Jermaine Jenas described the part of Illan Meslier for Fulham’s opening goal in their win over Leeds United as not good enough as the Frenchman flapped at a cross and presented a golden chance to Harry Wilson.
Jenas was speaking on BT Sport (broadcast on 22/4) as Leeds suffered their third loss on the spin. The Whites were so short of quality throughout the contest. And they could have no complaints with losing once again.
Fulham looked slightly more dangerous before the break. And they ended up opening the scoring just before the hour-mark, with Wilson slamming the ball home.
Jenas criticises Meslier after Leeds loss
Once again however, the goal was a woeful piece of play from Illan Meslier. Willian’s floated cross was put into a dangerous area. However, Meslier had little around him. In fact, the only player behind him was Max Wober.
Nevertheless, he decided to flap at the ball, palming it right into the feet of Wilson. And he made the most of the opportunity.
No-one covered themselves in glory for that opening goal. But Jenas certainly pointed the finger of blame at the 22-year-old.
“We said it in the first half that we thought Fulham had more of that quality, it was whether they decided to turn it on,” he told BT Sport.
“Take nothing away from Harry Wilson, that technique and finish is brilliant, but that’s not good enough from the keeper to knock it down in that area.”
Meslier’s afternoon got even worse shortly after. He parried a cross straight into Andreas Pereira. And Pereira had all the time in the world to thump it home from a yard or two out.
Meslier’s form has been a problem for some time. He was not solely to blame for the heavy losses to Crystal Palace and Liverpool. But he was seriously poor in both games.
He does not appear to save anywhere near enough. And both of those crosses should have arguably been dealt with ease.
Meslier did make a brilliant save late on to stop Fulham adding a third. But by that stage, the damage was absolutely done.
Joel Robles simply has to come in for the clash with Leicester City this coming week. Certainly, Javi Gracia would be taking a huge gamble sticking by Meslier for such a pivotal game.