Bailey Peacock-Farrell has an opportunity to redeem himself to the Leeds faithful

The past year has been quite the rollercoaster for Leeds United’s Bailey Peacock-Farrell. He’s gone from being loaned out to National League North side York City last season to grabbing the starting keeper job at Leeds, a senior call-up to Northern Ireland, and even winning “Young Player of the Year” at Leeds. Then this season, he went from starting in goal, to having Marcelo Bielsa bench him for a new keeper after saying that Peacock-Farrell would have been benched for Chelsea loanee Jamal Blackman had Blackman not gotten hurt.

The only reinforcement that was brought into the club in the January transfer window was former Real Madrid keeper Kiko Casilla, which speaks volumes about the desire that Bielsa had to upgrade the keeper position. All of this had to have dented the confidence of the young keeper. However, he’s got a chance for redemption.

With Casilla now being suspended for the upcoming match against Millwall at Elland Road, Peacock-Farrell has got an opportunity to show that he still belongs in the discussion for starting keeper at the club, and still might be the goalkeeper of the future for the club.

Peacock-Farrell made a number of high-profile mistakes this season before being benched, but none of them were as bad as the errors made by either Andy Lonergan or Felix Wiedwald last season, both of which were responsible for some rather ugly goals conceded. Peacock-Farrell was brilliant for Leeds down the stretch last season, even as the club in front of him was imploding.

This season, with promotion the aim, Peacock-Farrell’s mistakes and growing pains weren’t able to be tolerated, but he’s still a young keeper. He’s got plenty of time to grow, and he’s got an opportunity to remind everyone at Leeds just why he was named “Young Player of the Year” last season.