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Michael Brown was left raving about Leeds United goalkeeper Illan Meslier after his brilliant save last night in the Premier League defeat to West Ham.

The Whites were beaten 2-1 at Elland Road by in-form West Ham, leaving Marcelo Bielsa’s side 14th in the table.

Mateusz Klich’s penalty in the opening stages put the Yorkshire giants ahead, but Tomas Soucek’s towering header levelled it up and Angelo Ogbonna powered another header into the net in the 80th minute to clinch three points.

Leeds conceded a host of chances during the match and looked extremely vulnerable from set-pieces in particular, something that Argentine manager Bielsa will surely be working hard to fix behind the scenes.

Meslier may have felt a little disappointed with Soucek’s equaliser after getting a hand on the ball, but he made up with it with several eye-catching saves afterwards.

The 20-year-old shot-stopper made a memorable reflex save from a Fabian Balbuena header in the second-half and no doubt he was one of his team’s standout performers.

BBC pundit and ex-Leeds midfielder Brown believes that the Frenchman proved any doubters wrong with his display.

“You asked the question about Illan Meslier, is he up to the task?” Brown said, as quoted by BBC Sport. 

“What a save this is from Faiban Balbuena’s header, a wonderful stop with a strong hand. That will put the doubters away for a while, his balance was good and was set at that point.”

TBR’s View:

Meslier might make the odd mistake at such a young age, but it was another encouraging performance from him against West Ham and he’s looked one of the best Leeds players so far this season.

His £5million signing (Yorkshire Evening Post) looks like an inspired piece of business and they were taking a punt this season making him their number one in the Premier League, as he had very little experience of first-team football.

But he’s already mixing it with some of the best goalkeepers in the division and is one area of the pitch Bielsa can be really pleased with.