Leeds United’s ‘elephant in the room’ must be addressed by Daniel Farke behind closed doors, according to Alan Pardew

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Leeds United’s player should have been jumping back on the coach and heading for Yorkshire with three points in the bag, away from home at the Championship’s early front runners.

They were seconds away from doing so, too. But Illan Meslier failed to simply pick up a stray ball that was unfortunately on target from Sunderland midfielder Alan Browne, in the last few seconds of injury time.

But via a tiny deflection off of Junior Firpo, the ball deceived Illan Meslier and trickled into the net. The enormous mistake ruining what had been a very solid performance from Daniel Farke’s men on Wearside.

Pascal Struijk said the pitch was to blame as he took the leadership route to answering questions about Meslier’s mistake, while Elland Road legend Jermaine Beckford leapt to Meslier’s defence on Friday night.

It has been the talk of the footballing world on social media and among pundits following Meslier’s error. Alan Pardew has shared how he would deal with the situation and Meslier, behind closed doors at Leeds.

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Alan Pardew has advice for Daniel Farke on Illan Meslier situation

Plenty of Leeds players got around Meslier after the full-time whistle and showed the club is a family, as they tried to reassure the Frenchman. But, Firpo did the opposite, storming down the Sunderland tunnel.

Speaking on TalkSPORT last night (October 6, 8.20PM), former Newcastle and West Ham boss Alan Pardew said that Farke would need to address the elephant in the room behind the Elland Road scenes.

“You’re not going to point the finger – he’s feeling bad enough about it already. You have to talk about it. The team will want you to talk about it. It’s an elephant in the room so of course you talk about it.

“Even silly sendings off, you address it in a similar way – you deal with it separately. As a player, you have more downs than ups and you have to bounce back from it,” Pardew said when asked about the mistake.

Illan Meslier’s record in the Championship must be remembered

Many fans have called for Meslier to be dropped and replaced by Karl Darlow, who is currently on duty with Wales. But fans must remember just how good Meslier has been, and the grass is not always greener.

While in the Championship, Leeds are not going to get a better goalkeeper. It is as simple as that. Perhaps, in the Premier League, a new signing could be made but even then, Meslier is a top, top player.

Leeds fans will remember Meslier’s save at Leicester last season, his stop to deny John Lundstram in the 1-0 win over Sheffield United in Marcelo Bielsa’s first season and plenty of other massive stops.

Farke and the senior Leeds players must get their arm around Meslier ahead of October 18’s clash at Elland Road when Leeds welcome Sheffield United, and Chris Wilder. An enormous Championship clash.