Kalvin Phillips’ return to first-team action – after almost four months on the sidelines – is a welcome sight for everyone involved at Leeds United. No one at Elland Road enjoyed a more meteoric rise under Marcelo Bielsa than Phillips.
Singled out by the Argentine before he took the job as the midfield lynchpin for the team to form around. But his long absence this season has only proven to show how much Leeds and Bielsa needed him and how specialised he has become in the single-pivot role.
And now, as the 26-year-old is set to return to first-team action Bielsa is gone - and so is the single-pivot. Jesse Marsch has only been in charge for four games but is wedded to the 4–2–2–2 system used throughout the Red Bull teams, meaning that Phillips will have to work alongside another central midfielder and share both attacking and defensive burden equally.
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It's a role he hasn't taken up at Elland Road for the best part of four years, but his performances in an England shirt during Euro 2020 - in which he started every match as England lost the final to Italy on penalties - earned him England's Player of The Year for 2021 and provided a glimpse into the player Kalvin Phillips could be under Marsch.
Phillips' role for England
Ever since Phillips burst onto the England scene with a solid debut against Denmark, debate raged as to whether he or Declan Rice should hold the defensive-midfield role. But Gareth Southgate opted to start both in all seven games, unleashing the Whites midfielder into the box-to-box role he played before Bielsa arrived - just a lot better.
The liberation was evident in the opening win over Croatia, with Phillips receiving a pass in the final third before driving forward, dodging tackles and laying in Raheem Sterling to score. And he owned the role, completing 94% of his passes, winning seven ball recoveries and four duels and even being caught offside - something he didn't do once during the 2020/2021 season under Bielsa.
Throughout England's journey to the final, the ‘Yorkshire Pirlo’ played the very role he did in the opener, drifting seamlessly from defence to attack and causing danger as often as he suppressed it. It was maybe as much of a surprise to Leeds fans as it was to the rest of the world, but Phillips relished the chance to get forward and effect attacking play. And he was dead good at it too.
England's Phillips vs Leeds' Phillips
Having the insurance of another defensively-minded midfielder present released Phillips for England and allowed him to show qualities most Whites fans may have forgotten about. His defensive numbers were down - averaging 3.24 tackles and interceptions per 90 minutes compared to 4.55 during Leeds' 2020/2021 Premier League season - while activity in the defensive third of the pitch, such as touches (10.8 vs 23.1) and pressures (7.84 vs 9.48) per 90 minutes also decreased significantly.
The drop in these numbers highlights the reduced defensive burden Phillips was shouldered with for England, not only by playing alongside Rice but by playing for a team that exerted much more control over a game. This unshackling allowed the Whites midfielder to express his outstanding quality in different ways, much the same way as he is likely to do so for Marsch.
During his Euro 2020 campaign, the midfielder almost doubled his club stats for pressures in the attacking third (4.05 vs 2.48) and ball carries into the final third (0.95 vs 0.52) per 90 minutes.
One of the most telling metrics, however, and one that played out perfectly in the opening assist vs Croatia is the number of progressive passes received per 90 minutes - 1.89 for England compared to 0.78 for Leeds. His naturally more advanced positioning allowed him to receive possession in advanced areas and create openings in the final third.
Southgate's deployment of Phillips combined the defensive intelligence gained from the Bielsa-era with the tenacity that has been present since his days as a box-to-box midfielder, allowing him to play a pivotal role defensively and attacking in equal measure.
Phillips' role for Marsch
A similar combination will likely be expected of Phillips on his return to the Leeds team - hopefully in time for the visit of Southampton on April 2. Marsch's 4–2–2–2, or '4–4–2 double-six' formation deploys a double-pivot midfield in behind two narrow attackers and two strikers, with the full-backs providing the width.
And in simple terms that means that the midfield general will no longer be holding the fort on his own, although his exact role will depend on the chosen partner. In Adam Forshaw, Mateusz Klich, Stuart Dallas and Robin Koch, Marsch has four very different options to cover all bases.
Having Koch in there, for example, will likely push Phillips further forward whereas a pivot with Klich or Dallas would warrant a more defensive performance - pairing him with Forshaw may bring the most equal balance of attack and defence. With any pairing, however, there will always be an element of give and take, in that either midfielder should have both the capability and freedom to push forward while the other covers the counter.
It means that Phillips' role under Jesse Marsch is likely to marry the two seen for Leeds and for England, while his aggressive ball-oriented pressing and vertical counter-attacks may well bring out more qualities in a player that seems to be able to do it all.
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