Keys to keeping so-called 'Man Utd target' Kalvin Phillips for Jesse Marsch and Leeds United - YEP 28/4/22
Marcelo Bielsa managed it, Gareth Southgate did too and now Jesse Marsch must get the best out of Leeds United’s Kalvin Phillips.
By Graham Smyth
Welcoming 2020/21’s England Player of the Year back for the
run-in is a luxury for Leeds and the envy of their relegation rivals.
Under Bielsa, he became a defensive destroyer who dominated
in the Championship, to a degree that he was destined for the top flight even
if Leeds had not got there.
That dominance was sufficient enough that Southgate was
planning to call him up, prior to his Premier League involvement, and, under
the Three Lions boss, he had to become something else.
At first, next to Declan Rice in a midfield two, it was a
little frustrating to watch Phillips as he moved around, taking opposition
players with him to create space, without being able to get hold of the ball
and play forward as much as he did for his club.
It felt like a hand-holding exercise, for a player who was
starting to prove in the Premier League, as he did in the second tier, that he
did not need his hand holding in the deep-lying midfield area. And yet
Southgate knew what he wanted, stuck with it and, by the time England hit the
Euros, Phillips and Rice came as an incredibly effective pair, the Leeds man
playing in a very different role to his ‘day job’ in more advanced positions
and providing just as much value.
He covered huge distances and covered himself in glory en
route to a final that required penalties to sort out.
If Bielsa made Phillips, Southgate helped make him more
rounded as a midfielder.
So having a defensive midfielder and number eight of such
calibre fully fit and back among his options strengthens Marsch’s hand significantly,
as long as he knows how to play his hand.
At Crystal Palace, we didn’t see the best of many Leeds
players, even those who did very well defensively, because the possession side
of their game was so collectively and individually poor. Phillips was no
different, showing how well he can tackle and harry opposition sides but
struggling to showcase his wonderful range of passing and the ability to help
his team tick on the ball, due perhaps to rustiness, the nature of the game,
positional unfamiliarity, the system itself or some combination of those
factors.
Monday night’s game was the 26-year-old’s first 90-minute
appearance since the same opposition visited Elland Road in November, so rust
would be forgiveable and it will soon be shaken off.
The nature of the next three games will, you would think, be
very different, given they feature a trio of the Premier League’s elite and, no
matter how difficult Leeds make life for Manchester City, Arsenal and Chelsea
with their pressing and aggression, there will be so much more composure and
quality on display.
The pinball we saw at Watford and Palace may be less in
evidence and maybe, just maybe, Phillips can put a foot on the ball. That, of
course, will depend on how ferociously he’s being pressed himself - Manchester
City are well capable of making life a misery for anyone wearing white. Pep
Guardiola’s men have recorded the fewest pressures this season in the top
flight yet they boast the division’s highest successful pressure percentage.
Phillips found a way to get onto the ball and into the game
the last time Manchester City visited Elland Road, though, and Marsch needs to
help him make that happen again.
Time, the American believes, will help, and Phillips will
become more effective as he better understands what is being asked of him. That
has to be the case and not just to ensure Leeds stay up. Leeds’ players
mightily enjoyed their win at Watford but looked less enthralled,
understandably, during and after the draw with Palace. Even if a point away
from home is not to be sniffed at when you’re striving to hit the 37 or 38
mark, this is a group who made a lot of how much fun it was to play Bielsaball,
at its zenith.
For a midfielder who wants to create or spend longer than a
second on the ball, games like Mondays cannot do much for the dopamine levels.
It could be the case that, right now, Phillips and his team-mates are so
hyper-focused on survival that they’re willing to do what it takes to make that
happen, even if it means playing some aesthetically displeasing stuff or
scrapping it out to the finish.
Results are all-important and can sustain top-flight status
but are they enough to sustain the players’ belief that this is a project they
want to be part of going forward? Come the summer, it will be down to the
quality of the club’s recruitment and the way Marsch sells his ideas in
pre-season, with the squad he needs rather than one he has had to shoehorn into
his system, to do the convincing when other doors start to open.
If Leeds are to keep Phillips this summer - forget the
insane Manchester United talk, it’s Saturday evening’s visitors, with their
bottomless pockets, regular trophies and need to replace Fernandinho, you want
to worry about - he needs to be convinced that staying at Elland Road is going
to be fun. He needs to know Marsch’s system will make Leeds competitive whilst
allowing him to shine, if he is to continue to do so for Southgate, as the
country’s other central midfield options continue to emerge at pace.
The way the Whites have been playing will afford him plenty
of opportunities to ‘go and smash somebody’ as he so beautifully put it once,
and the way they’re going to play has to afford him time on the ball to do the
other things he can do so well.
The good news for Marsch is that this is a player open to
new ideas, one who will put his trust in a head coach who wants to mould him.
What can he make of Phillips?