It might seem a lifetime away, but Illan Meslier was once one of the untouchable pieces of Leeds United’s future.
In February 2020, a 19-year-old Meslier made his league debut away to Hull City. Marcelo Bielsa’s side won 4-0 that afternoon, with this beanpole 6ft 6in Frenchman, on loan from Lorient and only in the side due to an eight-game ban for No 1 Kiko Casilla, going on to keep seven clean sheets in 10 games. It was the backbone of the title charge as Leeds ended 16 years of hurt outside the Premier League.
That summer, Leeds signed him permanently and by the end of his first season in the top flight, the hype around Meslier saw him linked to clubs like Paris Saint-Germain and Tottenham. But Leeds pushed hard and he ended up signing a five-year deal, keeping him at Elland Road until 2026.
Five years on since that promising bow, the 24-year-old’s form is now Leeds’ biggest threat to their immediate future – and in particular to not getting promoted this season.
Meslier’s mistakes at Hull on January 4 – when Leeds drew 3-3 after they were 3-1 up in the 81st minute – were the final straw for many, in a long line of costly errors. At Sunderland in October, his unfortunate howler in the 97th minute when the ball span wickedly past him, snatched away victory and left him in tears.
While his team-mates supported him then, and manager Daniel Farke made a point of cajoling Meslier at full time, it lasted only so long. A reverse angle of Hull’s second goal earlier this month shows Joe Rodon, Joe Rothwell and Joel Piroe losing patience. Yet again, Leeds dropped crucial points because of their keeper.
Almost five years ago, Illan Meslier was the teenage sensation impressing at Leeds on loan
But as the club attempts to catapult itself back into the top flight in 2025, the shot-stopper is looking like a notable weak link
Mistakes made during Leeds’ start-of-the-year tie with Hull were the latest in a long line of slip-ups
Mail Sport reported earlier this month that Leeds would consider selling Meslier this year if the right offer came in but such a decision in January would be risky given what is at stake in the run-in, even if the current sentiment towards him from the fanbase is at an all-time low.
As one Leeds fan put it to Mail Sport: ‘It’s not divided. From pillar to post, everyone wants Meslier out.’
But no team has yet enquired about an asking price Meslier, never mind making an offer, so a decision on his future is likely to come after Leeds’ fate this season is sealed.
On the eve of their FA Cup tie against Harrogate United last week, Leeds boss Daniel Farke was asked about the situation.
‘I have signed a contract for Leeds United and not Leeds divided,’ he said. It was a response met with uproar and cringe across social media.
Though No 2 Karl Darlow started in the cup and kept a clean sheet last weekend, Meslier is expected to return in between the sticks for Sunday’s Championship game against Sheffield Wednesday, with Farke consistently backing him in public. Even if the stats on Meslier are damning.
Over the past five league seasons, the 250 goals Meslier has conceded across 180 league games is the most apart from Luton’s Thomas Kaminski.
When it comes to the 69 goalkeepers who have played at least 100 games in England’s top four tiers since 2020-21 – Meslier’s first full season at Leeds – he ranks 67th for ‘goals prevented’, a statistic similar to expected goals (xG) but for goalkeepers. According to stats gurus, he has let in 31 more goals than the average keeper would be expected to concede.
But only Luton’s Thomas Kaminski has conceded more league goals over the past five seasons
By the same metric, he was the worst goalkeeper in the Premier League in 2021-22 and the second-worst a year later when Leeds went down.
At Leeds, the understanding is that he is a goalkeeper who is everything with confidence but nothing without.
Like Bielsa, Farke regularly praises his character and personality while those who see him regularly class him as a ‘determined’ individual, whose attitude to working hard and getting out of tough situations is ‘admirable’. Meslier uses a psychologist, avoids social media and over the years has developed a thick-skinned nature. Put simply, mistakes don’t affect him as much as they used to do.
‘Ability comes with experience. You won’t always keep making the right decisions. But when you make mistakes you become better,’ he told the Guardian in May. ‘It’s difficult for the fans to understand that. For goalkeepers, it’s years of process. Unfortunately, making mistakes is the best way to learn; the important thing is understanding why you made them.’
The problem for Leeds and Meslier though is that those mistakes are far too common, particularly in a division where the margins are so small, and the prize of promotion so big. This season he ranks 17th and 18th in the Championship respectively for goals prevented and save percentage.
Privately, the belief at Leeds is that Farke’s public backing of the keeper is canny man-management, in the hope that he can get the best out of him. Farke categorised the Sunderland mistake as an ‘unlucky bounce’ to protect him and the manager still trusts him as his No 1.
No 2 Darlow has over 200 appearances in the top two tiers and three caps for Wales, but it does not inspire confidence that he has only started one league game for Leeds and that was only when Meslier was suspended last season.
Though Farke admitted Meslier was not at 100 per cent against Hull, he has refused to ever suggest that his position is in danger. Not once before the Harrogate tie did he imply that Darlow had a chance to stake his claim for the No 1 spot. Whether that’s a risk he can take if Meslier’s form continues to slump, it remains the hill that Farke is willing to die on.
Meslier’s mistakes are far too common and have frequently seen his side lose their lead
But Farke has often praised the mentality of the 24-year-old, as former manager Marcelo Bielsa used to do
Last week, Stuart Dallas – who was at Leeds from 2015 to 2024 – didn’t hold back on LUTV’s Matchday Live show when discussing the whether to bring in Darlow.
‘We’re talking about a goalkeeper that has played over 40-50 times in the Premier League. It’s not like it’s a young kid coming in. Karl Darlow is a good goalkeeper. If he is to bring him in, I’ve no doubts.
‘Illan Meslier, he hasn’t been great. He possibly needs to be taken out of the team, in any other area of the pitch he would be taken out of the team and told to use it as motivation and come back stronger,’ said Dallas.
Farke points to Meslier’s 14 clean sheets in his defence, with only Burnley’s James Trafford (16) keeping more. But the reality is that Meslier is so well protected because Leeds dominate games.
They have conceded the fewest chances in the Championship and Meslier has faced the fewest shots on target, just 56 in 26 games.
For comparison against Leeds’s immediate promotion contenders, his save percentage in the Championship this season is 66 per cent compared to Trafford (85 per cent) and Sheffield United’s Michael Cooper (79 per cent).
Unless the situation worsens, Leeds are unlikely to go in the market for another keeper this month but there is a genuine fear that taking him out of the firing line could do more harm than good, especially if the Darlow experiment doesn’t work.
Meslier has been there before when Sam Allardyce dropped him in 2023 and his confidence was shot. The pressure of playing for Leeds and such an ‘emotional’ fanbase as Farke stresses is another factor in itself.
Interim manager Sam Allardyce had little faith in Meslier, and swapped him out as the club sought to avoid relegation
One of the explanations put forward to Mail Sport was that given how much Leeds dominate games in the second tier, Meslier is trying to play the perfect game and is messing up the things he would do easily in training.
Reflecting in May about that period under Allardyce, Meslier said: ‘I tried to help the team more than I should. When you’re in this situation you have to understand you cannot do more than your position allows you to do.
‘It was a dark moment, it was difficult. But I’ve learned a lot and I’m very grateful that, from the first day, I felt a huge trust Daniel has in me. I felt very happy. Now I want to give something back to him.’
He may have his manager’s trust, but go back to the reactions of Rodon, Rothwell and Piroe at Hull. It doesn’t take a genius to work out what Meslier’s team-mates think. And they were only the ones caught on camera. Regardless of what fans think, it’s a worrying place for a player when your team-mates don’t trust you.
In the last five seasons across Europe’s major leagues (including second-tiers), no keeper has had more stability of playing time with the same club than Meslier. The Hull game was his 201st for Leeds. Away from the errors, the lack of clear growth over a five-year period is perhaps a wider concern.
With only three points separating the top four in the Championship, Farke knows better than most – having won two promotions with Norwich – about the risk involved with sticking with Meslier and how costly it could be.
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The fact remains that Meslier is a keeper who has proven his quality before in the Premier League. You only have to look at his man-of-the-match display at Anfield in 2022 when Leeds beat Liverpool to see how high the ceiling is for a keeper who many still believe has all the attributes to be a Premier League No 1.
It was only last summer that Chelsea were linked with him.
But in the here and now, this is goalkeeping conundrum which is dividing Leeds United and threatening to overshadow a season where the only acceptable outcome is to reach the Premier League.
