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.
