwhile, Borneau already appears to have filled a huge hole in Leeds’ wages despite taking little action himself, with Leeds-based content creator Lewis Deighton rightly calling the unfolding situation “utterly laughable”.

Remarkably, his £45,000-a-week figure means he earns more than the aforementioned Joe Rodon and Ethan Ampadu (who each earn less than £40,000-a-week), despite both figures remaining ever-present under Farke.

It’s been abundantly clear how much of a ball Leeds have dropped with unconvincing signings this summer, and the under-pressure German could now pay the ultimate price for the job.