Kalvin Phillips was sensational during Leeds United’s win that sent them back to the top of the Championship.
If Marcelo Bielsa previously had any doubt regarding who should be Leeds United’s first choice holding midfielder, the Whites’s win against Swansea on Wednesday night would have surely made his mind up.
Kalvin Phillips was exceptional at Elland Road. The 23-year-old seemed to let nothing get by him on a night where Leeds went back to the top of the Championship with a 2-1 win.
Some of his passing was exquisite. Unfortunately for Adam Forshaw, it appears that he has a huge uphill battle trying to get back into the team in that role with Phillips looking back to his best.
And what made Phillips’s performance all the more remarkable was the memory of how the midfielder’s evening played out the last time that Leeds faced Swansea this season.
Despite his superb start to the campaign, some felt that Bielsa had somewhat humiliated Phillips by replacing him 28 minutes into the clash at the Liberty Stadium back in August.
Leeds were 1-0 down and the Whites improved dramatically after the substitution as they went on to secure a 2-2 draw. In truth however, Phillips had picked up an early yellow card, and Bielsa’s decision seemed to be based on Leeds’s need to have someone in that role who could make the kind of full-blooded challenges that would inspire a turnaround, rather than any particular frustration over Phillips’s display.
Nevertheless, Phillips has kicked on so much this season that he is now a player that Bielsa would surely never dream of taking off during the early stages of a game when Leeds need to change things around.
After biding his time waiting to get that midfield role back, Phillips’s Swansea performance has to be considered one of his best in an already fantastic season for the youngster. It will have certainly banished any remaining painful memories from when the two teams last met.
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