Kalvin Phillips returned from a three-match suspension come into Leeds United’s starting 11 when they were held to a 1-1 draw against Brentford at Griffin Park on Tuesday night and did so in style.

The Whites had been in a woeful run of form recently, seeing their gap in the top two cut down to a mere goal difference margin, while Kalvin Phillips’ red card added insult to injury during that run, as he lunged in on QPR’s Geoff Cameron late into the defeat.

Phillips consequently sat out the following three games, with a victory over Millwall devalued by defeats to Wigan Athletic and Nottingham Forest, as their talisman watched on from the sidelines.

This season has gone even further to prove that Phillips’ destiny lays in the Premier League and beyond as he continues to be the most important player to Marcelo Bielsa’s complex tactical structure, and the games without him proved just how important his presence is.

A mixture of Mateusz Klich and Ben White operating in the deep-lying midfield role saw Leeds struggle to maintain control of the most important part of the pitch for them, and it was a blessing for the Whites when Phillips stepped back in against the Bees.

It wasn’t the three points that Leeds perhaps might have gotten if not for a Kiko Casilla howler, but there were immense positives to take from the draw. One of those being the return of one of the best midfielders in the Championship to the starting lineup, and with tremendous effect…

The academy graduate propped up the midfield throughout the game, playing the full 90 minutes in front of the back four, shepherding Brentford attacks to safety whilst also showing his own prowess in possession to start moves for the visitors.

The style of player that Bielsa has missed in Phillips’ absence is one that can read the game extremely well to be in the right position for the opponent’s counter-attack but also being confident in possession to play the correct passes and take necessary risks to try to unlock stubborn defensive setups.

Leeds dominated for the vast majority of the game and Phillips was a key part to that, registering a passing accuracy of 86.8% throughout the game.

What was most impressive about his performance and something that has been much less efficient for Leeds in the last three games has been the range of passing. While Ben White and Mateusz Klich are both great passers of the ball at short range, the range that the Leeds number 23 was spreading the ball around Griffin Park was a prime example of why Premier League clubs are sniffing around him. Out of 15 attempted long passes, Phillips recorded 13 successful ones, most of which came from deep to spread the play to both wingers, Helder Costa and Jack Harrison, in which even the cameraman had trouble keeping up with at times.

Out of his total 76 passes, he managed one key pass. While it may seem on face value that a midfielder of his calibre could be adding more key passes to his game, he’s not in the team to split defences open at will, even though his 10 goal involvements in the 2017/18 season prove he can.

The fact that Phillips was not dispossessed once in a very high-traffic area of the pitch shows exactly why he’s in the team: to ensure that Leeds maintain possession and suffocate teams into allowing them to keep their territory high up the pitch.

Defensively was where the real test was going to come for Leeds and Phillips, with the frightening Brentford front three in top form going into this game and needed stopping.

It wasn’t a good night for the trio coined ‘BMW’ as Phillips marshalled the defence very well to scupper any dangerous developments in the Whites half.

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He only managed two tackles and two interceptions in the game, but what the stats never indicate is how well the shape looked with Phillips in holding midfield, allowing centre-back Ben White to actually play at centre-back. Leeds only had around five minutes where the looked like being uncomfortable with Brentford’s very attacking setup, coming straight after the Casilla error, unsurprisingly.

Once normal order was restored for Leeds, the shape began to settle again and Phillips got on top, playing with experience in a way that would suggest that he has played in this role for a decade, rather than being in his second season.

A 6.90 rating would suggest that Phillips did well, but didn’t really pull up trees for Marcelo Bielsa. However, given the poor performances in his absence and the need for someone of his calibre to come in and restore order, this performance was a testament to just how good he has been in holding midfield.