Leeds United promotion hero backs Illan Meslier alternative and plots route out of Whites wobble

Dallas was back at Elland Road on Wednesday, preparing to jump on a bike to cycle to Harrogate Town's ground as part of Sky Bet EFL Every Minute Matters Relay. The Ulsterman was joining Leeds fan Conor Houton, who lost his dad to cardiac arrest in 2019, to raise awareness of a campaign that is asking football fans to give up 15 minutes to learn life-saving CPR. Their leg from Elland Road to Harrogate was part of a 4,000km, 28-day journey with 72 stops at each and every EFL ground. It's the latest phase of a British Heart Foundation initiative to encourage 270,000 football fans to learn CPR by May 2025.

The night before his part in the journey Dallas was in his kitchen refreshing his CPR knowledge on the British Heart Foundation website and practising with his wife and in-laws. It's a campaign that feels personal for Dallas, who was 10 years old when he lost his mum Jacqueline to cardiac arrest. His granda also suffered heart problems.

"When I was approached and heard Conor's story I felt like it would be a good thing for me to get involved in." he told the YEP.

"Fortunately, I've never had to do CPR. It's a long time since I did a class in it. I did it last night, actually, through the reviver tool that's on the British Heart Foundation website. So I would urge people to have a look at that, because it actually is a really good tool to use. You just get a pillow, and it's quite good, actually, because you set your camera up, it talks you through it from the minute you come upon somebody, how you lay them out, how you obviously react to things, and you set your phone up then, and it records you doing it, and it can gauge whether you're doing it at the right speed, the right pressure as well. I'm hoping that I never have to use it. But you know, the main aim of us doing this today is to raise awareness for people to be trained in doing it."

Dallas was upstairs in the East Stand at Elland Road minutes before setting off on the bike, doing rounds of interviews to promote the campaign. Now retired, the 2020 promotion winner has a foot in the door of the media world and this season has been put to good use by Sky, ITV and Leeds United's in-house broadcast department, covering the ups and downs of the current team's season. This week's hot topic might be a little awkward for a player who counts many of Daniel Farke's team as former team-mates and friends but it's unavoidable and Dallas is not one to beat around the bush.

He was in the dressing room at a time when Kiko Casilla came under heavy scrutiny for high profile errors, with external calls for Marcelo Bielsa to replace him. It's a situation Illan Meslier finds himself in right now. Dallas played with both men and has watched Meslier grow up from a teenage prospect to the present number one at Elland Road. He doesn't see similarities with the two situations but he knows the question on everyone's lips right now ahead of a huge game at Luton Town.

"I think with the Kiko situation, it was a bit different because he was a really experienced goalkeeper who had come from Real Madrid," said Dallas. "He knew the pressures of playing for a big club. Illan's obviously been here a long time now and he's done fantastically well up until this point. It's been a difficult season for him I think, simply because of the mistakes that he's made. I know the boys will be rallying around him because at the end of the day, he's a footballer, but he's a human being as well, he has feelings, and it's not nice to see somebody going through a difficult time. But there's huge pressures of playing for this club, and obviously the spotlight on them is intense."

Meslier's errors in games against Hull City, Sunderland and Saturday's clash with Swansea City undoubtedly cost Leeds points but Farke has so far backed the Frenchman rather than turning to veteran Karl Darlow, Wales' current number one. All eyes will be on Farke's press conference on Thursday to preview the trip to Luton as he faces questions on the goalkeeping situation and if he does make the call to change things with seven games to go, Dallas backs Darlow to be able to step in and deal with what comes his way.

"I'm sure the manager will deal with it in the right kind of way, [Illan] needs an arm around him as well, but I know you're hinting to take him out of the team - he's done really, really well and he still is a fantastic goalkeeper but for me, they've got Karl Darlow there as well, who is an experienced goalkeeper. He's not an 18-year-old kid with no experience. He's a really, really top, top goalkeeper. It might be time to take [Illan] out. I don't know. Obviously, only the manager will make that decision. As I said before, he's had a difficult season. I said it a number of weeks ago, after the Hull game, obviously, Karl played in the Harrogate game and I was asked about it on ITV for the Sheffield Wednesday game. My point then was that Karl is a more than capable replacement, so it'll be interesting to see what Daniel does."

Darlow is among those Dallas names as key for Leeds right now, having won just one of their last five outings. Ethan Ampadu returned to the line-up against Swansea and though his performance was a rusty one, Dallas points to Farke's estimation of the skipper and the crucial role he plays. Others too will take on huge importance for the promotion run-in, including one of the season's forgotten men who hasn't seen any action since New Year's Day - Patrick Bamford.

"There's a number of players who are key," said Dallas. "Obviously, he's brought Ethan back in at the weekend. [Farke] has openly spoken about his influence, both on and off the pitch in the past. So he's a huge, huge figure in there. Joe Rodon, at the back, Pascal [Struijk], you look at Dan James as well, who's not just a young kid anymore, he's been probably their best player this year. And I know he's quiet, he does try to do his talking on the pitch, and that's okay in that kind of way. Karl Darlow again, another one who is key, Patrick Bamford just for his leadership skills, his calmness. I'm not saying he needs to start him but I think he should be involved in some capacity.

"Obviously the manager sees him every day, he knows better than I do. But I just think, from experience and having players like that around can only be a good thing for him."

Dallas knows all too well what the narrative and the noise around Leeds can be like at a time like this. His promotion-winning side went through dips in form and returned from the three-month Covid-19 pandemic break with a defeat at Cardiff City. They didn't let any wobbles turn into costly slides though and he puts a lot of that down to inner belief that they were worthy of promotion.

"We believed in what we were trying to do, we believed in the style the manager wanted to play with and we knew that we were good enough," said Dallas. "This team now is the same. They know they've got to a point now, they're more than capable of going unbeaten the rest of the season. Obviously, the pressures of playing for this club are huge, but the good thing is that they've given themselves enough of a gap to have this blip. They've had one win in five, so now it's a clean slate. They've got to go into these next two games, two away games, and whether it takes a lucky winner at Luton just to get the 12.30pm thing off their back, or just a bit of nastiness and a bit of know-how to win games, a bit of experience - they can't let the season slip past now. They've got to really take it to teams because everybody wants them to fail and that brings its own pressure. So the more experienced players have got to step up and I don't mean that in a bad way, I just mean they've got to really rally around the younger players and help push them on."

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