£60k-p/w machine "similar to Kalvin" could fix two of Bielsa's biggest issues at Leeds - opinion

Adam Forshaw could fix two of Marcelo Bielsa’s biggest issues at Leeds United right now.

The Yorkshire giants tasted another hammering defeat to a big side in the Premier League at the weekend, losing 4-2 to old rivals Manchester United to add to the list alongside Arsenal (4-1) and Manchester City (7-0) in recent months.

In fact, the Whites have leaked a whopping 28 goals since Kalvin Phillips fell to a hamstring injury against Brentford on December 5th.

Indeed, Leeds have sorely missed the presence of their defensive lynchpin, who offers so much stability in front of the backline. They have not kept a single clean sheet in the nine games he has missed, conceding an average of 3.1 goals per game.

Shocking.

The England international isn’t expected to be back this week, with worrying fixtures against more top dogs in Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur on the horizon and that’s a big concern.

“It’s a big problem and something they’ve got to look at and try and improve, and possibly Phillips could be a part of that. You can’t keep conceding all these goals and expect to win games,” claimed ex-Villa star Alan Hutton to Football Insider this week.

It’s easy to see why Leeds miss the 26-year-old so much as he averages 2.3 tackles and 1.2 interceptions per outing in the top-flight this season, via WhoScored. Only a few players better that rate and that’s only because they have played way more or way fewer games.

However, despite defeat in Sunday’s six-goal thriller, Forshaw put up remarkable numbers similar to that of Phillips.

He attempted the most tackles (ten) in the match and was successful in 50% of these, which also saw him top the charts in that regard, as per LeedsLive journalist Joe Donnohue.

Forshaw also registered two