Leeds United’s 19-year-old goalkeeper Illan Meslier has opened up about his time at the club so far and learning from Kiko Casilla when speaking to GOAL.
Meslier is yet to start for Leeds but seems happy to wait for his chance to shine, saying that while not playing he has more time to develop the ‘refine details’ and that the Frenchman is treating this time as ‘a little bit of post-training’, which any fan should feel proud to hear come from such a young player.
The 19-year-old has also said that he is ‘learning a lot with Kiko’ as the Frenchman is currently being used as Casilla’s backup on the bench. Meslier also believes that he’s ‘ready to play at any time’ and that any time could come soon if the Spaniard is banned.
The young keeper didn’t seem keen to comment on the alleged racism case saying that ‘it’s complicated to give an opinion’ due to the case being ‘word against word‘ which is again a smart judgement.
The Frenchman played 32 times for parent club Lorient in Ligue 2 and kept 11 clean sheets, however, he did concede 32 goals which is a little alarming. When you compare these stats to Casilla’s this season there’s a clear difference in ability, with the Spaniard playing 16 matches and Leeds have only conceded nine times so far this Championship season.
Verdict
It’s very difficult to know if Meslier is ready yet, maybe if he had played a couple of games for Leeds this season we would then have something to judge him on because at the moment we can only compare him to Kiko Casilla based on his Lorient stats from Ligue 2. He should at least be given one game to prove himself, otherwise, it’s a little bit unfair for him to be sidelined without being given a chance. Whether the Spaniard is suspended, only time will tell, but perhaps the French shot-stopper has shown in the past with his previous employers to be a suitable option to rely on.