When Leeds signed Kiko Casilla from Real Madrid in January 2019, he was supposed to be the finishing touch. His pedigree gave him the right to be the squad’s highest earner - he has a Spain cap, was trusted by Zinedine Zidane when called up to start for Real 25 times in La Liga over three seasons and had earned his transfer to the Bernabeu with impressive displays for Espanyol for two years.

He is tall, normally seems far more assured with his feet in the Spanish fashion than the typical British academy graduate and was brought in because of his confidence, which Leeds hoped would prove infectious, and his ability to instigate attacks with his range of passing. It is why they gave him a 4½-year contract.

Instead poor communication and a messianic belief that he has to rush out of position to save the day cost Leeds goals against Ipswich Town at the end of last season and, crucially, Derby’s first in the second leg of the play-off semi-final which precipitated 15 minutes of panic from which they never recovered.

Against Sheffield Wednesday at home he let in an 87th-minute shot at the near post which sparked the run of four defeats in five games that defeathered their plump, 11-point cushion to third place. And in the past three games he has air-punched on the line at a corner, like an actuary at a Bon Jovi gig, and let the ball dip under the bar against Wigan; let Sammy Ameobi’s shot sneak in at the near post at Nottingham Forest; and slipped having miscontrolled a horizontal pass across his six-yard box at Griffin Park to allow Said Benrahma a tap-in.

In their past 10 games in the Championship, Leeds rank 24th in errors leading to goals, 24th equal in clean sheets, 23rd in save percentage and 22nd equal in goals conceded.

Leeds have the 19-year-old France Under-20 keeper Illan Meslier as back-up and he impressed with his distribution in the FA Cup tie against Arsenal at the Emirates. Leeds obviously rate him highly enough not to have introduced a keeper with more experience should Casilla’s forthcoming tribunal on a charge of racial abuse lead to a ban. Now it is evident that Meslier’s passing and positioning are more than adequate for the way Leeds play, what have they to lose by giving him a game? He could chuck one in against Bristol City on Saturday and essentially do no worse than Casilla.

Turn chances into goals

Leeds United’s perennial weakness under Bielsa — converting chances into goals — is worse this season. Last season’s expected goals (xG) Championship table would have had Leeds beating Sheffield United to the title with the champions Norwich in third.

Bielsa's team led the league for chances created and do so again this season but when their centre-forward and leading scorer Patrick Bamford is compared with the leading strikers in the division, there is a clear discrepancy.

The xG column in the table below shows those strikers who are fine finishers (with a positive difference of 1 or above), and those who are not as prolific as they should be given the quality of the chances created for them (with a score of less than -1). Bamford’s -9.09 — meaning that he should have scored nine more goals than the 12 he has managed — illustrates where Leeds are lacking.