‘World class’ – Illan Meslier’s verdict from Daniel Farke defends Leeds United’s performance

World class, Daniel Farke described Illan Meslier’s performance after he kept a clean sheet for Leeds United at Norwich City on Sunday. The keeper had just one save to make in a consummate defensive display from the visitors yesterday.

However, passing has been a problem for the 24-year-old. In the first 15 minutes of the game, there was a pass to Joe Rodon that was stretched into touch and a hospital pass to Ilia Gruev on the edge of the Leeds box despite being surrounded by three attackers.

There were more misplaced passes later in the game and Rodon’s frustrations were palpable. Despite those issues, which were raised by Farke in the dressing room at half-time, Meslier’s clean sheet was the important result for his manager.

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“When a goalkeeper goes back to the dressing room with a clean sheet, for me, it’s always world class because that’s his main job,” he said. “We always talk, me too, because I really like to use the goalkeeper in preparation, but the main job is to make sure we are there with a lot of clean sheets.

“Clean sheet today, happy with him. A few decisions on the ball could have been a little better today. At least that was my feeling, but it’s the same, we had games where we conceded a little bit.”

After allowing nine goals in the last three games of the regular season, there’s a lot to be said for the confidence he’ll provide in front of Meslier’s goal as well, in Farke’s eyes. First, stop goals from coming in as a top priority, and then comes better distribution.

“Same for the keeper, although he wasn’t there with the mistakes in the save, but also with his confidence, if you concede a couple of goals it’s not great either,” Farke said. “So for that, focus on the basement, the basement wasn’t to give in and then you go pragmatically, sometimes a long ball instead of taking too many risks.

“We talked about it at half-time and this was also the right choice because normally he is a player, for a goalkeeper, who is very comfortable on the ball and also important to our game. At this moment, when everything is not easy, you have to focus on being a little more pragmatic. That’s how it was and the main thing is the incomprehensible sheet, I’m happy with that.”