Should Leeds United consider giving Gaetano Berardi a new role?
Neil Redfearn told Radio Yorkshire this week that he flirted with the idea of playing Leeds United ace Gaetano Berardi in defensive midfield during his spell in charge.
The Swiss defender joined for a bargain £250,000 in 2014 and the 27-year-old has been mainly used in a right-back role for Leeds since.
Thomas Christiansen has used him at left-back in United’s last three games – all defeats – and there is every chance that the 44-year-old coach could drop him for Vurnon Anita ahead of Saturday’s visit to Bristol City.
But should Christiansen follow through with what Redfearn toyed around with?
One major criticism of Leeds this season has been a lack of physicality in midfield, with Eunan O’Kane and Kalvin Phillips brilliant on the ball but their off-the-ball play perhaps leaves a little to be desired it must be said.
Berardi isn’t a man-mountain of a player – he is only 5’10 – but he is a tough cookie, the player who his colleagues regularly name as the man they wouldn’t want to mess with during the ‘Team-mates’ segment on LUTV and it is worth considering whether a defensive midfield role would suit him.
He can pass, tackle and put himself about in ways which O’Kane and Phillips are not at the moment and it could be a brilliant move by Christiansen.
Berardi has been a fine asset down the years but Luke Ayling’s form means he is unlikely to get many chances at right-back, but he has the character, passion and physicality to do jobs in other areas and maybe, just maybe, defensive midfield is one of them.
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