Noel Whelan believes Marcelo Bielsa could make a ‘ludicrous’ mistake if he were to drop Kalvin Phillips into a centre-back role as Leeds United currently lack defensive options.
The Whites have failed to replace Pontus Jansson following his departure to Championship rivals Brentford and only have Liam Cooper and Gaetano Berardi as their more established and recognised options (Transfermarkt).
Whelan admitted that although Phillips is likely a candidate to play that role after doing so on 13 occasions last season because of injuries and suspensions (as noted by Football Insider), the ex-player-turned-pundit believes taking him out of midfield would be a huge loss to Leeds moving forward.
“Right now, you’ve got to look at Luke Ayling but he’s injured. Bar that, you’re looking at Berardi, you’re looking at Kalvin Phillips,” he told Football Insider.
“You would not want to pull Phillips out of that role that he plays, that deep midfield role, because that is why they’ve held onto him for so long, for that reason.
“Why would you want to pull one of the best defensive midfielders out of the Championship and put into a centre half role when Premier League clubs want him for that role? That would just be ludicrous.”
And, the stats would appear to back Whelan’s viewpoint on the matter as well as Phillips was clearly a driving force for the Championship outfit last season.
Defensively, he was ranked top for tackles (2.6) and made 1.3 interceptions as he helped protect the backline from a number of attacks, but it could be said that he is more useful further forward.
The 23-year-old was one of the most active in the side when spraying the ball around the pitch, as he averaged 58.5 passes per match with an 82.1% pass success rate (per WhoScored). He was also effective when creating chances as he created 0.6 key passes per game, whilst chipping in with three assists and one goal in his 44 appearances.
Whelan is not the only pundit to believe Phillips is the best suited to playing in the middle of the park either, with David Prutton sharing the same sentiments back in January.
In his column for the Yorkshire Evening Post, Prutton revealed that his aggression in the midfield is exactly what Leeds need.
“Kalvin has a great bite about the way he plays the game. I don’t mean that in a nasty sense, but he has a good aggression about him and you always need a couple of those types of players – the ones who can assert themselves physically on a game.”
However, with Aston Villa continuing to lurk around, whether Phillips remains a Leeds player long enough to give Bielsa the opportunity to play him at the back remains to be seen as the midfielder reportedly looks set to push a move through this summer (The Sun).
Leeds fans, do you agree with Whelan’s viewpoint? Let us know what your thoughts are by sharing them in the comments section below!
