Analysis: Daniel Farke turns up heat on Lucas Perri, but history tells us to wait to see what happens next at Leeds United

The Whites are having a good season, but could be having an even better one. One of the reasons they are not is their goalkeeper.

You could say the same about them in last season's Championship, where Illan Meslier was the Achilles heel. His manager Daniel Farke acknowledged the errors but cut the goalkeeper some slack until finally reaching breaking point in April.

It feels like we are in the same pattern again with Lucas Perri, but where on the curve are we? And is Perri good enough to redivert it?

Maybe had James Justin's 67th-minute header from Gabriel Gudmundsson's stood-up cross found the net rather than the crossbar, we might have been thinking about a 4-4 draw more as a continuation of Leeds' unbeaten run, and a brilliant exhibition worthy of one of the greatest footballers Yorkshire has produced, Kevin Keegan, whose cancer diagnosis was made public hours before kick-off.

More would have been made of Brenden Aaronson's two pinpoint finishes. Much would have been said about the pressing and all-round energy Leeds showed in a pulsating game which, like all four of theirs since Christmas, was not decided until the last blow of the whistle.

Instead, the visitors were left to wallow in a 4-3 defeat they put so much into to get only plaudits back.

"If such an unbeaten run comes to an end I prefer it in this way, when we play top football, when we go down with flying flags," said Farke.

Perri's distribution was poor, but we know it is not Premier League standard. Whoscored.com has him as the goalkeeper with the most inaccurate long balls per game in this season's division.

He made good saves from Barnes and Nick Woltemade, and did well from the 101st-minute corner Newcastle hung on top of him, just not the flag kick that followed.

Maybe if his weak hand to touch a shot from the swivelling Barnes into the net had been to blame for the first goal rather than the seventh, it would have been buried a little.

Then again, maybe not.

Like Newcastle, Leeds have a demanding fanbase. Sixteenth in the Premier League, eight points above the relegation zone after 21 games is a good return for what Farke – quite rightly – is always quick to remind us is a newly-promoted side.

But plenty more points have got away. Even though Anthony Gordon and Fabian Schar both hit the woodwork for Newcastle, Wednesday joined the list.

A “heartborken” Farke was not diplomatically ducking that.

"It's not like I can say he was the man of the match and there were unbelievable saves," he said of Perri.

"You need sometimes, in a crucial moment, a proper save by your goalkeeper. It was definitely a situation where you should save the ball.

"I can't lie and pretend that it is a different scenario, because otherwise you wouldn't believe me anymore. I name it how I see it.

"In this moment, sadly, I can't protect him from the criticism that he should have saved it."

We have been here before with Perri, as recently as three days earlier when Farke pointed the finger at him for Matheus Cunha's equaliser with comments largely hidden outside West Yorkshire by the smoke from the smouldering ashes of the Elland Road press conference room Ruben Amorim had not long stomped out of.

"It was obvious Lucas took the wrong decision and came off his line. If he stays on his line it's probably not even a chance because Cunha was running away from the goal," said Farke then. "Otherwise we probably would have won."

It was not terminal for Perri then, just as it was not when Meslier boobed at Sunderland and repeatedly at Hull City last season in draws.

Only when Meslier gifted Swansea City two equalisers in March did Farke draw a line. Although he remains in the Leeds, the Frenchman has not played for them since.

"If I had to take the decision again, I would have taken it a bit earlier in this big topic only," Farke admitted.

But those comments came in the cold light of day. On Wednesday, his stance was the same as post-Sunderland, post-Hull, even post-Swansea

"Right now, after the game, I won't make a general judgement of where he stands or what I will do in the next game, or in the next games," said Farke. "It would be far too emotional."

As after Hull, Leeds next game is an FA Cup tie – at Derby County on Sunday – so No 2 Karl Darlow was likely to play anyway.

He was excellent when he got his chance in last season’s run-in, and when he deputised for the injured Perri earlier in the season, to the point where the summer signing's return was delayed until Darlow errors at Burnley forced him back in.

Is this another tipping point or just a bump in the road?