Is Karl Darlow now our No.1? - Poll of the Day (21st Jan)

Post by **1964white** » Wed Jan 21, 2026 8:34 am

Since we paid £14m for the services of Lucas Perri, it's been a rocky start at Elland Road for the Brazilian keeper.

Injuries & erratic form has seen him in & out of our first team, making 16 appearances.

The writing was on the wall for his current absence as Daniel Farke unusually called a player out in a recent press conference.

Perri is arguably the better shot-stopper.

Darlow has made 6 Premier League & 2 cup starts, 33% of our games.

Karl is by no means perfect, but as shown vs Fulham, he was quick to anticipate a couple of nervy defensive moments in & outside his area.

It shall be interesting to see which keeper Farke selects for our first visit to the Hill Dickinson stadium next Monday night.

weasel · Post by **weasel** » Wed Jan 21, 2026 9:30 am

At present he is in possession of the jersey and it's his to lose. For the most part he is a steady keeper and does the basics right. Against Fulham I was less nervous with him in net than with Perri, with the only moment of concern the header - it was the right decision to come out just a poor header but could easily have led to a goal.

White Riot · Post by **White Riot** » Wed Jan 21, 2026 9:48 am

Farke seems to have decided that Perri is the back up. That's Farke's responsibility, but why did he take two seasons to drop Meslier when he looked way worse than Perri in just about every match?

We've still got Meslier hanging around stinking the joint out and his value must be minimal.

If Perri isn't up to scratch then he needs sold in the summer and a new goalkeeper needs brought in.

No way should we be persisting long term with Darlow. He's ok as a back up and to play in cup matches, but that's all.

If Perri isn't capable of being our number one then that's another example of poor recruitment, along with Longstaff and Okafor.

DDB220 · Post by **DDB220** » Wed Jan 21, 2026 9:50 am

weasel wrote: ↑Wed Jan 21, 2026 9:30 am At present he is in possession of the jersey and it's his to lose. For the most part he is a steady keeper and does the basics right. Against Fulham I was less nervous with him in net than with Perri, with the only moment of concern the header - it was the right decision to come out just a poor header but could easily have led to a goal.

In fairness it is never easy to come out of his box with the intent to head a bouncing ball. He was decisive in his decision making, which is a plus and his first objective is to get something on it. The ability to try and determine where he heads the ball is rather limited.
He headed the ball into a congested area which wasn’t a bad outcome.
Was it Wilson who then tried a chip towards goal which didn’t come off in terms of getting it on target? Not a bad outcome in my book.

If he hadn’t come out and they scored he would have been criticised for not taking the opportunity to act.

I have no beef with his decision making on this contentious occurrence.

I prefer him to Perri who is eccentric on an Onana level.

Chilli D · Post by **Chilli D** » Wed Jan 21, 2026 10:06 am

DDB220 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 21, 2026 9:50 am In fairness it is never easy to come out of his box with the intent to head a bouncing ball. He was decisive in his decision making, which is a plus and his first objective is to get something on it. The ability to try and determine where he heads the ball is rather limited.
He headed the ball into a congested area which wasn’t a bad outcome.
Was it Wilson who then tried a chip towards goal which didn’t come off in terms of getting it on target? Not a bad outcome in my book.

If he hadn’t come out and they scored he would have been criticised for not taking the opportunity to act.

I have no beef with his decision making on this contentious occurrence.

I prefer him to Perri who is eccentric on an Onana level.

It was Smith-Rowe.
Thankfully he didn't catch it right or it would have been a certain goal

Johnthewhite · Post by **Johnthewhite** » Wed Jan 21, 2026 10:19 am

For the time being I believe KD should retain his place in the side, let's give him a run of five or six games and judge from there.
The main reason I would stick with him is our defence look more confident with him behind them, when Perri is in goal you see quite a lot of anxious looks over shoulder's, personally think they are unsure what he is going to do, particularly with a situation like Saturday, pretty sure Perri would have started to come then stopped.

CUSSIE01 · Post by **CUSSIE01** » Wed Jan 21, 2026 11:10 am

To me Darlow looks calmer than Perri when playing , similar to when Mes was coming for crosses Perri gives me the heebie jeebies and don’t get me started about him having the ball at his feet. Give Darlow a run of games and work on Perri’s weaknesses in training, he’ll get another chance before long.

Musicman1965 · Post by **Musicman1965** » Wed Jan 21, 2026 1:04 pm

Darlow has certain aspects of his game that reassure the defenders in front of him. His positioning on crosses and corners is pretty good and he comands the area better imo. To add, Darlow does read the game better. Perri imo is bang average and is rightly dropped from the first team after some questionable performamces. The goalkeeper position is something Leeds have struggled with, maybe another raid on Wolves for Sam Johnston is the answer but its looks like we will stick with these two to get us to the end of the season. I really think that Perri should be moved on unless he makes huge improvements to his game. We haven't had a safe pair of hands in goal since the days of Lukic, Martyn, its been a while, hopefully at some point we are going to get it right.

The Subhuman · Post by **The Subhuman** » Wed Jan 21, 2026 1:27 pm

Is he? - Looks like it
Should he be? - No

Unsure how to answer the poll

Pullhard · Post by **Pullhard** » Wed Jan 21, 2026 2:26 pm

I voted No

Don’t think we have a number 1 at the moment.

Seems more like a damage limitation exercise based on who made the last mistake.

Post by **1964white** » Wed Jan 21, 2026 2:42 pm

I agree with the majority of comments.

All could change very quickly though with Perri back between the sticks, as many of our keepers over the last two decades have been prone to constant errors.

The Subhuman · Post by **The Subhuman** » Wed Jan 21, 2026 3:38 pm

1964white wrote: ↑Wed Jan 21, 2026 2:42 pm I agree with the majority of comments.

All could change very quickly though with Perri back between the sticks, as many of our keepers over the last two decades have been prone to constant errors.

Did Farke not just make a huge statement by benching Perri and throwing him under the bus twice? ... That's gonna be tough to come back from in terms of trust and belief.

I see Farke said nothing about Darlow's poor half arsed effort to save the goal against Derby, something he'd called Perri out for earlier

"You expect a keeper to save those" ...

Interestingly he never really called Mes out for multiple mad moments so that suggests to me he's very down on Perri.

Cjay · Post by **Cjay** » Wed Jan 21, 2026 3:44 pm

The Subhuman wrote: ↑Wed Jan 21, 2026 3:38 pm Did Farke not just make a huge statement by benching Perri and throwing him under the bus twice? ... That's gonna be tough to come back from in terms of trust and belief.

I see Farke said nothing about Darlow's poor half arsed effort to save the goal against Derby, something he'd called Perri out for earlier

"You expect a keeper to save those" ...

Interestingly he never really called Mes out for multiple mad moments so that suggests to me he's very down on Perri.

You can always tell with DF the players he favours or picked to sign by what he says.

I was surprised he criticised Perri in public twice, I don't see who that benefits.

The Subhuman · Post by **The Subhuman** » Wed Jan 21, 2026 4:01 pm

Cjay wrote: ↑Wed Jan 21, 2026 3:44 pm You can always tell with DF the players he favours or picked to sign by what he says.

I was surprised he criticised Perri in public twice, I don't see who that benefits.

Again, I don't rate Perri, poor signing (though tbh I had no clue at the time of his quality, scouting keepers is tough) but he's probably the best we have and for the money we paid (15.6M) he should be given some time to settle in, he'll cost us no more in points than Darlow would and he has made a number of quality saves Darlow gets nowhere near. Darlow is a benchwarmer, injury/sending off replacement. He's great for that.

An in form, confident, Meslier is probably the best keeper at ER... no clue if he's recovered his confidence though and the fans would hate him playing again

Post by **1964white** » Wed Jan 21, 2026 4:02 pm

The Subhuman wrote: ↑Wed Jan 21, 2026 3:38 pm I see Farke said nothing about Darlow's poor half arsed effort to save the goal against Derby, something he'd called Perri out for earlier

"You expect a keeper to save those" ...

I'm unconvinced you can blame Darlow for that goal. Brereton hit is shot low, hard & across the keeper as any good forward should do.

Can't recall anyone on here blaming Darlow.

Btw, I'm don't approve of a manager calling out any player who commits errors, those comments should be kept behind closed doors.

The Subhuman · Post by **The Subhuman** » Wed Jan 21, 2026 4:04 pm

1964white wrote: ↑Wed Jan 21, 2026 4:02 pm I'm unconvinced you can blame Darlow for that goal. Brereton hit is shot low, hard & across the keeper as any good forward should do.

Can't recall anyone on here blaming Darlow.

Btw, I'm don't approve of a manager calling out any player who commits errors, those comments should be kept behind closed doors.

Absolutely blame Darlow for it .. I blamed him

White Riot · Post by **White Riot** » Wed Jan 21, 2026 4:20 pm

Cjay wrote: ↑Wed Jan 21, 2026 3:44 pm You can always tell with DF the players he favours or picked to sign by what he says.

I was surprised he criticised Perri in public twice, I don't see who that benefits.

He has previous for this with Georginio and Solomon being examples.

He called out Rodon for getting a red card, and if my memory serves me correctly he also benched for the match after the ban.

On the flip side, he called Meslier's red card against Preston "heartbreaking". When Meslier conceded that equaliser against Sunderland he still refused to criticise him.

He was extolling Meslier as being the best goalkeeper in the Championship, despite the constant bloopers and all the stats indicating that he was clearly one of the worst. And bear in mind he wouldn't face anything like the amount of shots he did in the EPL where he was part of a defence that conceded 160+ in two seasons.

Double standards from Farke.

Look at the situation now, Okafor seems to have a guaranteed place despite him doing nothing, but you've got players like Gnonto, Piroe and Tanaka getting charity minutes.

The latter three have all produced on the pitch for us, Piroe in the Championship. But, what has Okafor done to get picked every week?

Post by **1964white** » Wed Jan 21, 2026 4:24 pm

The Subhuman wrote: ↑Wed Jan 21, 2026 4:04 pm Absolutely blame Darlow for it .. I blamed him

I know you did, Faaip, but I can't recall any others on the match day thread criticizing Darlow at the time. I may have missed some comments as I only read the latter half of the thread.

If I was looking to be critical of anyone, both Bornauw & Gnonto's defending was poor for allowing Blackett-Taylor to run into our box with ease & then ball-watching as it fell to Brereton.

We all see things differently.

The Subhuman · Post by **The Subhuman** » Wed Jan 21, 2026 4:31 pm

Darlow is a poor man's Wiedwald... Said he was a poor keeper at the time to a barrage of "nonsence" here. Didn't take long for opinions to change.

I will say Darlow is very lucky, he's gotten away with errors for which Mes and Perri have conceded goals for. So maybe lucky, not good, is the way to go

Johnthewhite · Post by **Johnthewhite** » Wed Jan 21, 2026 5:45 pm

The Subhuman wrote: ↑Wed Jan 21, 2026 4:01 pm Again, I don't rate Perri, poor signing (though tbh I had no clue at the time of his quality, scouting keepers is tough) but he's probably the best we have and for the money we paid (15.6M) he should be given some time to settle in, he'll cost us no more in points than Darlow would and he has made a number of quality saves Darlow gets nowhere near. Darlow is a benchwarmer, injury/sending off replacement. He's great for that.

An in form, confident, Meslier is probably the best keeper at ER... no clue if he's recovered his confidence though and the fans would hate him playing again

The trouble with Mes and his confidence is, he has far more confidence in his ability than the rest of our defence combined