Leeds United’s humbling at home to Leicester City not only highlighted that Kalvin Phillips is sorely missed in the holding midfield slot, but also that Pascal Struijk is the best replacement.
Phillips has missed out in the last two league games for the Whites after suffering a shoulder injury against Wolves over a fortnight ago, meaning the win over Aston Villa and loss to Leicester were without him in the pivot.
Pascal Struijk was deployed in that position for the win over Villa but had a torrid 20 minutes before being hauled off as he walked the tightrope of being given a second yellow card.
Having been booked in the tenth minute for a mistimed lunge on Jack Grealish, he was lucky to evade a sending off when he made another poorly timed tackle in a similar position.
Jamie Shackleton replaced the Dutchman and put in a marvellous performance in the box-to-box role, stretching Villa’s midfield and creating a number of great opportunities that ultimately led to Patrick Bamford’s hattrick.
Fast forward to the 4-1 defeat to Leicester and Shackleton did little to back up his performance, as gaps in midfield were blown wide open by the Foxes’ dynamic counter-attacking.
Goal number three in particular showed this shortcoming when James Maddison broke from midfield on the half-turn into acres of space before releasing Cengiz Under, who squared to Jamie Vardy for a tap-in.
With a trip to Crystal Palace around the corner, the same threat faces Marcelo Bielsa’s men and you’d be hard-pressed to find someone more suited to the challenge in the available squad than Pascal Struijk.
Sitting in the holding midfield spot, Struijk has shown the passing range needed to cope with the lack of Phillips, Leeds’ fourth against Charlton in July proof of that.
We’re going to be dealing with more than a few aerial duels if Palace’s height is anything to go by, as the tallest average team in the 2019/20 season.
Swapping out a 5ft6in Shackleton for a 6ft2in Struijk makes sense against a team where we’ll inevitably get tested in that regard.
It would be very harsh to judge Struijk based on his Villa outing, considering his other two Premier League outings drew strong praise against both Wolves and Liverpool, despite falling to defeats on both occasions.
It might seem more logical to deploy an experienced Robin Koch into holding midfield, having made 12 out of 32 appearances last term in that role, but unsettling an already unsettled side will only make matters worse by moving him out of his regular centre-back spot.
Obviously, as aforementioned, those 20 minutes at Villa don’t really fill us with confidence but to look at his development into the first team so far, he’s certainly the best candidate for the team, not just the position, while Phillips sits out.