Marcelo Bielsa will be without Leeds United midfielder Kalvin Phillips for this weekend’s clash with Huddersfield Town, after the 24-year-old picked up his fifth caution of the season last time out against Middlesbrough.

Leeds were 4-0 winners over Boro to extend their winning run to five games, but it came at a cost, with Phillips’ late lunge on Dael Fry earning him a fifth caution of the season and a suspension ahead of Huddersfield.

Such was Leeds’ dominance against Boro, Bielsa was able to turn an eye to Huddersfield and how he will manage without Phillips – the undoubted heartbeat of this side – with Gaetano Berardi replacing him on 83 minutes and dropping into defence, allowing Ben White to move into midfield.

White has been a big hit in Leeds so far, with the Brighton and Hove Albion loanee completing every minute of Championship football, as well as making appearances in the defence against Salford and Stoke in the League Cup.

It has been in defence that White has thrived, but Bielsa has confirmed he’s a player that could potentially step into the midfield and replace Phillips, with the test at Town in mind.

Here, we break down some of his numbers this season ahead of this likely positional change…

As a centre-back under Bielsa, you need to be good on the ball, which White certainly is.

He’s completed 90% of his passes accurately this season from defence, which is a statistic that is better than Phillips – albeit the latter will be taking more risks with his passing given his advanced position.

White has completed a similar percentage of accurate passes into the final third this season and has registered one assist, which came recently in the win against Luton Town, with the 22-year-old surging out of defence before feeding Patrick Bamford to score the game’s opening goal.

Phillips has two assists in comparison, but one was from a free-kick and the other a short-corner routine.

Now, despite underlining this stat, it isn’t what Phillips is tasked with sitting in-front of the back-four and it isn’t what White will need to do.

Yes, his passing and retention of the ball is vital, but the defensive unit needs protecting properly.

White has won 77% of his defensive duels so far this season as a centre-back, and will be confident of posting numbers in the region of Phillips (64.2%) in a one-off game.

He’s made 83 interceptions, compared to Phillips’ 94, but stepping up into midfield, where there’s less focus on structure, you’d expect White to be posting a similar number.

Finally, we’ve identified the 12 shots that have been blocked by White this season, which is an impressive number, but given his ‘last line of defence’ role, is expected.

The transition from centre-back to holding midfield shouldn’t be difficult for White given his standing as a ball-playing defender, with Saturday’s cameo encouraging enough to earn Bielsa’s faith.

Losing Phillips is a blow, no doubt. However, it is less of a concern than it would have been without a player of White’s calibre in the squad.