Amid the furore of the summer transfer window slamming shut, there are some positives for Leeds United to take from the start of their campaign under Daniel Farke.
Leeds United have four points from three games. Even if they feel short of quality in some departments, Daniel Farke’s side have done about as well as they could have hoped for in terms of their points haul.
Arsenal away was an abomination, as was losing to a Sheffield Wednesday side who had an average starting age of 21. James Justin being the club’s final piece of business is also not the end to the window fans wanted.
Things can be swiftly forgotten via strong results, though, and Leeds’ start has already been one which has broken records under Farke’s tutelage — beating that of Marcelo Bielsa in the process.
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Leeds break clean sheet records under Daniel Farke
Impressively, the 1-0 win over Everton and 0-0 draw with Newcastle United on Saturday now mean Leeds and Lucas Perri have already equalled Ipswich Town’s clean sheet tally from last season (2).
Leeds know they must be resolute defensively at Elland Road, in order to make it difficult for visiting teams and to make West Yorkshire a fortress. The clean sheets also mean that they are just one behind both Leicester and Southampton’s now, too.
On top of that, per LUFCDATA, Leeds also became the first newly-promoted side to keep a clean sheet in both of their opening two home matches of a Premier League campaign since Huddersfield Town in 2017/18.
However, by far the most impressive statistic is LUFCDATA’s reveal that Farke became the fastest ever Leeds manager to reach 50 clean sheets, doing so in just 108 competitive matches in charge.
In doing so, he eclipsed the record previously held by Arthur Fairclough (114 matches). Even Bielsa, who also spent two seasons in the Championship, didn’t manage to get Leeds to that tally quicker.
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Daniel Farke and Jamie Carragher’s Lucas Perri verdicts
Despite his second league clean sheet already, Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher has worries over Leeds’ Perri. He said: “I do feel every time the goalkeeper has the ball at his feet, something could happen.
“Almost feel like he takes a little bit too long, an age. Allows the opposition players to get a little bit too close to him. Certainly too close for comfort for me and I’m not even a Leeds fan.”
Farke defended his Leeds goalkeeper after an injury this summer, stating: “Lucas came with an injury. Two clean sheets always good. We know he can improve his kicking.
“We don’t want him acting like a No.10 or additional outfield player, but room for improvement. Needs time with goalkeeper coach. Main thing is saving the ball. So far, so good.”
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