Willy Gnonto says what every Leeds fan was already thinking in indirect Illan Meslier swipe
Leeds United addressed the biggest gap in their squad during the summer transfer window.
After years of consistently underperforming, Illan Meslier has finally lost his spot as Leeds’ first-choice goalkeeper.
Lucas Perri was brought in from Lyon earlier this summer, and despite the Brazilian looking shaky against Arsenal, he will undoubtedly prove to be a far superior player to Meslier.
Willy Gnonto’s latest comments regarding United’s transfer business this summer are views that the majority of the Elland Road fanbase shares, particularly when it comes to their new defensive investments.
Willy Gnonto takes indirect swipe at Illan Meslier in ‘improvement’ claim
Despite Perri reportedly suffering an injury, Karl Darlow will be expected to take his place in goal if he cannot feature against Fulham, as Meslier’s form last season has seen him plummet down the goalkeeping pecking order.
As harsh as it may seem, Gnonto and Co. will likely be delighted to hear this after the catalogue of costly errors Meslier made last season that made Leeds’ promotion push a lot closer than what perhaps it should have been.
Speaking to Adam Pope and BBC Sport West Yorkshire on 10 September, Gnonto said of Leeds’ transfer business: “I think every position is better, to be fair.
“You can just look at the back, look at the players we got. You have a player who came in and started already, so I can say that at the back, we improved.”
Gnonto may not have directly mentioned Meslier, but by implying that “every position” is better, his thoughts are clear.
- Gabriel Gudmundsson and Perri are the only players at the back to have started so far
- Given how impressive Junior Firpo was at left-back last season, it seems obvious that Gnonto is referring to the arrival of Perri in the place of Meslier
- Perri has kept two clean sheets in his first three Premier League appearances
With the Frenchman set to be a benchwarmer at best this season, there are serious questions as to why Leeds did not sell Meslier to help their PSR situation.
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Lucas Perri a drastic upgrade on Illan Meslier
When analysing goalkeepers, clean sheets can certainly be misleading.
Meslier kept 21 clean sheets last season as opposed to Perri’s 10, but that is to be expected considering how dominant United were in the Championship last season.
Arguably the most important stat for a goalkeeper is goals prevented, with their individual performances directly influencing the statistic.
Last season, Perri registered 6.1 goals prevented, suggesting that Lyon would have conceded six more goals in Ligue 1 if it was not for the 27-year-old’s heroics.
Meslier, on the other hand, had a goals prevented of -2.7, insinuating that Leeds’ shot stopper conceded nearly three more goals than he should have done when considering the quality of shots he faced last season.
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