Summarize and humanize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in EnglishParaag Marathe was sat alone in the front row of Elland Road’s directors’ box as the stadium emptied around him on Saturday afternoon. As the VIPs filtered into the suites beneath the stand, board member Peter Lowy stood analysing his phone, chief operating officer Morrie Eisenberg tentatively made a comment in Marathe’s ear, and the chairman walked to the other side of the box. He wanted solitude, to be alone with his thoughts.He was stewing on Leeds United’s last-gasp draw with Swansea City, processing what those two dropped points might mean. Marathe may have been wondering if there was anything he could have done, up to this point, to see Leeds in a stronger position with seven matches to play. His, Daniel Farke’s and most of the fanbase’s minds will surely go back to January.It was January 4 when Leeds returned home from Hull City, where Illan Meslier had a major hand in all three concessions of a 3-3 draw. Farke faced more questions than ever in the following week about his goalkeeper’s position in the team. The manager stood by him in the strongest possible terms, privately as well as publicly.Inevitably, especially during a transfer window, conversations were had between Farke and Marathe about Meslier. “How serious a problem is this?”, “Will this be the difference between promotion and failure?”, “Can we help you by getting a new stopper in the transfer market?”Those conversations may have been where Marathe’s mind wandered as he stared out at the pitch on Saturday.Championship run-ins will always generate heroes and villains. If you score a clinching goal or save a penalty and get your team up, you will have murals painted of you. If you score an own goal or get yourself sent off, you lose the fanbase. In football, rightly or wrongly, that’s how black and white it is.We saw the perfect example of that in Saturday’s game at Elland Road. Meslier and Brenden Aaronson have, broadly speaking, seen their stock on the terraces fall far below where they would want it to be. They have each had moments to cheer since August, but their errors and inconsistent end product are what they have come to be associated with.Within 15 minutes of Saturday’s kick-off, this had all the hallmarks of their redemption, a rare day in the sun for them both before the clocks go forward. Aaronson, the villain of a fortnight ago at Queens Park Rangers, kept his place in the starting line-up after Wilfried Gnonto’s injury on international duty.Within 40 seconds of kick-off, he was pointing to his temple as he wheeled away from the pivotal prod in a goalmouth scramble Swansea could not clear. It had to be him, the man the majority of supporters wanted dropped, a hero of the hour. It’s the narrative run-ins write.Then it was Meslier’s turn. Joe Rodon committed a rare error in needlessly bundling over Lewis O’Brien for a 14th-minute spot kick. It was the goalkeeper’s turn to repay one of the many favours Rodon had done him.The Frenchman got down low to his left and denied Josh Tymon. It was the first penalty he had saved since March 2021, when he stopped Jesse Lingard at West Ham United but couldn’t block his buried rebound. After a season of dropped points on his shoulders, this was a moment Meslier had craved. A villain turned hero.Around these overdue feats, Leeds were not playing well. The stench of the international break hung over it. Ethan Ampadu, a sight for sore eyes in the starting line-up, was miles off his usually high level after several weeks on the sidelines. Daniel James, Manor Solomon and Joel Piroe could not get much going in the final third either.Meslier and Aaronson looked like the exceptions to the rule. For once, they were writing themselves into 2024-25 folklore as the key difference-makers on a drab day for the team. And yet, football is cruel. Predictable, a Leeds fan might say. The dichotomy at the heart of this wafer-thin difference between heroism and villainy could not have been better summed up by Meslier.In one moment he made another fabulous save, denying Ronald’s half-volley over a crowd of bodies, parrying it out for a corner. In the next, he dropped said corner at his feet in the penalty box for Harry Darling to slide in a 64th-minute equaliser. All his hard work, his heroism, had been undone in a flash.
Meslier has enjoyed Farke’s support all season (Martin Rickett/PA Images via Getty Images)What of another hero in this story, though? There was time. It had to be Gnonto. The flavour of the month everyone had yearned for over the international break, the Aaronson alternative. He was thrown on at 1-1 and scored within 60 seconds. That was supposed to be the headline, the happy ending, the setup for an obvious sequel that starts him at Luton Town this Saturday.What we were left with was a villain waiting to be put out of his misery and a manager who risks following his goalkeeper down that road. The first concession was worse than the second, but Zan Vipotnik’s shot had to be stopped. It had an expected goals on target (xGOT) value of 0.03. That means the forward’s effort is expected to hit the net three times in every 100 attempts.After what happened at Sunderland and Hull, among the various other mistakes over the season, there should only be one decision for Farke to make at Kenilworth Road. Karl Darlow is a 34-year-old goalkeeper with 154 Championship appearances to his name, 52 in the Premier League, too, and he was brought to Leeds in 2023 to challenge Meslier.Regardless of what Farke and goalkeeping coach Ed Wootten have seen in training since July 2023, Meslier’s confidence must be shot to pieces, as must his defence’s faith in him. At some point, the 25-year-old’s morale must start impacting that goalkeeping ability the manager feels he has. Darlow cannot be a major step down at this stage.Will Farke cast himself as the final hero or villain in this story? If he stands by Meslier again and the club fail to win promotion with the best squad in the league, he will be remembered as a stubborn failure. Even starting Darlow will not automatically make him a hero, but these are the decisions that will decide his place in Leeds’ history.(Top photo: Pat Scaasi | MI News/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
