Leeds United discover what Illan Meslier was lacking as man in 'strange' role earns high praise - YEP 2/12/22

Joel Robles' role at Leeds United is a strange one, not without its difficulties, and he's playing it to perfection for Jesse Marsch.

By Graham Smyth

At 32, with 122 top flight appearances in Spain and England, settling for a place on the bench or in the stands instead of between the sticks might feel like a premature acceptance of something less than he's worth.

Yet the Spaniard's last 30-plus game season came in 2019/20 and perhaps, as a free agent in the summer and heading into the twilight of his career, a return to the Premier League, even if only as part of Illan Meslier's back-up crew, was too good an opportunity to miss.

What Leeds wanted when Victor Orta turned his eye to the goalkeeping department, was something a little different to what they already had in 22-year-olds Meslier and Kristoffer Klaesson.

"We wanted a veteran goalkeeper to come in to help push our young goalkeepers competitively every day and to help provide a little bit more experience as to what the position can look like, with savviness and understanding and controlling of the match through that position and then a guy that knew what the role was and could commit to it all the way in a selfless manner," said Marsch.

Robles came through the Athletico ranks in Madrid and spent five years at Everton before moving back to his native country to feature for Real Betis, accruing plenty of experience along the way. He also played 13 times during a loan spell that also happened to put the FA Cup in his hands.

His January 2013 arrival at Wigan Athletic came just two days after second choice stopper Mike Pollitt, 18 years his senior, had suffered a serious injury.

"I played in the FA Cup third round at Wigan and it went to a replay at Bournemouth, where I ruptured my thigh," said Pollitt, now Preston North End's goalkeeping coach.

"I had already had a bit of a tear in the first game and played the second, which I probably shouldn't have done. I was out for four months then and Joel was coming in anyway that week so it coincided with me getting injured. We played the next round at Macclesfield and he started the game to make his debut."

It wasn't until March that Robles displaced Ali Al-Habsi in the Premier League line-up, but the FA Cup games were his, until the semi-final when the Omani came back in. But for the final, against Manchester City, Roberto Martinez nodded again to his young loanee.

"It was a strange one because Al-Habsi played in the semi-final against Millwall and I thought he was going to play in the final - I think he did too because he had a load of family over from Oman," Pollitt told the YEP.

"But Roberto then decided he was going to play Joel instead. He played, had a good game and they won the cup which was a great achievement because to be honest everybody expected Man City to win, we were just the other team in the final. It was fairytale stuff that day. Being in that FA Cup winning Wigan team, it'll probably never happen again, for a club of Wigan's size to beat Manchester City in the final."

Pollitt recalls a quiet lad who spoke little English and fraternised mostly with the South American posse in the Latics dressing room, but also a goalkeeper of some promise.

"I used to train with him every day and thought he was an excellent young goalkeeper," said Pollitt.

"He came from Athletico, where David de Gea was number one, and the games he did play at Wigan he did really well in. He went with Roberto Martinez to Everton after that, it stood him in good stead that Roberto had obviously seen enough to take him with him. I thought he'd have a bright future in the game and it's probably not materialised quite as he'd have expected."

Although the years since have allowed him to be part of Europa League and Copa del Rey winning squads, he didn't play in those finals and arrived at Leeds with no expectation of being the main man but simply to be part of something again. Other than three Premier League games spent on the bench and single appearances in the Carabao Cup and Papa John's Trophy, Robles has been Marsch's third-choice on matchdays.

It's not as easy a life as you might think, though.

"I've been in that role myself and you've got to always be ready, you can't take your foot off the gas," said Pollitt.

"You probably tend to do more as a third choice goalkeeper because you end up doing all the shooting sessions, all the training, even before games now teams do shooting practice. It's a tough role. The chances of you playing are quite limited, you just have to stay focused, train hard and hopefully you get your chance. Sometimes if the keeper is playing consistently well you think the chances are not going to come and it gets a bit disheartening. It can be difficult to come into a game situation, you can train all you like but your starting positions, your communication and distribution, you've not really been doing it week in and week out so you need a few games to get back up to speed."

Pollitt expects that Robles, with his decade of seniority in Leeds' goalkeeping trio, will be passing on his knowledge as often as possible and playing the part of an encourager.

"That's the role as well, you're there to try and help the others," he said. "Usually your goalkeepers have a close-knit bond and get on really well and push each other every day. That's what I imagine Joel will be doing. You are mates but there's probably a little side of you hopes the keeper has a bad game or whatever, just to get in the team. It is strange, being so close and vying for that one position."

Strange or not, listening to Marsch it's going exactly as Leeds hoped when they signed the veteran.

"I’ve told Joel from like the third week that he was here that I could see he was the perfect guy and that we made an absolutely fantastic decision to bring him here," said the head coach.

"I’ve encouraged him to continue to be himself and integrate himself, to be a leader in the group, to certainly help Illan and Kris but also to push them and I think he’s done that perfectly, literally perfectly and I thought the match he played against Wolves showed all of his qualities."

What it is that Robles can add to Meslier and Klaesson's repertoire is almost intangible but Marsch believes he's seen it already, so they must have too. His hope is that the Spaniard will continue to play to perfection the challenging role of challenging the young pair

"It isn't just his technical and tactical ability, but his feel of the game, which I thought was incredible [at Wolves]" said Marsch.

"This, to me, is what young goalkeepers need to understand, how to manipulate a game in a way, to be in control of every moment. So it’ll be important for Illan and for Kris. They’ve accepted him really well. I think he’s challenged them but I think it’s been in a real positive way and I think it’ll be key for them to learn from him.”