Kalvin Phillips has arguably been one of Leeds United’s most impressive players in pre-season thus far.
Leeds may only be three pre-season games into the Marcelo Bielsa era, but there have certainly already been glimpses of the changes that the Argentinian hopes to make.
The Whites have not exactly hit the ground running when it comes to results, but there really appears to be a sense that Bielsa is already more than aware of what direction he wants to take the side in to give them the best chance of securing promotion out of the Championship.
And one of the players who arguably appears to have benefited most at this stage from Bielsa’s arrival is Kalvin Phillips, the midfielder who undoubtedly enjoyed his best season to date last term.
Phillips scored seven times in the Championship and has played some of his best football in the last 12 months, but he still came in for a lot of criticism as Leeds’ campaign went off the boil in fairly spectacular fashion.
The 22-year-old was not the most disappointing player in the squad by any means, but some may have feared what his future would have looked like given that the first signing that Bielsa brought in was Lewis Baker, while Adam Forshaw and Ronaldo Vieira are amongst his rivals for a place in the side.
However, his first two performances of pre-season hint that Bielsa’s first inspired move at Leeds may have involved moving Phillips into a deeper role that has occasionally even seen the academy graduate drop into something of a centre-back.
Given Bielsa’s track record, it was always expected that a central midfielder would probably drop into the defensive line, but Phillips may not have been the name that most expected given his attacking flair.
However, Bielsa deployed him as a real holding midfielder against Forest Green – that was frequently dropping incredibly deep to collect the ball or use his combative nature to help the win it back from the opposition – and while he played slightly further forward against Southend, he still displayed that desire to dictate the game and get stuck in with most of the game in front of him.
It is perhaps too soon to make informed predictions about which players are going to thrive during the coming campaign. But the way that Phillips has adapted to what appears to be a slightly different role suggests that he may take to working under Bielsa like a duck to water.
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