Phil Babb shared he was concerned about Leeds United goalkeeper Kiko Casilla ahead of the Whites facing Derby County in the Championship play-offs.
The Sky Sports pundit shared that Leeds’ form generally worried him but he was particularly concerned about their shot-stopper due to how he performed against Ipswich.
Babb claimed that Casilla made two big mistakes during the Whites’ 3-2 loss to Ipswich and pointed out that Derby seemed to have momentum on their side ahead of facing Leeds.
“Their form worries me, their goalkeeper worries me if you saw his performance against Ipswich, 10-man Ipswich, he gave away two goals with big mistakes,” said Babb on Sky Sports’ The Debate (22:58, Sky Sports Premier League, Friday May 10th).
“Roofe missed a penalty so confidence may be a bit shaky and Derby have got momentum.”
OPINION
Babb clearly isn’t backing Leeds to win the play-offs as their recent form seems to have put him right off. The pundit seemed generally concerned that they lost to 10-man Ipswich before the season ended and seemed keen to blame the loss completely on Casilla. While the goalkeeper’s performance against Ipswich was blunder-ridden, his mistakes weren’t the only reason the Whites lost. It was a bad performance across the board for Marcelo Bielsa’s side, so really it seems unnecessary to highlight the keeper. Also Casilla has previously wowed for Leeds, so there’s no need to mount the panic stations over him just yet. The 32-year-old is a fantastic shot-stopper on his day and he could be Leeds’ hero in the play-offs. While his form going into the clash with Derby on Saturday isn’t great, sometimes the form book ends up getting thrown out of the window during the play-offs, so maybe Babb should calm down a little over the keeper.