Felix Wiedwald had biscuit wrists, Marco Silvestri was a decent shot-stopper but had spaghetti arms and Paul Rachubka…Anyway, isn’t Illan Meslier brilliant?
He arrived highly rated by the scouting set-up at Leeds United but was ostensibly brought to Elland Road to act as back-up to Kiko Casilla. It was what you’d expect, a young keeper as understudy to a former Real Madrid back-up and Champions League medallist.
He had a run-out, and performed admirably, in the narrow, 1-0 defeat against Arsenal but his big chance came in the eight-game stretch where he replaced the banned Casilla. In truth, Leeds United have never looked back.
Performance at Liverpool
🇫🇷Ilan MESLIER (2002)
Goalkeaper – @LUFC⚽️1st Premier League game with Leeds v Liverpool
Despite the 4 conceded goals (including 2 penalties), the young goalkeeper was the first quarterback of the team. He often made the first pass to start actions.
Clever vision, Bielsa touch. pic.twitter.com/giOi5Lje11— 🔎 (@FocusPlayer_) September 13, 2020
In all fairness, Leeds United fans must have been hidden behind sofas before the Liverpool game. Keeping the score respectable and hopefully scrambling a point were the main topics of conversation for some. Someone forgot to tell Leeds United that this was the script, though.
The Whites were superb and , as can be seen above, youngster Meslier was at the heart of very much most of that. His distribution was fantatstic and he continually put Leeds on the front foot against the Premier League champions and arguably the best English side over the last two seasons.
Suddenly, £5m doesn’t sound too much to have paid out.
