Daniel Farke on Illan Meslier return in Sheffield Wednesday win and late knock — YEP 19/1/25

By Graham Smyth

Leeds United goalkeeper Illan Meslier behaved as Daniel Farke expected him to as he returned to the line-up in the win over Sheffield Wednesday.

An armwrestle of a Yorkshire derby was still in the balance until the very final stages when Leeds flexed their finishing prowess to win it convincingly.

An early goal should have settled nerves around Elland Road. Wednesday keeper James Beadle spilled the ball under pressure from Brenden Aaronson and Manor Solomon fired in the opener. But the Owls never went away. Illan Meslier flapped at a first half corner and with officials missing a handball from the visitors, Ao Tanaka had to get his body in the way of Josh Windass’ goalbound effort. Meslier was later called into action to palm away a Djeidi Gassama effort from distance.

It wasn’t until the 88th minute that the points were secured and it was substitute Largie Ramazani firing in a beautiful strike from just outside the area. He almost repeated the trick in stoppage time but Tanaka produced the deftest of flicks to deceive Beadle and make sure the ball ended up in the net.

Farke celebrated the clean sheet and insists he saw the required focus from Illan Meslier in training after his Hull City gaffe so expected a return to 'normality' against Wednesday.

Meslier's position in the team came under renewed scrutiny when he dropped a routine catch at Hull and allowed the Tigers back into a game that ended 3-3. The Frenchman was rested for the FA Cup game in a planned swap between the posts, but resumed his tenure as first-choice keeper for the 3-0 win over the Owls.

He came and failed to get a first half corner, which required Ao Tanaka to make a vital block, but had little else to do other than a smart stop from Djeidi Gassama's long-range effort. Farke admitted that getting the Wednesday game out of the way without incident was important and the clean sheet was good for Leeds.

"Like always, I wouldn't overinterpret each game," said Farke. "Of course the first game after poor performances for each player are difficult, for a goalkeeper perhaps even more. After a mistake, conceding a crucial goal the spotlight is even a bit more on him than comparison to a striker who misses penalties or a winger who misses chances. But even for them the next game is a bit difficult and they are a bit nervous.

"I think you could see he was pretty focused and concentrated in training, also before the game and during the game and it was necessary, this is what you have to do if you want to be there in the 70th minute when we need him in this one moment to be spot on. In this behaviour I didn't expect anything different. It's important to have this first game out of the way after a mistake and to return back with a clean sheet is good for his confidence, for our whole confidence, Right now we can go back to our best level and we can go back to normality. It's not normal that we conceded three, we want to keep clean sheets and we want to keep this level of performances further on."

Leeds' performance in general pleased Farke, not least because they restricted the Owls to so few chances.

“I'm pretty happy with the game today,” he said. “It's a good side, a brave side who play with intensity, good players, good manager. There's no doubt it's a well deserved win. We returned back to our best defensive behaviour, didn't allow them to have chances. They had five or six corners, wide area free-kicks but we didn't allow them to create a lot from this. We scored out of a corner and scored in the right moments, created many entrances into the box, their keeper made several good saves. A pretty convincing win and returning back to perfect defensive behaviour. It was a pretty mature performance.”

One late concern arose for Farke when Aaronson hobbled off. The manager revealed it was a knock that he took much earlier in the game and the medical staff will have to examine him ahead of the midweek clash with Norwich City.

“He got a hit on his ankle in the first half, was capable to play further on,” said Farke. “It got more and more sore over the course of the game. We have to assess him. Normally he’s a strong boy. Hopefully it's not too bad but we'll have to see. “