Each day we pick out a player and cut through the noise to give analytical, objective insight. Thursday's focus is on Leeds goalkeeper Illan Meslier.
- Age: 22
- Position: Goalkeeper
- Club: Leeds United
- Country: France
Much has been made of Illan Meslier's credentials over the past three seasons and he is now being linked with some of Europe's top clubs.
The Frenchman became the youngest keeper to rack up 10 Premier League clean sheets in 2021, aged just 21 years and 54 days old, breaking a Joe Hart record that had stood since 2008.
He is now closing in on a century of top-flight appearances, an ample sample size from which we can judge him as a potentially elite goalkeeper.
Or not.
In terms of aerial dominance, the Leeds number one shows up well in the data, improving year on year.
He tops the league charts for punches by some margin with 14 - three clear of next-best Jordan Pickford - meaning he is on course to surpass the 18 he recorded in the 2021/22 season.
Punching seems to be Meslier's default setting given that he lags behind other keepers in terms of high claims, ranking seventh with 17, but even in this area it looks likely he will better last season's effort of 23.
However, this season the Frenchman ranks at the wrong end of the table in terms of post-shot expected goals (psxG), a metric used to judge a goalkeeper's ability as a shot-stopper.
It measures the likelihood of a keeper saving any given on-target chance he faces, taking into account the placement, power, dip and swerve of the attempt - it even factors in if the ball has been deflected.
His psxG this season sits at 26.1, meaning he would have been expected to concede around 26 goals from the on-target attempts he's faced, yet Meslier has underperformed by conceding 30 (excluding own goals).
Only Dean Henderson (-4.1), Mark Travers (-6.9) and Gavin Bazunu (-8.6) have performed worse .
It's worth noting that post-shot xG can be volatile. While it gives a gauge of who the best shot-stoppers are in the current season, we can sometimes see a goalkeeper go from performing like a world beater one season to an also-ran the next due to a number of factors.
Jose Sa is a great example. Last season he overperformed his psxG by a league leading +7.3, yet this season he underperforming by -3.1.
Unfortunately for Meslier, he has been consistently bad on this metric since he came into the league, underperforming his psxG consistently, which suggests he is a below-average shot-stopping goalkeeper.
In 20/21 his psxG difference stood at -3.4 and last term it was a league worst -16.2, so it's no surprise to see him in the negative again as we approach this season's halfway point.
