Fatherly care and attention are Illan Meslier’s route out of his current Leeds United rut. The 23-year-old was bombed out of the starting line-up on form grounds for the first time since his league debut in 2020 at the weekend.
Sam Allardyce was blunt and honest in his assessment of the situation. Meslier’s confidence was through the floor after weeks of mistakes and concessions, meaning he had to be taken out of the firing line at Manchester City.
Allardyce was then complimentary of the way replacement Joel Robles played, further intimating there was little chance of the Spaniard now being taken back out of the team anytime soon. Meslier could well be done for the season now.
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In the meantime, he will continue to train with Robles, Kristoffer Klaesson, Dani van den Heuvel and goalkeeping coach Marcos Abad. Abad, it seems, will play a crucial role in Meslier’s recovery process.
“He just gets on with his job with the goalkeeping coach,” Allardyce said on Meslier’s next steps. “The goalkeeping coaches are like fathers today, so he can take all the time he needs with the goalkeeping coach and rebuild his confidence.”
Far from condemning Meslier to the underside of the form bus, Allardyce did stress the Frenchman’s undoubted quality would see him return to the side in the future. Allardyce sympathised with the number one, whose mistakes, unlike his team-mates’, generally lead to goals.
“So when he gets the opportunity to come back in he’s back to his brilliant best,” he said. “I know how brilliant he is by the times I've watched him on the telly and [when he’s] played against me.
“It’s just that lack of confidence at the minute, like everybody, but unfortunately for a goalkeeper, they don't get away with their mistakes, do they?”
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