Phil Hay has been speaking about how highly regarded Kristoffer Klaesson is at Leeds United on The Phil Hay Show.
Leeds have an established number one in the form of Illan Meslier, who took over from Kiko Casillaprior to the Whites’ promotion to the Premier League. Now the Spanish ‘keeper finds himself turning out for Elche, Marcelo Bielsa needed a new number two and welcomed in Klaesson at Elland Road.
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The 20-year old is still yet to feature in the first team for Leeds but he does have experience under his belt from his days playing in Norway for Valerenga and he could be expected to step up and replace Meslier if the Frenchman was to be injured.
Hay believes that the club have high hopes for Klaesson.
“Well, he’s going to have to step up [if Meslier gets injured]. I mean, there’s [Dani] van den Heuvel obviously, but no more experienced than Klaesson – and less so, really, because Klaesson has come in on the back of quite a few performances for Valerenga, quite a few games for them over in Norway.
“The scouting departments thought a lot of Klaesson. They were in touch about him a couple of years before they actually signed him, and as soon as Casilla went to Elche, he was the goalkeeper they went after.
“They paid around about £1.5m pounds for him, they think of him as a really, really big prospect, much as they did about Meslier when he came over from Lorient.”
TIF Thoughts on Klaesson and Leeds’ keepers…
Leeds have two incredibly young goalkeepers on their books, with Meslier 21 and Klaesson 20, however, the former has become a steady pair of hands between the sticks. While this season, Leeds have been poor, Meslier has stepped up and made the most amount of saves in the Premier League this season.
It appears clear that Bielsa doesn’t believe that Klaesson is ready for the first team as he hasn’t even trusted him in the Carabao Cup, which was the competition in which he handed starts to both Liam Cresswell and Crysencio Summerville.
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