Alfie McCalmont was outstanding as Leeds United began pre-season with a dominant win at York City.
A number of Leeds supporters have insisted that Alfie McCalmont needs to be promoted to the first-team on a permanent basis after the under-23 stalwart produced a superb performance in the Whites’ opening pre-season friendly.
Marcelo Bielsa’s side were able to put a disappointing week in the transfer window to the back of their minds on Wednesday as they returned to the pitch for the first time since last season’s Championship play-off semi-final.
And Bielsa is likely to be delighted with a lot of what he saw at York City as Leeds ran out 5-0 winners, with a number of first-team stars impressing and several youngsters, perhaps unsurprisingly, catching the eye.
McCalmont was handed a start in the role that Kalvin Phillips thrived in last term. The Northern Ireland under-21 international looked a class act in one of the most important positions in Bielsa’s system.
He looked comfortable dropping into the backline alongside Liam Cooper and Gaetano Berardi, and also distributed the ball extremely well. It was certainly the kind of display that the Leeds fans would have loved to see amid all of the speculation surrounding Phillips’ future at Elland Road.
And plenty of fans have taken to Twitter to laud McCalmont’s display in the curtain-raiser. Several have suggested that he has definitely played himself into contention for more chances this summer, while many expect the 19-year-old to have put himself right into Bielsa’s plans for the coming season.
Here is what some of the fans made of the teenager’s performance…
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