Jermaine Beckford makes claim about Illan Meslier at Leeds after his mistake against Sunderland

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Former Leeds United striker Jermaine Beckford has leapt to the defence of Illan Meslier after his mistake in the 2-2 draw at Sunderland.

Having actually produced one of his best performances of the season, Meslier inexplicably allowed a tame bouncing ball to roll past him and into the net in the 97th minute.

Leeds had defended superbly after going 2-1 ahead through Junior Firpo and had seemingly seen the game out when Alan Browne’s aimless punt into the box deflected off Firpo towards Meslier.

Browne admitted he had actually turned away once he saw where the ball was headed until the Stadium of Light erupted into both delight and shock when it somehow trickled into the net.

Regis Le Bris claimed Meslier cited a strange bounce is what caused the mistake but he will know as well as anyone there isn’t really an excuse for what happened.

• READ MORE: Leeds United player ‘stormed’ off pitch ‘fuming’ after what Illan Meslier did vs Sunderland

Beckford makes Meslier claim after Leeds error

Daniel Farke said Meslier was practically in tears in the dressing room at full-time and so clearly it is going to be difficult for him to get over.

Unfortunately, Meslier is probably going to see criticism wherever he looks over the next two weeks until Leeds are back in action against Sheffield United at Elland Road.

However, one man who has been quick to defend the Leeds goalkeeper is former Whites striker Beckford, who offered his thoughts on the situation on Twitter.

Meslier is certainly a goalkeeper that splits opinion at Leeds but Farke is a huge fan of him and has called him the best in the division on more than one occasion.

And it appears as though Beckford is of the same opinion as Farke, with his belief that Meslier will ‘win more points than he will cost’ over the course of the season.

He wrote: “I really feel for Meslier tonight, not put a foot wrong tonight and in the blink of an eye one mistake changes the whole game in the final seconds. Fortunately he’s going to save us more points than he will cost us. Let’s get behind him.”

• READ MORE: Pascal Struijk shares what he spotted in Sunderland’s pitch after Illan Meslier error for Leeds

Stats suggest Meslier won’t rectify Leeds error

Though far more went wrong against Portsmouth than one simply goalkeeping error, that is now two big mistakes from Meslier this season already, that has contributed to four lost points.

Meslier is already among the bottom seven in the Championship for goals prevented in the opening two months of the season, which is a stat that predicts how many goals a goalkeeper would be expected to concede, based on the quality of the shots that they faced. He currently sits at -1.47.

Last season, Meslier did make a couple of crucial saves against the likes of Leicester City and Norwich City (play-offs), but again was statistically poor.

Meslier’s goals prevented tally was -4.49 over the course of the 2023/24 campaign, and so some serious improvements will be needed for him to rectify this error.