Leeds United youngster given rare Premier League audition as manager offers clear feedback on how to improve
Leeds United youngster Sonny Perkins faced off against Premier League opposition on Tuesday evening as loan club Leyton Orient took on Brentford in the Carabao Cup.
The O's have endured a difficult start to the season in League One with one win in their opening five but had progressed to the Third Round of the League Cup after wins over Newport County and Championship side Millwall in the previous two rounds of the competition.
In Round Three, the East London club met Brentford and found themselves a goal up inside the first 11 minutes through Brandon Cooper, but were ultimately unable to sustain their advantage, eventually succumbing to a 3-1 defeat.
Leeds loanee Perkins started in attack for Orient, completing two dribbles, creating one chance and taking one shot before being substituted in the 54th minute. The 20-year-old has so far made nine appearances for the League One club, three more than he managed during the first half of last season whilst on loan with Oxford United.
While the bulk of his minutes have come in the League Cup, Perkins has been used as a substitute in each of Orient's league fixtures by head coach Richie Wellens.
"I thought in parts, we were as good if not better than them," Wellens said at full-time. "But the goals that we give away are really poor.
"I think the second one's handball, well it is handball because I've seen it. But then we clear it, we don't recover into shape, they get a corner and we concede from a second-phase corner.
"When they get in the final third, when they make runs, the wide players coming in pockets, the wide players running in off the line, the centre-forwards or midfield players - they run hard, they sprint. We want it to feet a little bit too much in the final third, so that's something we need to learn, need to get better [at] because when you play at the top level which these guys are, the sharpness, the intensity, the timing and speed of the runs is a higher level," the Orient manager added.
Premier League opposition will have presented the youngster with a good test of his faculties and a yardstick as to where he is in his development as a player. He remains on loan at Brisbane Road until the end of the 2024/25 season.
Leeds' next game takes place at the Cardiff City Stadium, where Perkins scored his one and only goal for the club to date. Then just 18, the forward came off the bench to help Leeds salvage a cup replay against the Bluebirds in a 2-2 FA Cup Third Round draw in January 2023.