Illan Meslier’s red card halts Leeds’ momentum – enter Karl Darlow… — The Athletic 27/12/23

By Phil Hay

Goalkeeping appearances can be like driverless buses. You wait forever for one to arrive and when it comes it runs you over.

Out walked Karl Darlow for his league debut, six months after joining Leeds United. In ran Alan Browne with a header a minute or so later, ensuring that Darlow’s first job was to retrieve the ball from his net.

Or not quite his first job.

Daniel Farke had used Darlow in the Carabao Cup earlier in the season but the sight of him on the pitch at Preston North End yesterday, an outing brought on by an Illan Meslier transgression, was the proof of how wrong their Boxing Day 2023 fixture was going for Leeds. And from here the appearances will genuinely be like buses for Darlow: three more ahead of him as Meslier serves his penance and a suspension, truly the juncture where a club discover just how good their second-choice ’keeper is.

Farke is not given to tinkering with his line-up anyway and as the dust settled on Leeds’ defeat at Deepdale, a result which undid the joyous work in their 4-0 rout of promotion rivals Ipswich Town on Saturday, there was a suspicion of him erring on the wrong side of changing much or mixing things up.

But in one respect, he has no choice now, compelled to defer to Darlow in goal after Meslier’s second-half red card.

Farke clearly loves what is on the surface at Elland Road, the starting line-up which serves him well routinely. Darlow for Meslier promises to be a test case of what happens when United’s manager scratches deeper beneath the surface.

Meslier, as it happened, was the one niggle during that demolition of Ipswich, slightly prone to erratic passing but playing behind a team so dominant on the day that he could have pinged every clearance into Elland Road’s West Stand without consequence.

But his rush of blood here, provoked by very little, was always liable to be far more costly, a red card issued with the contest goalless and the clock at 53 minutes.

Leeds had not played well to that point but were in the game. Meslier’s push in the face of Milutin Osmajic — the result of Meslier claiming a high cross and then playing his part in a flare-up with Ben Whiteman — was not the haymaker Osmajic made it out to be but invited punishment all the same.

Enter Darlow, who had barely set himself after emerging from the bench before Browne jumped to nod the opening goal.

A final half-hour of increasingly frantic football finished with Preston on the right side of a 2-1 scoreline.

In time-honoured tradition, he giveth, he taketh away.

The momentum was with Leeds after their annihilation of Ipswich, the chase of the two sides in the automatic promotion places very much on. But by the middle of the afternoon on Boxing Day, there was a very real prospect that, having dropped two points in an East Anglian derby and another three at Elland Road, Ipswich would come out of a tricky three-match run climaxing with a game against leaders Leicester City with Leeds 10 points adrift of them regardless. And irrespective of the Leicester clash, which ended 1-1 to leave the gap at eight points, ex-Norwich City manager Farke could not avoid the feeling that old foes of his in Suffolk had been allowed to wriggle off the hook; the wounds to Leeds self-inflicted.

Meslier’s red card came at a predictable price. Beyond that, it was not until Farke switched to three at the back at 1-0 down that Leeds started to tick in a way which was problematic for Preston. There was pressure on Archie Gray at right-back from the earliest minutes, caused by a skilful and direct winger in Liam Millar.

Farke chose to leave Gray in Millar’s line of fire and it was Millar who conjured the winning goal on 89 minutes, burning around the teenager and finding the far corner after Pascal Struijk equalised with a penalty. “Archie knows he should have closed him down,” Farke said, “but I don’t want to blame him.” The fault, Farke said, lay with Leeds’ attacking play in the first half. “I was not happy with our offensive game at all,” he admitted. “We should have invested more.”

On Meslier, Farke turned more fire on Osmajic than the Frenchman, criticising the Preston forward for running to get involved as Meslier and Whiteman exchanged words. “The situation is obvious,” Farke said. “The second player, who has nothing to do with the situation, gives (Meslier) a hard knock because he wants to provoke something. The player goes down and rolls around 10 times after a little movement from Illan. It’s just what he wanted.

“I think, as a referee, you should sense this and not let it influence the game in this way. (Osmajic) won’t win the fair play prize and with his diving, I hate this. But for me, it’s more about concentrating on what we could have done better and yes, we gave the referee a decision to make. Illan should react smarter — although I don’t think it should be a red card.”

The beneficiary of that controversy — if beneficiary is the right word — is the ’keeper Leeds paid just under £500,000 to sign from Newcastle United of the Premier League in July; the vastly experienced Darlow who has been around the Championship block many times with three other clubs and got promoted from the division with Newcastle in 2017. In that respect, Farke will not worry about his temperament. But there are definite differences between Meslier and Darlow in terms of style, in terms of their comfort in possession and the way they distribute the ball.

Farke is weighing up changes for West Bromwich Albion away on Friday now and a switch in goal will be one. Darlow’s impending start, at a ground where a debut error set his Newcastle career in motion eight years ago, would be his first in a league fixture since April, when he was on loan in this division with Hull City.

“It’s important that, just because of Karl, we don’t have to change too much,” Farke said. “The defence has to know that his strong foot is his right, not the left. He’s perhaps used to being a bit more pragmatic with the size of offensive players. We maybe have to be ready for a few more longer balls and adapt our behaviour a bit. But Karl knows about our process. I’m sure he’ll be there with good performances.

“We signed him because he’s a quality goalkeeper. We have no fear about putting him in. We’ve spoken quite openly about the situation. Illan has unbelievable potential. He’s rescued us points, when I think about the save at Leicester (last month) and others. But right now, we need Karl. We all back him.”

And there, in one game with two examples, was the life of a ’keeper laid bare: nowhere to hide, no gentle starts, no knowing exactly when the call will come and no great room for error.

Darlow finds himself coming forward as Leeds attempt to return to the well once more.