Daniel Farke singles out one Leeds United player to blame instead of Illan Meslier, it’s beggars belief
Daniel Farke singles out one Leeds United player to blame instead of Illan Meslier, it’s beggars belief
Daniel Farke has blamed one player for Leeds United’s terrible result against Swansea City but it isn’t Illan Meslier.
Leeds United are staring down the barrel of another promotion-chase collapse after throwing away a victory over Swansea City in the worst way possible.
Daniel Farke’s side needed to start strongly after winning just one of their last four games and seeing Sheffield United go top of the Championship on Friday. That’s exactly what they did.
Brenden Aaronson scored the opener after just 40 seconds but Leeds didn’t seize the advantage and put in a terrible performance.
Illan Meslier had saved a penalty but ruined his redemption when he spilled a catch to let Harry Darling equalise.
Willy Gnonto did try to save his blushes by scoring what looked to be a late winner but Meslier made yet another error when he conceded at his near post from Zan Vipotnik’s strike.
Fans are furious with the goalkeeper but Farke has pointed the blame at Ao Tanaka instead.
Daniel Farke criticises Ao Tanaka’s role in Swansea draw
When asked about the manner of the goals Leeds conceded in his post-match press conference, via Leeds Live, Farke said: “I can’t explain but we don’t need to speak about this too much.
“Overall, it was a typical first game after the international break. We haven’t trained together for two weeks. We needed to shake the rustiness from the international break off.
“We spoke about this at half time and how we need to calm down. Yeah, you can say Ao played the ball back for the corner.
“I have to say a fantastic reaction from my team, when you concede in such a way.”
Tanaka received one of the loudest cheers of the day as he prepared to come on off the bench but it proved to be a poor cameo.
The Japanese international did play a foolish back pass to concede a corner, which was then directly followed by another corner that Darling scored from.
Tanaka was also easily dribbled past as Swansea grabbed their late leveller.
Illan Meslier must be dropped for next Leeds fixture
It’s now one mistake too many for Meslier and the saves – even if from the penalty spot – do not make up for so many highly costly errors.
Leeds desperately needed to win on Saturday to ensure they didn’t hand a confident Sheffield United the ascendancy and now the dynamic of the title race has completely switched.
Leeds are now chasing and that’s a lot harder to do after leading the vast majority of the campaign.
Last season showed how vulnerable Leeds can be after a stinging defeat and a repeat is looking increasingly likely.
A return to the Premier League is on the line, Farke can’t afford to start Meslier again.
Leave a Reply