Nitpicking will take Leeds United star to next level and partial solution to issue is on horizon - YEP 15/9/22

Leeds United goalkeeper Illan Meslier has made a fine start to the season under Jesse Marsch, despite conceding five times last time out at Brentford.

By Graham Smyth

Finding fault with Illan Meslier this season feels like nit-picking in the extreme.

Leeds United's goalkeeper might, with an additional defensive midfielder in place and an abandonment of the man-marking system, feel a little more protected than he did at times last season, but he deserves real credit for his contribution to the eight point haul.

The Whites did ship five at Brentford but it could actually have been a lot worse had it not been for the Frenchman. Not for the first time.

That win over Chelsea looked comfortable, particularly the longer it went on, but Meslier made several huge stops on that day en route to a deserved clean sheet. One in particular was made without the knowledge that the offside flag would go up. It did, however and as Jesse Marsch later pointed out, VAR would likely have allowed the goal had the ball beaten Meslier.

The stop he produced against Everton, late on, saved Leeds from what would have been a first defeat on home soil this season.

There is a growing feeling, one based on a substantial body of evidence, that Meslier gives Leeds a serious chance of surviving any one-v-one situation. And beyond his flashiest moments, he has dealt well with a number of set-pieces, getting good distance on near-post punches, and generally carries out his work with what is almost an air of detachment. His demeanour is unflappable.

That should breed confidence, among team-mates, as it does among supporters, and it's not at all difficult to argue that Meslier would be the likeliest candidate should another huge sale be required at some point down the line.

At 22 and with 79 Premier League appearances under his belt he represents a talent of huge potential.

Getting to that next level - Champions League football and a fight for the honours at the top end of a top flight table - will take a little nitpicking, as it does with every player.

And the only area, right now, that appears in need of real improvement is his distribution.

The irony is that it was his kicking that really stood out when he made his debut for Leeds United against Arsenal in the FA Cup. He pinged it left and right, finding his man with 11 out of 17 long passes and dinking the ball out to full-backs to escape the Gunners' press.

This season, kicking the ball long has proved difficult.

Where Premier League peers Vicente Guaita and David Raya have completed 9 and 8.17 passes longer than 40 yards per 90 minutes of football played, Meslier has completed two.

His 16 per cent completion rate when he launches the ball places him 22nd of the 22 goalkeepers in the English top flight this season.

Alisson Becker, of Liverpool, boasting a 54.7 per cent completion rate, adds a little context, but doesn't paint the whole picture.

Neither, really, does a viewing of Meslier's clips from this season.

What they suggest is that he goes short when there is no pressure, passing the ball to Robin Koch on a frequent basis and finding Tyler Adams or Marc Roca when the occasion allows.

There has been a tendency to aim long goal kicks at Pascal Struijk, a big centre-back playing left-back, and when they work it gives Leeds a chance to progress the ball even further upfield.

Under any pressure, Meslier goes long - safety first. And while his left foot has not been amazingly accurate, it does at least clear the danger and if nothing else allows Leeds to compete for second balls higher up the pitch.

His right foot, at times, has been a problem.

Everton managed to create a quartet of situations where Meslier was rushed, with the ball on his right peg, and only one of those kept Leeds in possession. The other three saw the ball played straight to Everton players, resulting in varying degrees of danger.

Weaker foot and clearances straight out of play aside, the long kicking issue is not simply a Meslier problem and a partial solution could well be imminent.

Because for the majority of this season, what Jesse Marsch's side have lacked in the opposition half has been aerial presence.

Joe Gelhardt and Rodrigo have vastly different profiles as nines but neither really have the knack of regularly turning a long ball into something better than a 50:50 aerial battle.

The same can be said for the rest of Leeds' attackers, Jack Harrison, Luis Sinisttera and Brenden Aaronson.

Even if a long clearance or goal-kick is delivered with accuracy, Leeds can sometimes do little more than put a centre-half under enough discomfort to affect the placement of his header, or content themselves with fighting for the next ball, something Adams is certainly very good at.

Patrick Bamford is back, though, and although he is far from the tallest of strikers, he does give Meslier more of a target and an outlet, in the air or on the ground.

He can, more naturally than his pair of fellow centre forwards, engage defenders physically and hold his own in order to stand a good chance of winning the header.

The ideal, from an aesthetic point of view, is still for Meslier to go short as often as he can as Leeds build from the back, but turning pressure in your own area into a realistic chance of possession in the opposing half is a powerful weapon.

Even if Bamford does alleviate the issue, which happily hasn't yet hindered the Whites to a harmful extent, Meslier will be hellbent on getting better in this area and every other.

"I want to be better than last season, I want to concede a lot less goals and if I can help the team try to be the best possible this is my job," he said in the summer.

"But I want to be the best."

It says much about the recruitment behind his £5.6m signing that becoming the best, whether that's in the Premier League or even beyond, is still in the realms of possibility. Many say it and few are as believable as the ex Lorient man.

He is the second youngest goalkeeper in the Premier League, with an absolute age on his side in order to improve and so many strengths that more than make up for any weakness.

And to be in nitpicking territory, with a player still so far from his prime, puts Leeds in a good place.

If, at some point, his feet match his hands for importance to Leeds United, he will be ready to kick on to truly world class levels.