Robbie Keane told Premier League Productions that Liam Cooper needs to ‘grab hold’ of Kalvin Phillips because the Leeds United player was ‘all over the place’ against Manchester United.
The former Republic of Ireland striker thinks Leeds’ captain needs to showcase his leadership skills against the big boys and tell his number six to sit back and not allow the better players so much space in behind.
Leeds were ripped apart over the weekend when they conceded six against Manchester United, with the opening two goals coming inside the first three minutes, as Keane shared his thoughts on how Phillips performed.
“Leeds didn’t help themselves either,” said Keane. “They vacated the space way too often. Phillips was all over the place. He happened to be taken off.
“They’ll play Burnley next week and will probably end up beating them 6-2. That’s the way Leeds are. When you play against the top teams you get found out sometimes.
“They need to be a bit more disciplined. The way they play. The way they run. They want to run over teams. But certain times you have to pick your moments and we saw Phillips a couple of times went out of position. And it’s very, very difficult when you are playing against top teams.
“That’s where the leaders need to come in there. If I am a centre-back Cooper there. I am making sure Phillips is sitting in front of the back four because it was attack after attack after attack. That’s where you need the leaders to grab hold of these players.”
Leeds will no doubt show their forward-thinking mentality for the next game when they go at Burnley in the same manner they tried to take down Man United at Old Trafford.
The key thing for the Leeds players is for them not to lose belief in what they do, nor lose confidence because that’s when things will start to go wrong.
Until then, they will go from conceding six one game to putting six past another team and looking unstoppable.
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