MOT View: Paul Merson warning on Leeds ace comes back to haunt Bielsa – but he has it all wrong
Paul Merson doesn’t have the best reputation as a pundit but his recent warning came back to haunt Leeds United on Saturday.
He said that Leeds would be punished if they kept playing it out from the back and he dubbed Illan Meslier a poor passer.
Talking on Soccer Saturday during the 1-0 win against Burnley (Sky Sports, Sunday, Dec 27), Merson said, “That’s the thing – teams have sat off them, they’ve been a bit fearful.
“They kept on doing it [playing out from the back] and doing it. The goalkeeper’s not the best passer of the ball, in fairness to him. They struggled and struggled.
“I call that naive. Just get it up, get it away from your goal.
“They’re going to shoot themselves in the foot before too long.”
That happened on Saturday. Tottenham pressed Leeds and made things hard for the defenders – and it paid off after 27 minutes.
Meslier received the ball with Son chasing him down in his own six-yard box.
Meslier managed to drive the ball between Luke Ayling on the edge of the box and Kalvin Phillips, straight to a Spurs player.
That mistake drew another from Gjanni Alioski, who fouled Steven Bergwijn and gave Harry Kane a penalty.
Tottenham scored the first goal and made the game immeasurably harder for Leeds, who should possibly have been 2-0 up by that point.
Marcelo Bielsa said it was an “undeniable error” after the game but that is part of the high-risk strategy of Bielsa ball, which involves playing out from the back.
It was also unfortunate.
WyScout stats show that Meslier completed 4/4 of his long passes and 27/28 of his short passes.
Merson might think he’s a poor passer but that absolutely isn’t shown up by stats. Meslier is, in fact, brilliant with the ball at his feet, but does make the odd mistake.
Leeds were unfortunate three times over with the Spurs goal. First, that Meslier misplaced the pass, second that Tottenham were clinical with the ball and third that the penalty was given despite contact being outside the box.
It won’t and shouldn’t make Leeds change the way they play but it is all part of the learning curve for Meslier.
In other Leeds United news, MOT View: Leeds first-team star almost certain to play v Crawley after major incident