Leeds United are a club who pride themselves on the conveyor belt of talent that has come through from its youth ranks, gone on to star for the first-team and then on to bigger and better things. Names such as James Milner and Fabian Delph mix with more recent graduates such as Charlie Taylor and Lewis Cook. Whites fans can add another name to that pantheon – Kalvin Phillips.
Wortley-born Phillips is a local lad playing for his boyhood team and, in all honesty, is playing at a level few players can only dream of. Since being converted to a holding midfielder by Marcelo Bielsa, Phillips’ game has gone from strength to strength. As a player, he is quickly becoming indispensable to the Whites cause and is central to all the good that they do.
Leeds United’s reliance on Kalvin Phillips was no more starkly displayed than their performances whilst absent for three games through a red-card suspension and his past two performances since returning. He’s a key player to the system – a player the fams have come to call ‘The Yorkshire Pirlo’.
A while back, Gareth Southgate was seen at Elland Road checking out Kalvin Phillips giving rise to the question of whether he is good enough to play for England. With that debate still raging, TALKsport’s Adrian Durham gives his ha’p’orth worth to the debate.
The fella is unbelievably brilliant.” ✅
“He deserves to be in the Premier League. Hopefully he’ll get there with #LUFC.” ⬆️
“Don’t underestimate him. He’s England class already, I promise you.” 🏴@talkSPORTDrive on Leeds United star, Kalvin Phillips. pic.twitter.com/7FAOcCDDGH
— talkSPORT (@talkSPORT) February 17, 2020
Responding to a question from his co-host about how good Phillips is, the TALKsport host replied: “Leeds had four Kalvin Phillips on the pitch on Saturday, he was unbelievable.” He then went on to say: “I said last week that I would put him in the England team never mind the England squad and I got roundly shouted down because he plays in the Championship. The fella’s unbelievably brilliant.”
Durham went on to say about Phillips: “Don’t underestimate him, he’s England class already, I promise you.”
The thing is, you won’t find a Leeds United fan who will disagree.
Adrian Durham quotations from Leeds Live article