Leeds United

Leeds United: BBC pundit claims Phillips lucky to avoid red card

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Image for Leeds United: BBC pundit claims Phillips lucky to avoid red card

Martin Keown has been speaking on Match of the Day about how Leeds United’s Kalvin Phillips was lucky to avoid being sent off.

Leeds United, for the second game in a row, ended the match with just 10 men on the pitch after seeing someone sent off with Daniel James being handed his marching orders quicker than Luke Ayling did last weekend vs Arsenal, with the Welshman being sent off for a reckless challenge on Mateo Kovacic.

Should Phillips have been sent off?

Yes!

Yes!

No!

No!

While Leeds boss Jesse Marsch refused to blame James for Wednesday’s poor display and result, it’s no secret that the Welshman leaving his teammates at a significant numerical disadvantage didn’t help them in the slightest, although one of his teammates could have joined him in having an early shower.

This is because Phillips lost the ball in midfield before jumping into a tackle on Christian Pulisic, getting absolutely nowhere near the ball, something that didn’t impress Keown.

“I mean everything that could go wrong in this game went wrong and you look at it and you look at the fixtures that are coming up and it does feel like now it’s starting to fall apart for Leeds.

“This one here, Kalvin Phillips, I mean he’s really lucky that he’s not another [sent off]. I’m not sure why he didn’t go for that [the ball] and they’re lucky not to lose yet another player.”

TIF Thoughts on Phillips…

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This was a low point in Leeds United's history, but how many points did they get in the 2003/04 campaign?

If Phillips was sent off for his wild tackle last night he could have likely had very few complaints and would have just summed up his frustrating season playing in just 18 league matches all campaign with his absence surely a big reason behind Leeds’ poor season.

With just two games left to play Leeds and Marsch know that they need every single player fighting, but not crossing the line as James and Ayling have done in recent weeks as losing more players will only go a long way to sealing their fate in the Championship next season.

In other news: ‘Reading between the lines…’ – Beren Cross drops interesting Leeds hint pre-Chelsea

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