Illan Meslier has again grabbed headlines this season and not always for good reasons. The Leeds United number one has had an inconsistent season and his errors have led to the Whites dropping points. Leeds want a new number one if they get promoted and EFL pundit George Elek has insisted that the Frenchman has been a limiting factor for the Yorkshire giants.
Daniel Farke has shown an unending amount of faith in Illan Meslier and will unlikely change goalkeepers with just eight games left in the Championship season.
However, Leeds’ search for a new goalkeeper, which includes an interest in Caoimhin Kelleher, shows the manager is aware that the Frenchman has not been good enough this season.
Meslier has a year left on his contract and he is not keen to leave Leeds if they get promoted but the Whites are almost certain to bring in his replacement in the next window.
“Leeds United would be ten points ahead without Illan Meslier”
Elek insisted the reason the automatic promotion race is tight at the moment is because Leeds do not have a goalkeeper as good as Sheffield United’s Mike Cooper or Burnley’s James Trafford.
He believes if Cooper or Trafford were guarding the Leeds goal, they would have been home and dry in the promotion race at this stage of the season.
“In my mind, the reason why, frankly, this promotion battle is so tight, and it seems quite basic, but a lot of it is to do with the goalkeepers”, Elek said on The Guardian Football Weekly.
“In Mike Cooper and James Trafford, Sheffield United and Burnley have the two best ‘keepers in the league, along with Viktor Johansson at Stoke.
“Trafford is in the England squad, and there is a fair chance that he will have the opportunity to stake his claim as number one in the next couple of weeks, despite being a Championship player.
“And Cooper is a Premier League ‘keeper in waiting. Whereas Ilan Meslier has made a number of high-profile mistakes.
“In my mind, if you put Cooper or Trafford in goal for Leeds over the course of the season, and put Meslier in goal for the other ones, there would be a ten-point gap between them
“It’s that stark.”
However, he stressed that Leeds will not fall apart as there is enough in the team to get them over the line in the automatic promotion race.
“It’s easy after a run of four games and one win to look for holes in Leeds. But when you consider their amazing run prior to that, and I think their proficiency from set-pieces is one of their massive strengths really.
“I’d be really surprised if we see Leeds, Leeds are falling apart again.”
Meslier is a weak link in the team
Farke will not cause any major disruptions to the team at this stage of the season so Meslier will likely continue in goal for the last eight games of the campaign.
However, make no mistake, the Frenchman’s inconsistencies have been one of the biggest weak links of this excellent Leeds team this season.
His errors have led to uncertainty in the backline and it is a credit to the Leeds defenders that they have continued to be strong despite having the Frenchman behind them.
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Leeds need a number one if they get promoted as Meslier could get slaughtered in the Premier League where even the smallest of errors could get punished.
The Whites have managed to offset Meslier’s inconsistent form through excellence in the rest of the team but it would have been easier if Leeds had a better goalkeeper.
