Daniel Farke has labelled Illan Meslier as the best goalkeeper in the Championship after his wonder save in Leeds United’s 1-0 win over Leicester.
The Whites earned a stunning 1-0 win over the league leaders thanks to Georginio Rutter’s goal in the second half, but the three points were saved in stoppage time thanks to a wonder save by Meslier.
And Farke told the press, as relayed by Phil Hay after the game (3 November), that Meslier is a “diamond” and he was always his first-choice goalkeeper for the season because he’s the best goalkeeper in the Championship.
“The potential of Illan is just massive,” he said. “When you have a diamond like him, you have to back him.”
Brilliant
There were big question marks about Meslier’s future at the club during the summer, especially after he lost his place in the side towards the end of last season.
Ultimately that decision didn’t cost us our place in the Premier League as we needed a miracle anyway in reality, but it could have caused issues this season if he had chosen to move on.
There was interest during the transfer window no doubt but Farke stuck by him and despite the signing of Karl Darlow he is the established number one stopper at the club once again
His faith has been justified too with the performances that Meslier has put in, and that save at the death could easily be the difference between getting promoted or not at the end of the campaign.
We’ve got our goalkeeper back, the one we all fell in love with, and it’s a cheat code. He’s a Premier League goalkeeper playing in the second tier, like much of our team. We won’t be able to keep him for another year if we don’t get up to the Premier League the first time around, so lets make it count.
