Kevin Phillips has recently urged Leeds United to make a move for Hull City forward, Jarrod Bowen. With it the pundit’s view that he would make the difference in the race for promotion.  

Leeds, even without someone like Bowen, expect to challenge at the top of the Championship table this season. However, Marcelo Bielsa’s side lack a cutting edge in the final third, with Eddie Nketiah their top goalscorer this season with only five.

That’s a stark contrast to the 10 Bowen has netted for mid-table Hull, which prompted Phillips to issue to high praise when speaking on Quest TV.

“He’s a quality player and there’s a lot of talk about him moving on,” Phillips stated. “His movement is very good and his technical ability. He’s a player who is going places.

“Dare I say it, put him in the Leeds team in January and he might be the difference between them getting promoted or not.” 

So, on the back of Phillips talking up Bowen and what he’d bring to Leeds, we take a look at his stats across all competitions this season…

Bowen has managed 1500 minutes for the Tigers so far, establishing himself as a key player under Grant McCann, just like he did with Nigel Adkins.

54 of the 22-year-old’s shots have been on target (44.4%), which has left him with 10 goals – nine in the Championship and a single strike in the League Cup.

When you compare that to Leeds’ current strikers, Patrick Bamford has four Championship goals, with that last coming in August, whilst Eddie Nketiah has five, two of which came in the Cup.

But, it isn’t just goals that Bowen would bring to someone like Leeds, he’s also a very creative forward.

At this moment in time, there’s only a single assist next to his name (someone like Jack Harrison at Leeds has five already). However, he’s assisted 14 shots and could’ve had more in a side that’s more prolific.

Despite being capable of playing through the middle, if Bowen was at Elland Road, you’d imagine he’d play out wide, which leads us to his crossing accuracy.

The 22-year-old has delivered 19 accurate crosses this season, which is a completion rate of 36.8%. In comparison to Leeds’ two current wingers – Harrison and Helder Costa – it makes interesting reading.

Harrison has delivered a huge 68 accurate crosses, but that’s only at a completion of 26.5%, whilst Costa has 30 accurate crosses coming in slightly under Bowen’s success rate at 33.3%.

Both have delivered more accurate balls into the area than Bowen, but the Hull man finds a teammate more consistently.

Finally, we look at just how positive Bowen is in this Hull side. He has had 64 touches in the area, underlining his desire to create chances for himself and teammates, whilst he has made 32 progressive runs – a high number that’s the hallmark of any top Championship player.

And, that’s the category that Bowen falls into: he’s a top Championship player. He’d break into any side in the division, whether they’re fighting at the bottom or at the top of the table.

Leeds come into the reckoning in terms of the latter, and Phillips is right, someone like Bowen would make a massive difference in their quest for Premier League football.

Unfortunately, given Leeds’ lack of movement in January transfer windows before, we are unlikely to ever know how Bowen would perform under Marcelo Bielsa.