First team

Key Leeds man ruled out of Yorkshire derby

|
Image for Key Leeds man ruled out of Yorkshire derby

Leeds United have been dealt a huge blow ahead of next Saturday’s Yorkshire derby against Huddersfield Town. Midfielder Kalvin Phillips picked up his fifth yellow card of the season in today’s 4-0 win over Middlesbrough and will be suspended for the whites clash against the Terriers.

The cut-off point for five bookings equaling a one game suspension was after today’s game but Phillips picked up a cheap booking with what you would call a typical Kalvin challenge on ‘Boro defender Dael Fry during the first-half. It was definitely a needless challenge looking back on it, there was no real danger of a counter-attack from the away side as Fry was also stretching to clear the ball.

It now means that Marcelo Bielsa and Leeds United have a massive void to fill for the game against Town. Phillips is a vital player in Bielsa’s system and as we’ve seen before he’s the only player in our squad who can play that deep-lying playmaker role the way the Argentine likes.

It will be interesting to see how the whites line up for next weekends game and who Bielsa chooses to fill Phillips’ shoes. Ezgjan Alioski was the only other player who could’ve picked up a suspension with a yellow card today but he avoided going into the referee’s book.

Share this article