Illan Meslier: The Debate
It’s difficult to pinpoint the moment where Illan Meslier became a problem. There are a number of costly mistakes you could look at, games when he was a bit off-colour or just a general sense that he might not be the keeper everyone thought he was. Once considered one of the top young goalkeepers in the country, the Frenchman’s stock has fallen considerably since the days of 20/21 and that save v Sheffield United.
Had this been published in July of this year, that would have been my thoughts on Meslier. However, this season has shown that to probably be unnecessarily harsh. He’s been a part of the best defence in the Championship this season, conceding just 28 goals and keeping 15 clean sheets. He’s improved a lot this season, making some key recent saves against Leicester, Sheffield Wednesday and others to secure points for Leeds.
However, it’s difficult to shake the feeling that something still just isn’t quite right. The Meslier who burst onto the scene in the cup defeat at Arsenal in the promotion season was earning deserved praise from all angles, particularly for his distribution. His 6’4 frame, coupled with relative agility for a man of his size, meant he had a lot of the physical tools to be a top goalkeeper. Once he replaced Kiko Casilla near the end of the 19/20 season, he never looked back, going on to shine in the Premier League for Leeds United and breaking Joe Hart’s clean sheets record for an U21 keeper. So what went wrong, and is there a way for him to rediscover the Meslier of old?
Again, it would be harsh to describe him as a failure. But it’s also reasonable to say that he was very poor last season, and even this year has been prone to the occasional lapse in judgement, be that poor distribution that leads to Leeds conceding a chance, his general command of his penalty area, particularly when it comes to crosses, or the occasional loss of discipline (like the sending off v Preston).
His distribution is largely (in my opinion) down to his one-footedness, and the fact that his kicking on his right foot is very poor. This often makes him look a bit awkward when clearing the ball and impacts his ability to strike the ball cleanly a lot of the time. That being said, even on his left foot I think the weight and accuracy of his kicking has worsened since he broke into the first team, which could be evidence of a goalkeeping coaching issue at the club. His command of his area is poor for a keeper of his height and frame, and although this seems to have improved recently (perhaps due to confidence) he still doesn’t dominate his area in the way many top keepers do. This is one of the reasons for Leeds’ weakness this season from defensive set-pieces, conceding quite a few goals from such scenarios, particularly as a proportion of total goals conceded.
On the other hand, his shot-stopping tends to be good, and his big frame does benefit him hugely in lots of scenarios, which is why it would be great if that translated to the command of his area. Whilst he is prone to the occasional mad moment (on the ball especially), I think this is something that can be coached out of him, and hopefully making less unnecessary errors will hugely boost his confidence.
Personally, I hope that Meslier can iron out these flaws in his game, as he definitely has the potential to be a Premier League standard keeper. Clearly he is already a very good keeper at Championship level. However, if Leeds are promoted and Meslier has not been able to reduce or eliminate these weaknesses from his game, particularly his distribution, then we should go out and get a new keeper. That being said, I would be tempted to bring in another keeper anyway in the event of promotion, as competition for Illan.
Written by Joseph Hamilton
Follow me on twitter @becchioball
