Illan Meslier left Merseyside as the hero back in October. The Leeds United goalkeeper made nine saves at Anfield as the Whites produced one of the shock results of the season so far to beat Liverpool.
It was a performance that he has managed to replicate on a several occasions since, with Leeds relying on their French custodian all too often at times this season. He’s been the man United have turned to on a regular basis to keep them in games and he was in sensational form against the Reds before the World Cup break.
Meslier was left red-faced on his most recent trip to Liverpool this season, though, making the error that led to the only goal of the game as Leeds were beaten 1-0 by Everton at Goodison Park. In truth, it was a miserable performance from Michael Skubala’s Whites, one of their worst of the campaign so far and Meslier wasn’t the only man at fault, with Leeds underperforming both collectively and individually.
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They were toothless in attack, overrun in the middle, sloppy in possession and ineffective in the press. However, Meslier’s moment of madness was ultimately a costly one.
The goalkeeper got his positioning wrong as Seamus Coleman burst through a gap to latch onto a ball over the top of Leeds’ defensive line. He was standing off his line, expecting a cross to come in from the Irishman and therefore he was completely unprepared for the shot that swerved past his inside past and into the Gwladys Street End net.
Meslier must have wanted the ground to swallow him up as Goodison Park erupted with a mixture of relief, joy and disbelief.
“We've been caught,” Skubala admitted in his post-match press conference. “Illan has been caught off his line but he has been a huge player for us this season and he's saved us lots of points.
“Maybe his positioning, I need to look back at it, but maybe his position a little bit, but he's a top player. But in these games, these things sometimes get you the wins.”
How he responds to that moment, then, could be absolutely pivotal in Leeds’ battle against the drop over the next few months. As Skubala points out, Meslier has been superb for the Whites this season, few, if any, have been better.
After dropping into the bottom three, though, Leeds will need him more than ever over the remaining 15 games of the Premier League campaign and this will be a huge test of his character. While he is still only 22-years-old, Meslier has been remarkably stable between the sticks and hasn’t had to come back from too many high profile slips.
But, he’s experienced enough to know he must leave the mistake at Goodison behind, forget about it and approach the clash with Southampton with the same amount of confidence, poise and self-assuredness that he has approached Leeds’ previous 23 league games with. Leeds simply cannot afford a repeat performance against the managerless Saints, who are now just a point behind them in the Premier League table.
Lose and they know they would be propping up the top tier, with some tricky games around the corner. Should Meslier show his mettle and bounce back, they’ll be stand a good chance of climbing out of the relegation zone completely.
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