Leeds have to count themselves a little unlucky to have not gotten anything against Wolves on Friday evening.
The Whites had the better of the chances, and after having a contentious goal disallowed they have every right to feel irked with the result.
However, as with any 1-0 loss there were some negatives to take away from the game, and unfortunately one player who didn’t perform to the highest of standards was Jamie Shackleton.
Now, we don’t want to pile in on the 21-year-old, he’s a talented player with a lot of room to grow, and in the past he’s shown that he’s more than capable of holding his own in this Leeds team.
However, against Wolves he was deployed in a slightly different position, being asked to play in the Kalvin Phillips holding midfield role, and unfortunately, it just didn’t work out for him.
He made just one tackle all game, had only 32 touches of the ball, and didn’t make a single attacking contribution, with no key passes, no long balls, no crosses or shots even being attempted.
It wasn’t the worst display we’ve ever seen, he had a pass accuracy of over 96 per cent and didn’t make many errors, losing the ball just once, but when you’re stepping in for a player like Phillips, you need to be grabbing the game by the scruff of the neck.
The sad reality is that this isn’t the first time that holding midfield role has been a problem for Leeds. Pascal Struijk, Mateusz Klich and now Shackleton have all played there to little effect, so it’s no surprise to hear that Victor Orta has apparently decided to sign a player in that position this summer.
It remains to be seen who that player is, but after Shackleton faltered in that role, it’s now abundantly clear that United need some adequate back-up for Kalvin Phillips.
Luckily, Orta is already on the case, and his decision to look for a player in that area has seemingly already been justified.
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