“We will start the season with a lot of players who are aligned with the project, it wasn’t the case last season”- Illan Meslier claims dressing room disarray at the start of last season wrote off matches under Daniel Farke

Illan Meslier spoke to the media after Leeds United’s win over Schalke and discussed how much better their position is now than 12 months ago when many players were not committed to the project

Starting the season with the first game rather than the sixth is one way Leeds United will improve their chances of promotion next term. Six points from the first 15 available last year neatly sums up the kind of deficit it felt like the Whites were chasing until Easter, when they finally found parity with the league leaders after a 15-match unbeaten streak.

Illan Meslier spoke to the media after Saturday’s friendly win over Schalke and feels the team is in a far better place now than it was 12 months ago. The goalkeeper admits there were too many disenfranchised players in the team as 23/24 began, leading to those poor early results under Daniel Farke.

Last summer and this, Meslier has stood out as one of those players with the international ambitions, reputation and age to justify transfer interest while United are outside the Premier League. However, he insists walking away has not been a consideration for him, despite May’s Wembley agony.

Rather than waiting for the season to start until after the transfer window has closed and after the first international break, Meslier feels Farke’s side can hit the ground running with this group from August 10.

“When you lose in the final of the play-off, it’s always disappointing, that’s normal, but, after, you have time, once you go on holiday, to think everything about what happened,” he said. “We gave everything, unfortunately, it happens, but, to be honest, this season we are in an even better position than last season.

“We will start the season with a lot of players who are very concerned (aligned) with the project of Leeds. It wasn’t the case last season. We will start from the first game and not after the international break of last season.

“It’s always been clear in my mind, I want to go back up with Leeds. There weren’t doubts, or things like this, in my mind.”