Illan Meslier on his Leeds United feeling and 'stepping up' as boss reveals 'Iceman' challenge

It's easy to forget that the towering 'keeper nicknamed the Iceman is still only 22 years old. And still getting better, the Frenchman intent on continually "stepping up" his game and clearly rising to a challenge set by boss Jesse Marsch.

Meslier has started all 25 of Marsch's games in charge since the American replaced Marcelo Bielsa last February having already established himself as clear first choice custodian under the club's former Argentine head coach. Indeed, Saturday night's Premier League outing at Liverpool marked a case of 50 not out for Meslier who has now started every one of United's last 50 Premier League games and all 54 in league and cup.

The run extends all the way back to the 5-1 defeat at Manchester United of August 2021 with Meslier not missing out since Kiko Casilla came into the side for the last two games of United's first season back in the Premier League of 2020-21.

Back then, already-clearly established first-choice keeper Meslier dropped to the bench for the season finales at Southampton and at home to West Brom as part of a Premier League debut season which featured 35 full games.

The only other omission arrived in January when Meslier was ill for the hosting of Brighton in which Casilla again took his place between the sticks, as was the case for January's FA Cup third round defeat at Crawley Town and September's EFL Cup exit at home to Hull City on penalties for which Meslier was on the bench.

The young Frenchman initially found himself on that bench on a regular basis upon joining the Whites on a season-long loan from Lorient in August 2019 as Bielsa stuck with Casilla as his first-choice keeper. It seems strange now to think that Meslier was not even in the matchday squad for ten Championship clashes in the Autumn and Winter of 2019 in which Kamil Miazek was back up stopper to Casilla.

Meslier, though, was finally handed his chance in February 2020 after the FA issued Casilla with an eight-game ban having found the Spaniard guilty of using racist language to Charlton Athletic's Jonathan Leko in the 1-0 defeat at Charlton Athletic the previous September, something Casilla denied.

Having excelled on his Whites debut in the previous month's third round FA Cup clash at Arsenal, it meant Meslier was finally handed his league debut in the following month's Championship clash at Hull City and the keeper has never looked back since, or after making his move permanent for what now seems a barely believable snip of a fee of just £5m the following summer.

Meslier's appearance at the KC Stadium in February 2020 started a run that has seen him line up in 57 of United's last 61 league games which have encompassed promotion, a change of manager, a relegation battle and ultimately establishing himself as one of the leading stoppers of the Premier League. Nine stops somehow kept Liverpool at bay in Saturday's epic victory at Anfield, and Meslier is embracing the challenge to continually keep getting better.

"I have been here since the beginning and I am very proud to step up and to keep working and to do a great game at Anfield," said Meslier after Saturday's starring role. "It is a pleasure all the time to help my team and I was happy also that we could score in this great stadium to bring the three points to Leeds."

Without him, Leeds would not have got them as the France under-21s stopper produced particularly brilliant saves to thwart Darwin Nunez and then Roberto Firmino who failed to beat Meslier with a free header from point blank range in the 88th minute. One minute later, Leeds went up the other end and sealed a 2-1 victory thanks to another young star as Crysencio Summerville bagged his second goal for the Whites.

Both players were hot topic when it came to the post-match debrief, in which Marsch revealed his latest challenge to his hugely-talented young French keeper. Meslier has only missed 35 minutes of football under Marsch who called for Kristoffer Klaesson ten minutes into the second half of last March's helter-skelter 3-2 win at Wolves after Meslier was involved in a heavy collision with Raul Jimenez who was sent off for a second booking.

But the Frenchman was back between the sticks in the very next game at home to Southampton and has stayed between the posts for every single minute in league and even cup since for 1,890 minutes of unbroken football encompassing 21 starts in a row, 20 of which have been in the league.

"What I always say about goalkeepers is I can give them tutelage on presence and mentality and how to handle moments, how to be the quarterback of the team," said Marsch. "But the technical aspect of what I can teach him, that I have to leave up to the goalkeeper coach. We needed Illan, I've been pushing him to continue to grow, to be a bigger presence, to be savvier and understand how to handle big moments. Certainly today he did that. He did that really well."