Illan Meslier represents one of the reasons why Régis Le Bris is now Sunderland’s manager but on Friday night he and his Leeds teammates hope to silence a packed Stadium of Light.
As a teenage goalkeeper in a Lorient academy run by Le Bris, Meslier learned to fight under the tutelage of a professional boxing coach he now credits with having taught him “courage” during one-on-one clashes with centre-forwards.
Significantly, Meslier also mastered the art of manipulating his body during countless hours working out on a trampoline and experienced frequent “santé mentale” sessions, designed to perfect psychological control under pressure.
It all dictated that when Marcelo Bielsa threw the then 20-year-old Meslier into the Leeds first team four years ago the Breton swiftly established himself as one of the Premier League’s brightest young goalkeepers.
“The mentality Lorient taught us and the maturity they gave us in the academy made it easy to adapt,” said Meslier, who was also managed by Le Bris in the French club’s reserve side. “It was so tough.”
Now he and Leeds are back in the Championship under the direction of a different manager, Daniel Farke, and competing for automatic promotion with, among several other teams, table-topping Sunderland.
Given that Le Bris only graduated to senior management two years ago when he took charge of Lorient’s first team, the Wearsiders’ ascent to the second tier summit, trailing a 100% home record unblemished by the concession of a single goal at home has startled England’s football establishment.
Those who had muttered that Le Bris’s doctorate in human physiology and biomechanics and his diploma in the preparation of elite athletes were all very well but would be irrelevant in the EFL, have been confounded by Sunderland’s discipline out of possession, intelligent pressing and the sheer quality of their wing play propelled counterattacks. Eighteen points have not been collected from eight games by pure luck.
Considering that the average age of Sunderland’s squad is 23 and the much coveted Chris Rigg, 17, and Jobe Bellingham, 19, are key components of a formidable central midfield, the near two decades the 48-year-old Le Bris devoted to youth coaching in his native Brittany are clearly coming in handy.
So far at least, it seems Sunderland’s owner, Kyril Louis-Dreyfus knew precisely what he was doing in hiring one of Europe’s most renowned developers of young players to hone the youthful unpolished talent his club now acquire from across the world. A £3m buy from Birmingham, last year Bellingham was an expensive, and unusually local, recruit by current Wearside standards but is probably worth £40m in today’s market.
Farke, meanwhile, clearly has considerable admiration for a manager who nurtured not just Meslier but several other high flyers including France’s Lazio, and former Arsenal, midfielder Mattéo Guendouzi at Lorient.
“Sunderland are a really dangerous side,” said the German, who will doubtless be wary of the home wingers Patrick Roberts and Romaine Mundle. The latter 20-year-old, a £1m former Standard Liège forward has fitted seamlessly into Le Bris’s first XI following Jack Clarke’s £20m defection to Ipswich in August. “I’m respectful of their work. We know we have to be at our best to give ourselves a chance. Sunderland have really good shape and good players and they’re strong on the counterattack.”
Although Leeds sit fifth in the Championship with 15 points, last season’s beaten play-off finalists are still coming to terms with life without Archie Gray, Crysencio Summerville and Georginio Rutter after selling that trio to Tottenham, West Ham and Brighton respectively this summer for a collective £90m. Without that triple sale the club’s owners, the San Francisco based 49er Enterprises could have struggled to remain on the right side of profit and sustainability rules.
Given that the £10m former Almería winger Largie Ramazani and the £3.5m former Fortuna Düsseldorf midfielder Ao Tanaka are among those newcomers still settling in at Elland Road and only one goal has been conceded on the road it seems harsh that Farke is deemed as being “under pressure” with every point dropped. Yet with expensive plans to modernise Elland Road while expanding its capacity to 53,000 progressing apace, a swift return to the top tier seems imperative.
The Leeds manager could have done without the injuries that will deprive him of his first-choice central midfielders Ethan Ampadu and Ilia Gruev for the coming weeks and betrayed a certain anxiety in conceding he “desperately needs” his No 9, Patrick Bamford back to his best following summer knee surgery.
Not that Le Bris is about to underestimate Farke’s side. “They’re very strong, both in and out of possession,” he said, exhibiting a fluency in English that belies the reality he only began learning the language two years ago. “The game will be hard to win and we will have to manage it intelligently. Leeds are well managed, primed for promotion … and they have a very good goalkeeper.”
As Le Bris addressed the north east media on Thursday offering an amused “tres bien” whenever a reporter managed half sentence of halting French, he smiled at mention of Meslier. “Illan’s a very good reader of the game and very strong mentally,” he said. “I like the person as well as the player so I’m very happy he’s done so well … But I hope he’s picking the ball out of his net tomorrow!”