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‘Tenacious’ – Sky Sports pundit delivers verdict on key Leeds United man

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Tim Sherwood has been assessing the game of Leeds United lynchpin Kalvin Phillips ahead of his Premier League debut.

Leeds head to Anfield this evening to take on Liverpool, with Phillips set to feature in the midfield.

The 24-year-old has progressed through the ranks at Elland Road and, ahead of his top-flight debut, he even won his first England cap.

He’s the man with the spotlight on him ahead of this evening, with Sherwood delivering his verdict live on Sky Sports.

Sherwood is appearing as a pundit on Sky Sports’ new-look Gillette Soccer Saturday: Build-Up (12/09, 12:00 – LIVE), where he offered his view on Phillips’ game following an interview with the midfielder.

Identifying some of The Yorkshire Pirlo’s strengths and weaknesses, he said:

The boy (Phillips) is being a little bit modest there, he’s a good player. If you look at his attributes: good strength, wonderful technique.

Is he a back foot player? Does he receive it off the defenders, open himself up? Probably not. He can improve at that.

He’s got great pace, he’s very tenacious, he covers the ground.

Sherwood even had time to assess Phillips’ debut for England in Tuesday night’s goalless draw with Denmark.

It’s his view that Phillips was played out of position alongside Declan Rice in the midfield of a 3-4-3 system.

He played for England the other night – congratulations to him – but unfortunately I think he played in the wrong position. He doesn’t need anyone else to sit in-front of the back-four with him.

He does that job for Leeds on his own and you will see that even this evening when they go to Anfield.

Phillips is our key man. We recognise that and it seems that pundits up and down the country do too.

He’s impressed most already (including Sherwood) and that’s only going to continue when the Premier League season starts.

Sherwood claims Phillips needs to improve in taking the ball from the defence and playing on the turn, which is a slightly odd statement given how good Phillips actually is at doing that. However, he’s said some very complimentary things about our man.

That’s surely going to be a regular feature we see as our Premier League performances are analysed this season.

We have quality elsewhere, we know that, but our success this season will depend on Phillips pulling the strings.

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Leeds United Season Ticket Holder at Elland Road for over 20 seasons. Currently nestled in N12, but occasionally offering views from the press box. We’ve been through it all together? You bet.