Dominic Matteo has been speaking ahead of Leeds United’s trip to Sheffield Wednesday tomorrow night.
The Whites will be looking to end this hectic period of four matches in just nine days with another win, having narrowly overcome Stoke City 1-0 earlier this week.
Wednesday are another side that Leeds are facing who are very much fighting for their lives down at the bottom, and so Daniel Farke’s side can expect another intense encounter, just like at Huddersfield Town, and then against Stoke.
Illan Meslier was key to Leeds picking up four points from those two matches, particularly against the latter, as he made a number of crucial second half saves to preserve the 1-0 lead.
Speaking to LUTV ahead of tomorrow’s Yorkshire derby, Matteo believes Meslier is playing with a lot of confidence at the moment and has really ‘stepped up’ recently.
Matteo hails Meslier performances
He said: “I thought the ‘keeper [Illan Meslier] was outstanding as well, one of them this year who has really stepped up. He’s made some crucial saves at the right moments and seems like he is playing with a lot of confidence, which is great.”
Meslier is very much a confidence-based player and it is fair to say that was shattered after his end to last season, but he has certainly been getting it back more and more recently.
The 24-year-old was somewhat inconsistent during the first half of the campaign but Farke has always maintained full belief in him, which has been justified as of late.
As mentioned, he made some big saves against both Stoke and Huddersfield, while the recent win over Plymouth Argyle brought the best out of him in terms of command of area.
Leeds have kept eight clean sheets in their 11 matches since the turn of the New Year and there is no doubt Meslier has played a big part of that.
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