TalkSport pundit Trevor Sinclair has given his thoughts on Leeds United goalkeeper Illan Meslier following his recent performance.
The 21-year-old Frenchman, having spent the majority of his first season at the club on the bench, has slowly managed to establish himself as the club’s number one, only missing three games for Marcelo Bielsa’s men whilst they have been in the Premier League, playing with such regularity that he managed to break the record for youngest goalkeeper to make 50 appearances in the Premier League.
He hasn’t had the best of seasons though, as he has conceded the 2nd most goals in the Premier League so far this season behind only Norwich City’s Tim Krul, and endured a tough night against Manchester City, as he was peppered with 15 shots on target, 7 of which ended up in the back of the net.
Speaking on TalkSport (0:39), Sinclair discussed Meslier’s performance at the Etihad, and noted that with another Premier League team was in attendance that night to watch him play, that the performance might hurt his chances of making a move to that club at some point in the future:
“I mean a lot of the goals, you talk about some of the goals through legs and through bodies and I mean Meslier, TC, Tony Colton who’s one of the chief scouts at Manchester United was watching Meslier I believe, because they believe he’s one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League, and he shipped seven. So I don’t know whether that’s going to do his chances any good of getting that move to Manchester United.”
TIF Thoughts on Trevor Sinclair’s comments about Illan Meslier and Leeds United
Would you consider selling Meslier?
Yes
No
It certainly wasn’t the best of nights for the Frenchman, and whilst Sinclair might be onto something when it comes to that performance perhaps putting a seed of doubt into the mind of Manchester United, who are reportedly taking a look at him, the fact that bigger clubs are starting to pay attention to Meslier, should start to make a lot of Leeds United fans rather uneasy.
Meslier was one of the better goalkeepers in the Premier League last season, both when it came to overall save percentage with 75.1% as well as how well he did when it came to expected goals conceded v actual goals conceded with a score of +5.3, both of which were 4th in the division, whilst also ranking 5th in terms of passes over 40 yards completed at 44.3%, playing a big role as Leeds ended up finishing 9th in the table.
And whilst he did just sign a five-year deal this past summer, if he doesn’t see Leeds making any significant progress, you can’t blame him should he want to make a move elsewhere. So Leeds United had better sort themselves out soon and get away from near the bottom of the table, or risk losing someone who played a big part in getting them where they are right now.
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