Leeds United have a very proud tradition of brining through players from the academy and under Marcelo Bielsa this is set to continue. In the middle of what can only be described as an injury crisis the academy players helped fill the void, three stepping into the squad, five in total.
Victor Orta has worked very well and revamping the academy and although a fair few of his signings for the first-team haven’t worked out he has made a huge and positive impact in the academy. Players from abroad and from the UK have arrived, and they have helped kick on some of the talented youngsters already at the club. Ronaldo Vieira was sold, and although he wasn’t in the academy for long he did progress through there after his move from the i2i academy.
Today saw Ryan Edmondson and Jack Clarke called back into the first-team for the bench, filling the positions of Kemar Roofe and Pablo Hernandez as Jack Harrison and Tyler Roberts started those positions on the pitch. Tom Pearce has been around the first-team for a while now but is set to feature more due to the injuries sustained by others, he is without doubt the second choice left-back if Barry Douglas can’t play for some reason.
Two of the first names on the team sheet these days are Baily Peacock-Farrell and Kalvin Phillips. So much so is the rise of Kalvin Phillips under Marcelo Bielsa that he played in the middle of a back three today. He was almost used as a sweeper as Liam Cooper and Pontus Jansson dealt with Steve “Zlatan” Morison and Lee Gregory. There are sure to be more coming through, Jamie Shackleton is a part of the first-team plans under Bielsa but was injured today.
