With the long two weeks of the international break now behind us, Premier League football was back in the offing for Leeds United supporters on Saturday afternoon, with Jesse Marsch’s side holding Southampton to a 1-1 draw at Elland Road.
The fixture could not have gotten off to a much better start for Leeds, with the Whites dominating the early stages of the game before Jack Harrison poked home to give them the advantage after 29 minutes. However, after growing into the match before half-time, Saints were level just four minutes after the break thanks to a trademark 25-yard James Ward-Prowse free-kick.
While both teams had chances to steal all three points in the closing stages, neither could ultimately break the deadlock, with a draw probably being the fairest outcome of the match.
While there were a number of fine performances on display at Elland Road, Luke Ayling and Illan Meslier both had games to forget on Saturday afternoon, with the latter arguably being the most below-par against Ralph Hasenhuttl’s outfit.
68% passes completed
While it should be noted that the 22-year-old did make four important saves and two high claims over the course of the 90 minutes against Saints, there is perhaps an argument to be made that the goalkeeper should have done better for Ward-Prowse’s free-kick.
However, there was one area of the France under-21 international’s game which was – to put it bluntly – particularly shocking on Saturday afternoon, namely his distribution.
Indeed, the £18m-rated shot-stopper found his intended target with only 19 of his 28 passes – a success rate of just 68% – which often invited a great deal of pressure onto his team, such as the phase of play leading up to Southampton’s equaliser.
So poor was the £41k-per-week goalkeeper’s distribution that Leeds Live journalist Beren Cross tweeted during the fixture that Meslier’s kicks were “all over the place” and were “not relieving any pressure” on the Whites’ defence.
This was reflected in the journalist’s player ratings as he awarded the Frenchman a five, stating: “Very good stop to deny Che Adams from close range in the first half, but question marks over his goalkeeping for James Ward-Prowse’s free-kick and his poor distribution throughout the match which rarely seemed to relieve pressure on the side.”
As such, while the youngster is undoubtedly a very talented ‘keeper who has been Leeds’ undisputed number one for two years now, he will certainly need to up his game over the Whites’ remaining seven fixtures of the season if he is to give his team the best possible chance of avoiding the drop.
AND in other news: Orta can finally replace Leeds’ £19k-p/w “demon” with “extraordinary” 19-year-old “talent”
