Jermaine Beckford has been speaking on the latest edition of The Athletic’s The Phil Hay Show, and he has been talking about all things relating to Leeds United.
One of the topics that he spent some time on was the injury to Kalvin Phillips after the 24-year-old damaged his shoulder in the Whites’ defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers.
The initial diagnosis was that he could be out for six weeks, but Marcelo Bielsa suggested that he could be back sooner, or he could be out longer.
Beckford offered his view on the situation, and it seems as if he thinks that the Whites will miss Phillips both for his ability to break up play and also his distribution.
Speaking before Leeds’ clash with Aston Villa, he said: “He’s definitely one of those players that would have caused an issue to Jack Grealish, who seems to be his new ‘BFF’. But I think it’s definitely going to be a tricky position to fill; a tricky void to fill.
“[Pascal] Struijk is good, he’s becoming a little bit of a utility player now, he’s filling in at centre-half, he’s filling in that holding midfield role.
“It’s a position that is pivotal to the way we play the game.
“Pretty much everything either goes through Kalvin, or he stops; he breaks everything up.
“Not to mention his distribution, his distribution is brilliant.”
Do you agree with Beckford?
Yes, we will struggle without him
No, we will be fine
TIF Thoughts on Beckford’s view on Phillips…
If you look at some of Phillips’ stats from this season in the league, you will see that he averages 1.6 interceptions per game and 3.4 tackles per game.
That puts him in third place for tackles and fourth place for interceptions in Leeds’ squad.
His passing success rate is 82.8%, which puts him in sixth place in Leeds’ squad for passing.
So, you can see why Leeds might miss him in the time that he is out, and his replacement Pascal Struijk, as confirmed by Marcelo Bielsa, might have his work cut out filling in for Phillips while he is injured.