Leeds United yearning for midfield key amid Kalvin Phillips nostalgia - Graham Smyth's Hull Verdict — YEP 2/4/24
Leeds United nostalgia has been whipped up around a deep-lying midfielder but it's not Kalvin Phillips that Elland Road is currently yearning for.
By Graham Smyth
Life in football moves at such speed that it never takes
very long for a dreamy nostalgia to set in around people or events.
Take Gaetano Berardi, who was back at Elland Road for Easter
Monday's clash with Hull City. It's less than three years since Leeds United
confirmed the Swiss defender would be leaving the club, but so much water has
passed under the bridge in the intervening period that he already represents an
altogether different era. One of yesteryear's men. His name has rang out around
the stadium all season, along with those of various other favourites, in that
sort of wistful 'wish you were here' way. They sing about Pablo Hernandez and
Mateusz Klich, too, team-mates of Berardi's in that Marcelo Bielsa
Championship-winning side.
A man who was just as influential as any in that squad,
Kalvin Phillips, would be forgiven for losing himself in nostalgia of his own
at present or even yearning for an Elland Road return. What has passed under
the bridge for him as a footballer since leaving Leeds for Manchester City in
2022 has largely been forgettable and his middle-digit response to West Ham
fans said it all about the stormy waters he's now sailing.
Outside of the bewildering and predominantly online
schadenfreude that exists among some Leeds fans for one of their own, one of
their own guilty only of ambition, there is a school of thought that says bring
him home. For Phillips, should Leeds go up this season, a return to Elland Road
would make so much sense. This is where he last felt properly at home, because
it is his home. This is where he last held real importance in a squad and where
he last played with that boyish smile on his face. It would be fair to suggest
that Phillips might just bite your hand off for such a move, were it offered.
Yet for Leeds, particularly with Daniel Farke at the helm, there might not be
the same level of desperation.
He's not the type to beg anyone to come to Leeds, and this
is a team put together with a complete absence of sentiment. If Luke Ayling
seeing out the final months of his Leeds contract at Middlesbrough wasn't proof
enough, then look no further than club captain Liam Cooper being dropped for
the visit of Hull so Farke could reunite Ethan Ampadu and Joe Rodon at
centre-back. And though this Leeds team has suddenly a deep-lying six problem -
more on that shortly - the presence of Ampadu and the currently-injured Ilia
Gruev means the Elland Road transfer chiefs need not fall over themselves in a
hypothetical summer scenario that makes Phillips available to them. A Premier
League project would of course necessitate the upgrading of every department in
Farke's squad. The back four will be a priority. But a midfielder capable of
operating in the top flight would not be a bad addition.
The middle of the park was where all the focus lay as Leeds
bounced out of Watford with a rescued point on Friday night. Gruev's injury had
led Farke to put Ampadu back in midfield, breaking up the central-defensive
axis upon which so much of their remarkable 2024 form had been built. It didn't
go so well. Gruev's metronomic passing and calming influence were also
undoubtedly missed. So for the Hull game Farke swapped things round a little
more comprehensively to facilitate his first-choice defensive pairing. Sam
Byram switched to right-back, Junior Firpo came in at left-back and Archie Gray
went into the middle next to Glen Kamara.
Leicester City's win over Norwich City and the last-gasp
winner scored by Ipswich Town in their game against Southampton added a little
extra edge for the Whites and made it all the more imperative that Farke's
new-look midfield worked as it should. The German went with 18-year-old Gray at
six, leaving Kamara as his more forward-thinking eight. Yet it was Gray who
stormed forward down the right to exchange passes with Daniel James and carve
out the first chance, for himself, shooting high over the bar.
On a night of nerves, tension and no little emotion, an
early goal is always a good idea and Leeds were 1-0 up inside 10 minutes.
Georginio Rutter's magic, Crysencio Summerville's partially-saved shot and
Byram's follow-up header at the back post allowed Elland Road to settle into a
familiar and comforting scenario.
And though Farke's greed for goals is obvious, so too is his
demand for control. In the moments after the goal, as Gray shaped to lead a
forward charge and then opted to play backwards to retain possession, the
manager's applause was enthusiastic.
Previously this season that would have been that, so miserly
at the back and dominant going forward have Leeds been. But it was a different
story against Hull, who showed spirit and endeavour far beyond so many previous
visitors to Elland Road and played plenty of football.
Still, they should have been staring defeat in the face when
James sent the ball across the face of goal and Bamford met it a couple of
yards out with Ryan Allsop beaten. How he found the South Stand and not the net
will forever remain a mystery.
And as night follows day, Hull punished Leeds and Bamford
for his profligacy. Summerville's choice to press the keeper left space that
Hull played into and with Leeds' midfield pair sitting incredibly deep no one
engaged the visitors as they crossed the halfway line and drove deep into home
territory. Left went the ball, in came the cross and Fabio Carvalho flicked
past Ilan Meslier.
There were signs that Leeds and Gray were out to impose
themselves with a little more aggression in the second half. The youngster was
able to pull the strings, briefly, to start a move that ended in a dangerous
Byram cross.
But Leeds were not 'fixed' by any stretch of the
imagination, as Hull's counter from an Ampadu giveaway and Jaden Philogene's
inches-wide curler proved. And that moment was no outlier, Abdulkadir Omur came
equally close from a similar distance.
The introduction of Mateo Joseph was a spark and he came a
lick of paint away from a second goalscoring cameo of the weekend, just about
keeping himself onside to turn Firpo's cross onto the woodwork. Seconds later
Firpo headed wide. With Hull starting to visibly tire, Farke dipped into his
bench again and threw on Joel Piroe, whose first contribution was to give
Summerville a chance to run at Regan Slater. The Dutchman's speed took him to
the area and his body position did the rest, baiting Slater into a foul that
gave Leeds the chance to sneak ahead. Piroe put the ball down and settled
himself, then Summerville picked it up and backed himself, telling Piroe to go
away. Quite what would have happened had he not scored will, mercifully, remain
unknown, because he rolled the ball right down the middle to make it 2-1.
Though Hull refused to give in, attacking to the last and
sending keeper Allsop up to join in, Joe Rodon's sheer bloodyminded defending
kept them out and when Piroe fed James, he looked up to see an empty net and
found it, perfectly, from fully 45 yards.
It was, Farke admitted, a game made complicated by Hull's
quality and the various knocks, pains or illnesses in the Leeds team before and
during the contest. It was, he also admitted, made more difficult by the
absence of Gruev in midfield.
"Ilia dictates our rhythm and is so good on the ball
under pressure," said the manager. "It's no coincidence that we
lacked a bit of quality in possession, especially in the first half. Archie was
excellent I thought but he has to get used a bit to the perfect positioning to
develop our game. In terms of dictating the rhythm, calming it down and
speeding it up when we need it. He has to learn a bit. We are missing Ilia a
lot."
