da heads bet： Leeds United face one of the toughest tasks of their season as they head to Villa Park on Friday.
da aviator aposta： The Villans have been one of the best teams in the Premier League so far this season, maintaining a 100% winning record after four games this term, and Leeds’ task has been made that much harder by an injury crisis.
The Whites are set to be without Kalvin Phillips on Friday, while two of their centre-backs have also had injury issues as of late, leaving Marcelo Bielsa with a number of problems.
Fortunately, Bielsa has come up with a plan on how to replace Phillips with the Argentine revealing that Pascal Struijk will slot into the defensive midfield role.
You can understand why Bielsa wants to use Struijk in that role as he clearly rates him incredibly highly, describing him as a ‘complete player’ earlier this season, but we can’t help but feel that Struijk isn’t as complete as Bielsa thinks.
The 21-year-old has some serious shortcomings in his came, and they’re really easy to spot.
When you’re replacing a man colloquially known as ‘the Yorkshire Pirlo’ your passing has to be first-class, and it seems as though Struijk doesn’t quite have the footballing IQ to play the 40-yard cross-field balls that have become something of a trademark of Phillips’ game.
Indeed, Struijk prefers to just smash the ball clear whenever he’s under a bit of pressure, averaging a massive seven clearances per game, which is a higher tally than any other player who has played enough minutes to be ranked on WhoScored.
In comparison, Phillips averages just 1.2 clearances per game, with the 24-year-old much more focused on being progressive and playing the right ball, averaging two key passes per game, while Struijk hasn’t played a single key pass, which can be excused due to the fact he has been playing as a centre-half.
Struijk has big shoes to fill on Friday, and he may struggle to play Kalvin Phillips’ role due to his limited footballing IQ and his preference to just hoof the ball clear at any given opportunity.