Tony Dorigo criticises Leeds goalkeeper Kiko Casilla for poor decision making

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Tony Dorigo has criticised Leeds United goalkeeper Kiko Casilla on his personal website as the Whites suffered their first leeague away defeat of the campaign to Charlton Athletic on Saturday afternoon.

Casilla, 32, was signed from Real Madrid in the January transfer window and there have been question marks over the former Spain cap’s decision making at times. His display in the second leg of the play-off semi-finals against Derby, for example.

However, he has started the 2019-20 campaign in superb form. Going into the Charlton match, Casilla had conceded just four goals and kept four clean sheets in eight Championship matches. Against the Addicks, though, he made a mistake.

A soft header was straight at Casilla, but the Spaniard chose to punch the ball, which hit either Macauley Bonne or Stuart Dallas before trickling into the net. The score remained the same, and Dorigo has questioned Casilla’s decision making.

“Casilla inexplicably decided to punch the ball rather than catch it. It’s difficult to punch a ball to safety when it’s bouncing up from the turf straight to his stomach region,” Dorigo said.

“However, I still put this down as another error of decision making. The header coming through to him wasn’t full of power, and we should expect the keeper to do better and gather into his chest on this occasion.”

TBR’s view – Casilla needs to draw confidence from excellent start

The turnaround is small. Many tip Leeds to go up automatically alongside West Bromwich Albion, and it is the Baggies that travel to Elland Road on Tuesday evening – with Slaven Bilic’s side yet to lose.

Casilla is experienced enough and wise enough to realise he made an error. But he must forget about it quickly and draw on his previous performances this season, which have been excellent, to get in the right mindset for Tuesday night.