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What is Leeds United’s best central midfield partnership?

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It’s a question that’s been asked all season but 33 games into the Championship season we’re still no closer to finding out the answer: just what is Leeds United’s best partnership in the central midfield area? We look at the stats of our four key central midfielders.



We have a mixture of youth and experience currently on the books in the midfield area. Kalvin Phillips came through the United academy and is still only 21 years of age. Ronaldo Vieira signed professional terms at the back end of last season before signing a new three-year deal in September. Eunan O’Kane and Liam Bridcutt both signed permanently this summer, the former won the Championship with Bournemouth while the latter has Premier League experience at Sunderland.







Vieira has made more appearances than any of his other central partners, making 17 starts and 8 substitute appearances. In those 25 games Leeds have won 14 – more than any other player in our midfield, drawn 3 and lost 8 – also more than any other player, giving Vieira a win percentage of 56%. He has scored 1 goal for Leeds in the Championship, scoring the winner at Carrow Road in a 3-2 victory.







Phillips has made the same number of starts as Vieira but only 6 substitute appearances, although he has played more minutes than Vieira (1,543). He has 13 wins, 3 draws and 7 defeats, giving him a 57% win percentage. He has also scored one goal, a wonderful free-kick in the 3-1 defeat to Nottingham Forest. Phillips has played more key passes than any other central player with 17 and for me was key during our run that saw us hit the heights of 3rd in the division.







Leeds, like when Vieira plays, also have a 56% win percentage when Liam Bridcutt features. In 16 appearances Leeds have won 9, drawn 2 and lost 5. Bridcutt has 2 assists so far this season and is level with Vieira with an 81% completion of his passes. Defensively Bridcutt has made more tackles out of the four by some distance with 62 tackles. Vieira is second with 53 challenges although the Scottish international has more cards than any of his other fellow midfielders, with 4 yellows and 1 red card.







Finally we have O’Kane. In 18 appearances for Leeds he has the best win percentage of any of United’s midfielders. Leeds have won 61% of games that O’Kane has featured in. He also has 2 assists and has made more passes in the midfield than any other player, completing 80% of his 902 passes. I think O’Kane is a vital cog in our midfield, he does a lot of grafting, is very good with the ball at his feet and uses it wisely.





In terms of central midfield, we’ve had 12 different partnerships over the season so far. Eunan O’Kane and Kalvin Phillips have started together on 8 occasions with Leeds winning 5 of those, drawing 1 and losing 2. Bridcutt and Vieira have started together 6 times but Leeds have only won 33% of those matches. O’Kane and Bridcutt had played 3 times from the start, with Leeds winning all of them while Bridcutt and Phillips have won 1 out of the 3 games when they started together.



Below is a graphic presenting all 12 of Leeds’ midfield partnerships.

For me, out of the four I’d give the nod to Phillips and O’Kane. Bridcutt is obviously club captain so he’ll probably start more than most but Phillips an O’Kane started the majority of games during our good run. Vieira has been brilliant, especially with his breaking up of play but I just feel he gives it away too easily, although the stats say different… I just feel we need to get some consistency back if we’re to keep this top 6 spot and feel chopping and changing the central pairing doesn’t help.

Vote in our poll or comment your views on this, who should be Leeds’ central midfield pairing?





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  • FRED says:

    It’s just a shame that O’Kane isn’t a goalscorer, because he and Bridcutt would be a good and experienced partnership.
    Bridcutt and Vieira are probably most peoples best combination, but to add more goals and more attack to the central midfield, then I would play Dallas in central midfield, alongside Bridcutt, instead of Vieira.
    Maybe Phillips could be given another chance and he was actually a wide player, before he started playing in central midfield and could get forward and get into the box, if given the chance.
    Playing with two defensive midfielders is certainly restricting the goals scored from central midfield and is not helping the isolated Chris Wood.

  • henrymouni says:

    The way our form has dipped of late, particularly in midfield:-
    I would switch to 4 – 3 – 3.
    Bridcutt, Vieira & Phillips or O’kane.
    With Wood & Roofe, & Hernandez allowed to wander.

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